[Srigs]

Great overview. Thanks for posting the overview.

[okiwen]

To add to the rest of the people. Thanks for taking the time to do your tutorial. I don't see the photos at work but was still able to follow quite well.

Does anyone differ from this way?

K

[Billsotx]

Echo4V, on Oct 22 2008, 06:55 AM, said:

First let me say thanks for this tutorial, I have a S&W that I'm wanting to build a pancake for so this will greatly help me. Secondly, I have a question that is related but may be a whole other tutorial...

If you were going to say basket weave stamp your holster, at what step in the process would you do the stamping? I know for tooling you should glue on a backing to keep it from streatching out but what about stamping, will that also stretch the leather?

David

David, I'll chime in since it's been suggested. This probably isn't the only way and it may not be the right way, it's how I go about it. I stamp and/or tool right after I cut out the holster. As you pointed out the leather will stretch once you go to pounding on it - stamping/tooling it. Instead of gluing it to a backing I apply packing tape to the backside. I overlap the strips of tape about 1/2 to 1 inch and I let the ends run out a couple of inches because I'll next tape the whole thing onto a small piece of cardboard - real high tech here an empty cereal, cracker, cookie box ... lol! Can't help it, it's hereditary, my parents were depression kids. You don't have to attach it to a piece of cardboard if it's an entire holster, but that makes working with a mouth band or belt loops easier to handle.

Oops forgot one thing. Before you put the tape on. True up the edges so your borders are nice and even and well defined and also layout your stitch lines, unless you just want to plow through you're work; some folks do that and sometimes it looks ok. Anyway the inside stitch line should end up between two borders in my opinion. That's the way I've seen it done mostly and that's the look I like.

This is not etched in stone: If you're basket stamping (there's a couple of tutorials on the forum) I first use a lined or checkered beveler and bevel around my border on the side I'm going to stamp/tool. Next I'll layout a light mark if I'm basket-weave stamping and then apply all my basket-weave stamping. Then I use a decorative border stamp - a cam or geometric - and when through stamping and while still damp from quick casing I peel the leather off of the tape, not the tape off of the leather. If there's any residual glue and usually there is none from packing tape - rub that off with you fingers or a pencil eraser.

I've seen others apply the beveling after the basket-weave and some even leave the bevel off and just run their border stamps.

I've also seen it pressed, that is molded to the gun and that presses all your stamp impressions out into a remnant of a pattern and I tend to think - why bother to tool.

You can find a link to my web on my profile and go over there and look at a basket-weaved 1911 holster and there's a tooled mouth band on a revolver holster. I working on the site so there's only a page, but it might give you an idea or two.

Hope this helps. ~Bill

[Jordan]

Fine line as far as wetness for moulding, too wet and you will lose tooling depth and definition, too dry and moulding will not be as crisp around the weapon. There are to many curves and such to stamp after moulding and I have found experimentation is the only way to get it right, but then again, each time it is different. Also I found the better the quality of the leather the easier it is to straddle that fine line. Stohlmans book on holster making has a good description of basketweave process for a western type holster but boning a tight outline of the weapon does not seem to be the usual practice with that type of holster. Ain't leather grand, the fun part for me is trying stuff out and if it doesn't work try a different way. :Lighten: :oops: :bike:

[MADMAX22]

Yeah and then you get a different peice of leather and its allmost like starting over again LOL.

[carr52]

Here's my first attempt at it. It's a 9mm Keltec P-11. Your right about the learning curve part. I had to cut several paper patterns before i got one i was happy with. On the next one I'll make the belt loop bigger. I had to do alot of streching on this one to get it right but it fits an inch and a half belt kinda snug.

Tom
 IMG_0085.JPG (597.11K)
Number of downloads: 272  IMG_0086.JPG (792.52K)
Number of downloads: 251  IMG_0084.JPG (521.39K)
Number of downloads: 174

[mattsh]

I want to thank everyone for the comments on the tutorial.

carr52 - that looks pretty nice for your first holster - good and functional - I like it

[carr52]

mattsh, on Nov 14 2008, 11:41 PM, said:

I want to thank everyone for the comments on the tutorial.

carr52 - that looks pretty nice for your first holster - good and functional - I like it

The thanks go to you. With out your tutorial I'd still be hacking away at it. Now I have a great place to start from. I'm hoping my next one will be better. Thanks again Mattsh.

