katsass

FWIW from the old grumpy guy; I make almost all of my holsters from two layers of shoulder leather. I don't use ANY leather from Tandy anymore. I purchase almost all of my leather from Springfield Leather. Tandy was pretty good back 35 - 40 years ago, but have degraded in the more recent years IMO. You will need to stitch ALL edges however. I think that you will notice that the two layer method results is a much more firm holster than one from an equal weight single thickness of similar leather after wet molding and drying. I prefer to use the two layer method of construction. Mike P.S. Use a good quality of contact cement , roll the two layers down flat with something (even Ma's rolling pin) after placing the two pieces together, and let it sit over night before you start to work with it. This allows for complete adhesion.

I use old 'Ma Nature' most of the year. Here in the desert the ground temps can easily reach 150+ degrees and the humidity stays well below the 20% mark most of the time. This week I did have to resort to a small space heater and a cardboard box to dry some things --- it was snowing. I don't like to do much work in this time of the year though. As soon as we hit March or (maybe) April this year, the heater and box get put away. Mike

Very nice work Ray, I personally really like the 'Threeperson's' style holsters and some of the modifications that are done from them. As you wrote about your thumb break I remembered that waaay back (late 60's) when thumb breaks were a lot more prevalent, I began by doing them with a piece of old hacksaw blade (teeth ground off and shaped) as my 'spring' side for them. Covered in leather, no one knew what they were nor why I snatched every old blade I could get my hands on. Mike

FWIW from the grumpy old guy; I make most all mag pouches from a simple fold-over design. Easy to make the pattern from a piece of manila folder., just play with it a bit, allow for the thickness of the leather, stitch it up and wet-mold. A sample of one of my double, double-stack mag pouches. Mike

FWIW from the grumpy old guy; I use an airbrush. I stand off the project a short distance and give it a once over, and then get the hell away from it until (at least) the next morning. As soon as the oil hits you can see darker and lighter areas and, of course, the initial intention is to do it again to even things out. DON'T. I force myself to stay away for at least 12 hours. This gives the time needed for the oil to penetrate and even the saturation and color. It takes that long for the oil applied to the surface to wick through the fibers of the leather and disperse evenly. Keep it in a warmish area to aid in the process. I just finished a 56" gun belt (had to use half a cow for the damned thing) in a combination of thinned down Fiebing's Saddle Tan with a shot of Fiebings Dark Brown in it. Immediately after spraying with oil it showed some pretty good variations in color, but it got locked up out of the way 'till the following sunrise. Ends up nice and uniform. JMHO Mike

FWIW, my experience with 'slither' type skins is limited to inlay work. I learned from Dave Cole (may he RIP) and after the inlay is in place and done, he used Fiebing's Super Sheen, painted on the skin. He used multiple layers (3 I think) and never had a problem. I use a 50/50 mix of Mop and Glo and water to accomplish the same thing, but this works well on an area that is very limited in it's movement or bending. Mike

From the old grump; you done good on that one --- I like the ostrich shin inlay. Mike

FWIW from the old grump; cdf has it right. Off duty carry and/or permitted CCW carriers must remember that you aren't going to get into a protracted knock down shoot-um-up gunfight --- unless you are a damned fool. That shooter is there to get you out of a deadly situation in which there is no other way out. And remember, 21 feet from you is not a long distance. A man good with a toad sticker, and intent on doing you harm can get that thing between your ribs usually before you can react and complete your draw. JMHO. Mike

FWIW; I use the polished tip of a deer antler for the insides of belt loops, or my handmade burnishing 'knife' made from a piece of hard red oak that came.from an old desk for the edges of an inlay. The leather is usually only 4/5 or 5/6 oz on inlay pieces, and is beveled on only one side. I just slightly dampen the area, lay it flat and rub the edge down good. Mike

