I Just Got Belted!

Fella's;

After 12 years of daily service, I'd decided that my Milt Sparks belt had all the new wore off it.  In other words, it was about 98% used up & looking all too likely that it'd leave my pants around my ankles sometime real soon now.  I debated about calling Sparks & ordering another belt, but it's such a hassle now that the company has gone to its quota system.  I can understand their reluctance to take on more work than they can produce at the quality level they want it to leave the shop at, but it's a PITA in any case.

So, I went to the guy who custom made my last holster & ordered one through him.  I know he knows how to make a proper pistol belt, and believe me, there's tricks to it that a dress belt never heard of.  I ordered on Thursday, the second of this month.  At that time he told me that he was extremely rushed as he'd been to the Kalispell gun show & sold almost everything he had up there.  Trouble was, he'd committed to the Missoula show this coming weekend & didn't have any stock.  And the Great Falls show looming at the end of this month to boot!  He told me he'd figured on selling about a third or so of his stock at Kalispell & instead he sold about 90% of it.  I told him I had no trouble waiting to pick it up at the local show if that was OK with him.  It was, he was delighted to have the breathing space.

And there I was, fat dumb & happy this past Wednesday when he called up & said he was comin' into town & had my belt!  He walked into the shop & plunked it down on the counter & told me to try it on for fit & how did I like it?  I tried it on with my IWB holster in place & the buckle fit up one hole long to where it shoulda been.  And then I told him that I'd expected the belt to be black like the Milt Sparks one I'd left with him.  He just got this chagrined look on his face & told that good help was hard to find these days.  We laughed about it & off he went.  Friday noon he called again & said to come out & get it.

I headed up & moved 'em out around 8:45 this morning & got there shortly after 9.  Tried on the black belt & it fit just fine.  Then he asked to see the holster I use, a Milt Sparks Executive's Companion.  I showed him what was important to note about it & the more we talked the more impressed he became with the design.  I had him take a pattern & he'll be sewing me up one here in the foreseeable future.

The belt is 8 oz leather barrel cut with a bevel edge on the inside to the middle & a rolled edge from the outside to the middle.  It's an inch and a half wide and edge stitched.  It ran me $95.00 for a custom fit & I sure can't complain about the service or time it took.  Oh, and he said, and I certainly believe him, that he'll have no trouble at all selling the tan belt he'd originally made.  But once he'd seen how a black holster looked with the natural leather color belt, he could understand why I wanted matching colors.  Talk about a neon sign saying "concealed carry here"!

I'm glad I'm now known to him as both a good customer and a friend that let him get a pattern from my holster.  I've got a feeling he might have to go to a quota system too!  But old customer's just might be able to sneak the system, ya know what I mean?

900F

Mink oil will ruin gun leather.  A little neutral KIWI is all mine get.  Beezwax mixed with neatsfoot for my boots.  Getting good leather these days is tough, and always involves a wait.  If you found a source that will deliver in weeks instead of months then you better stock up, 'cause it won't be like that once the word spreads.  My problem is that my waist keeps expanding.  I've got some perfectly good gun belts that just hang.  I outgrew one while waiting for it to be made.

Gotta run now.  Taking the granddaughter out for ice cream.

I think my pants are shrinking. I will have a talk with the little lady and see if she is using hot water or something.

Wing master