Old man learned a lesson this week.

[Lobo]

Last month I received an order for two holsters, to be produced to customer's design and finished with the classic neatsfoot oil finish. Customer's design called for a 1.5" belt attachment. Both holsters were modified Askins Avenger style with belt slot and tunnel loop.

I finished both, sent photos to Mr. Customer for approval, got paid, and shipped. Just the way things are supposed to work out.

A week or so later Mr. Customer contacted me, said neither holster would fit on his belt. It seems that he uses a very thick and heavy-duty gun belt (good idea, as both holsters are for S&W N-frame magnums, but I wish he had told me, or I had asked, sooner). So, he sent them back to me for modifications.

First, I tried using a little mink oil on the points in question while stretching over a tapered hardwood mandrel. This yielded very little success. So, not wanting to completely re-make both holsters, I had to start thinking about another approach.

Can an oil-finished holster be reformed, recased? I had some worries about that. I have seen a holsters over the years that had been water-saturated sufficiently to overcome surface sealants and soak the leather enough to make it supple again; but in every case the resulting finish was a little ugly (mottled, irregular distribution of the neatsfoot oil, displaced surface coatings clinging here and there, etc).

Having few other options, I decided to try it. I completely soaked the holsters in hot tap water for about one-half hour, leaving both completely saturated and limp. Then I completely re-formed both to the guns. Leaving the guns in place, I then progressively worked the tapered hardwood mandrel through the slots and loops, forcing them to overall widths of 1.6" and overall clearances of 0.32". These dimensions should accomodate a belt made of two layers of 8-9 oz. cowhide (far thicker than any Sam Browne police duty belt), or a lineman's tool belt, or a weightlifter's belt, or a money belt stuffed with filthy lucre, etc.

Fortunately, none of the stitching pulled through the leather or broke. That would have ended the experiment immediately.

During the drying process I left the mandrel in place and repeatedly scoured the outer surfaces with a rough cloth soaked in isopropyl alcohol, removing all the finish and oil possible. After drying, the mandrel was removed, leaving positively cavernous proportions to the belt openings (compared to anything I have done in the past). Then I applied a couple of light coatings of neatsfoot oil (not wanting to overly saturate the leather, which had already been oiled when made originally), allowed that to settle overnight, followed by a liberal coating of Fiebing's Bag Kote.

The resulting finish was quite nice, and the leather has regained its proper stiff structure. If anything, the second round of boning improved on the original, as the leather was worked completely a second time.

So, lessons learned:

1. Yes, properly done, you can re-form, re-case, re-bone an oil-finished holster and get a good result. Time involved is considerably greater than expended when the holster was originally made (if I ever receive a request to do this again on a holster that has been soaked and needs re-done, I plan on charging appropriately for the time. In all, I figure about 4 hours for the process on these two holsters. Doing one would take nearly as long).

2. I have added another question to my "always ask on special orders" list; NOT ONLY WHAT WIDTH OF BELT WILL YOU BE USING, BUT WHAT THICKNESS OF BELT?

[woolfe]

Very informative. Thank you for sharing your experience. I would hate to have to remake a perfectly good holster, its nice to know there are options available.

[K-Man]

Edited February 3, 2009 by K-Man