Auto Pistol Holster Pattern

[Itaricans]

Hello everyone, I`m trying to make a holster for my Ruger SP95, and having problems with the pattern, I saw, not long ago a post by someone here about making a pattern for a pistol, with step by step pictures, but I can`t find it again, and stupid me, did not save it or printed it. If someone knows what I`m talking about please post the link? I`m going crazy looking for it. Thanks for your help. Latter. Louie.

[Big O]

Hello everyone, I`m trying to make a holster for my Ruger SP95, and having problems with the pattern, I saw, not long ago a post by someone here about making a pattern for a pistol, with step by step pictures, but I can`t find it again, and stupid me, did not save it or printed it. If someone knows what I`m talking about please post the link? I`m going crazy looking for it. Thanks for your help. Latter. Louie.

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=5696

[Itaricans]

Thanks a lot Big O, Lets see if I can make as good a job making my pattern. Thanks again. Latter. Louie.

[Big O]

I do mine just a little bit differently. I make mostly wraparound holsters (as shown in that tutorial), rather than pancake holsters. I'm still new at this, but already I've made quite a number of mistakes, which I've learned* from.

Here is my process at this point:

1. I do not yet own any blue guns, so I use the real thing. Unload it. Make sure it's unloaded. Make double sure it's unloaded.

2. Take a manila file folder and open it up on the work surface, with the crease running straight away from you. Take a pen or pencil and fill in the crease to make it more visible.

3. Check again to make sure the pistol is unloaded. Place the pistol upside-down, centered on the crease, with the center of each sight resting on the crease. Trace the outline of the slide.

4. Roll the pistol over to one side and trace its outline. Also trace as much of the inside of the trigger guard as you can, to mark the trigger location. Carefully roll the pistol over to the OTHER side, and repeat.

5. Measure the width of your first tracing, the outline of the slide. Take half that distance, and add to it the measurement of the thickness of the leather you're using. Using a ruler and a pen or pencil, plot a series of points on the folder that distance away from the outline of the bottom of the slide and trigger guard. If the slide of the pistol narrows at the front end, as most do, add about 1/16th of an inch for good measure so you don't need both hands, both feet, a pry bar and an anvil to get the pistol into the holster for the molding later (lesson learned*). Connect the dots using your pen and pencil. This is your stitch line.

6. Place the pistol on your belt where you intend to wear it. Find a comfortable (but realistic) height and angle. Make note of where the top of the belt relates to the top of the slide and the bottom of the trigger guard. If you're making the holster for someone else, have them do this, while wearing the pants and belt they'll most often be wearing*. Make note of the relative location of belt loops*, and of the width of the belt.

7. Find and mark those same two points on one of the side outlines of the pistol. Draw a line through them, and beyond. Draw a second parallel line below the first one, to represent the bottom edge of the belt. When measuring this out, add 1/8th of an inch*.

8. Find a handy location for a belt slot at the rear of the holster, and mark it on the template. Make sure it's at least 1/2 inch beyond the stitch line, and will not interfere with any offending belt loops*. Now drop it down 1/8th of an inch, because the angle WILL change when you unflatten that perfect layout by stuffing a pistol in it*.

9. Draw the outside edge of your intended holster, making sure it's outside the stitch line and belt slot. Leave at least 3/8ths of an inch clearance from both. Make sure you leave at least a middle-finger's width between the grip of the pistol where ti meets the trigger guard, and your outline at that point.

10. If you've incorporated a body shield/body guard/sweat shield, you'll have to move it back a little, because of the aforementioned dimensional shift that occurs when you unflatten the layout with a pistol*. Half the slide width has worked for me.

11. I like to incorporate a shallow half-circle at the top and bottom centerline of the holster, both for visual appeal and as a reference when folding the leather later. Omit this step if that's not your thing.

12. Fold the manila folder in half, so that you can see where you marked the stitch line, belt lines, and belt slot. Take the crappy, Made in Japan, too-small awl that you bought, not knowing any better*, and put it to a useful purpose: poke holes along the stitch line, belt slot, and at the far end of each belt line. This allows you to see those features on the OTHER half of your template*. I put an old mouse pad under the folder while doing this, to minimize the chance of marring the top of the computer desk and incurring the wrath of the War Department*. If you've incorporated a sweat shield into your design, also use the awl to poke out the top line of the holster on the front, where the body shield WON'T be.

13. Draw the belt lines on the "back half" of your template, by connecting the dots of the holes you punched.

14. Draw the outline of your reinforcement piece/belt tunnel, leaving at least 1/8th of an inch extra clearance on both ends for the belt.

Make sure it doesn't overlap your stitch line*.

15. With the manila folder folder in half, cut out your template. Trim off the "extra" sweat shield, along the line of holes you poked in step 12.

16. Place the template on your leather, making sure you're cutting it out with the correct sides of the leather "out" and "in"*, and trace it with the marking device of your choice. Cut out your main holster body.

17. Cut out your reinforcement piece from the template, and repeat step 16 for it.

18. Place your templates on top of your holster body and reinforcement piece, take your awl, and poke reference holes for the stitch lines and belt slots on both sides. Make use of groovers and punches to create the actual stitching grooves and belt slots.

This concludes the template/cutting process. All you need to do now is edge, groove, burnish, dye, wait, glue, wait, poke holes, bandage fingers, stitch, fold, glue, wait, trim, poke holes, bandage fingers, stitch, sand, wet-mold, burnish, wait, finish, and wait. Humming, whistling and cursing are optional.

Edited October 26, 2010 by Big O

[Deanimator]

If you're like me and have a lot of computer skill and practically no freehand artistic skill, use something like Corel Draw or Autocad to do you patterns. It's very easy to reuse and modify your patterns for different guns and applications. If you have components common to multiple holsters, you can have separate patterns for them. If they need slight modification for different holsters, it's trivially easy to change the dimensions.

I print my patterns out on card stock. I don't have to worry about damaging a pattern. If it gets worn, I can just pitch it and print another one.

If I had to do ANY of this by hand, I'd still be working on my first holster.

Edited October 26, 2010 by Deanimator

[Itaricans]

Thanks for all your replies guys, it`s good to have good teachers. I`m not too handy with pc`s, but I`ll look into those two programs. Thanks again. Latter. Louie.