[MADMAX22]

Mattsh I was wondering when you talk of using a wedge to keep the front site channel cleaned out so that it wont catch once your all done what kind of critter did you use for this.

Thanks for the info.

[mattsh]

Here is a picture of what it will look like. I use a 3/8" dowel and sand it flat to give it a side to sit against the top of the slide as seen in figure A. I then sand the dowel to form a ramp as seen in figure B. Usually the overall length is about the same as the barrel minus the breach, but it is personal preference and what you think will work. The purpose for it is to provide enough room for the front sight to clear the leather without scraping the inside of the holster and getting leather on the sight causing a disruption in sight picture. With the channel being about the same length as the barrel the front sight will be able to clear the holster, since by the time you have drawn your weapon from the holster that distance, your front sight will be in the area of the holster that is wider. This will be where the trigger guard exists and the weapon will have more freedom to move out of the holster and the front sight will be clearing the holster. Hope this makes sense.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v41/mattsh/frontsightramp.jpg

[noob]

great tutorial, how do you get the leather to be form fitted, where you can see the lines of the gun in the leather?

[mattsh]

noob - to accomplish this you have to 'bone' the leather to the gun.

After you 'case' the leather by putting it in warm water you put your gun or dummy in the holster and press the leather to form around the gun. Then use a smooth tool of some sort to press into the leather the outlines of the gun.

The more 'professional' way to do this is to use a press to fit the leather around the gun. This is done by having two pieces of 40 durometer gum rubber about 12" x 12" x 1.5" and putting steel plates on the outsides and putting the holster inbetween the two pieces of rubber and then 'squishing' it with a press. What this accomplishes is that it compresses the leather which helps with rigidity and also does a decent job at forming the holster to the gun. You would then remove the holster and use a smooth tool to 'bone' the leather to the lines of the gun. This means using the smooth tool to basically draw into the leather the lines of the gun. This helps with retention.

It is personal preference as to how much 'boning' you do. Some makers like to put alot of gun detail onto the leather and others just do a basic outline.

This post has been edited by mattsh: 04 March 2009 - 09:14 AM

[Tnoisaw]

Thanks so much for that. I was struggling in my holster design and you simplified it so much.

[GunNut]

I am new here so please accept my comment with that in mind. I have been making holsters for a few years now and only found this website recently. I felt your tutorial was excellent. It hit on all the points that you don't learn from the patterns you can order. I wish I would have had this when I started. It would have made my life much easier. One thing I do when using an exotic leather with a leather liner is reverse them. I leave the exotic the way you have it but turn the rough side of the leather to the rough side of the exotic. The glue holds much better and you don't have to rough the glue patch. It also leaves a smooth surface for the gun to ride on. I have just recently moved up to a Boss machine from hand stitching so I'm in learning mode again. Thanks for the great article and the pictures!

[Billsotx]

GunNut, on 08 April 2010 - 09:41 PM, said:

I am new here so please accept my comment with that in mind. I have been making holsters for a few years now and only found this website recently. I felt your tutorial was excellent. It hit on all the points that you don't learn from the patterns you can order. I wish I would have had this when I started. It would have made my life much easier. One thing I do when using an exotic leather with a leather liner is reverse them. I leave the exotic the way you have it but turn the rough side of the leather to the rough side of the exotic. The glue holds much better and you don't have to rough the glue patch. It also leaves a smooth surface for the gun to ride on. I have just recently moved up to a Boss machine from hand stitching so I'm in learning mode again. Thanks for the great article and the pictures!

13. This picture shows a couple steps later. Pictures would not have shown much. I have
cut out the elephant and glued it to the flesh side of the cow hide so the smooth side is
inside. I have also cut out the mouth/belt loop support piece and glued it together.


My understanding is that roughside and flesh side are the same. Maybe I'm missing something .... Smooth is grain from what I've read.

This post has been edited by Billsotx: 08 April 2010 - 10:24 PM