From the grumpy old guy and FWIW; I use only shoulder leather, either single or double shoulders equal yo 8/10 oz. (I use two layers of 4/5 oz). I purchase from Springfield Leather. I don't use much from Tandy any longer. Believe it or don't but I use 'Mop and Glo' (the floor stuff) for a finish. I mix it 50/50 with water and just 'mist' it on with an airbrush. It's almost identical to any of the 'Sheen' products, (per the data sheet) just stronger due to it's intended use for floors. As said, just 'mist' it on, if no airbrush is available, an old sprayer from Windex works well also. Just stay off of your project a way, and allow a light coat to lay on the leather, (it'll absorb in very short order) give it a couple of minutes and hit it again --- lightly. I then follow up after thoroughly dry --- an hour or so) with a light coat of Kiwi neutral polish, buffed out. I don't 'bone' my holsters, I mold them by hand. 'Boning' and molding are two different things. I do, however, dye all parts prior to assembly. As to black, you need to buff the snot out of the pieces after the dye is thoroughly dry (24 hours or so) I hand stitch all of my goods and use 6 SPI, and feel that it is a very good size for most of my work. One last thing, I'd get that sharp corner rounded off in further work. You'll find that those pointy corners don't wear well, they'll degrade rather quickly Here's a pic of and Avenger style holster finished with Mop and Glo and the Kiwi --- and hand stitched at 6 SPI. Mike

Well, I don't know what part of the country you reside in but for me, in the desert, I let old Ma Nature take care of the warming/drying most of the year. That said however, in this time of the year I take a fair sized cardboard box, lay it on it's side and (after placing my damp holster on a smaller box to keep it off the floor) direct a small electric space heater into the open side. I set the heater on 'LOW' and open a hole or two in the backside of the upended box (to allow air flow). The idea is to warm the leather to around 130 degrees or so (NEVER more than 150 degrees), AND remove the moisture as quickly as possible. You can easily make a permanent box utilizing an old hair dryer. The biggest ideas are just not to allow the leather to get too hot, and allow ventilation to remove the moisture. Mike

From the grump again; Something along this line came up back in October. Here's my response from back then, maybe it'll get the creative juices flowing a bit. Mike Names are not too hard to come up with, just think about your surroundings or maybe and incident or two. Ever had your car crunched? ..... Busted Ford Leather; got a single tree in your yard ....Lone tree Leather; ever 'over did' your steaks on the BBQ? .... Burnt Steak Leather; have a dog that loves to jump on you when you come home? .... Jumping Dawg Leather ......... live in a valley, Deep Valley Leather; Live in an area with a lot of trees .... Tall trees Leather, Many Trees Leather, Big trees, Skinny trees, Maple Trees, Pine Tree, Oak Tree, Dead Tree, Hanging Tree, etc. Live out on the flats .... Flatland Leather; Live in the city ... Big Towne Leather, Old Town Leather, Hometown Leather, are you left handed .... Southpaw leather, Lefty's Leather, Wrong Hand Leather; a nickname? Shorty's, Flash's, (I worked with a VERY rotund gentleman once, we called him 'Tinkerbell' , although that might not be too good). My son was called 'the kid from the shop' for years until he became a 6'4" 230# adult, but The Kid's Leather isn't too bad. This can go on and on. Just think around and out of the box, you'll be able to come up with something ... then on to a logo from there. Mike P.S. You could substitute 'Enterprises', 'Arts', 'Project', Artistry', 'Craft', etc instead of 'leather'. P.P.S. I have lived in the desert southwest for around 60 years --- lot's of ideas around that, so naturally I came up with 'Katsass' , but that's a different story.

Well, when something works, I figure you should stay with it! Mike

From the old grump; Years ago my wife and I started a small Doberman Kennel. Had an awful time coming up with a name. One day while she and I were at a gas station with my male dobbie-dawg in the car, an older gentleman looked at the dog through the car's window. He looked at me and asked if the dog was a Black and Tan hound (My dog was uncropped, so it had ears like a hound) Before I could answer, the old guy had put his hand on the side of the car and leaned over to get a better look. The dog went nuts and scared the living daylights out of the old guy.(the big boy was protective of my wife) the old guy jumped back, looked at me and yelled "what the hell is that red assed dog! My wife and I, within a week named the outfit ROORAD KENNEL ( Royal Order of the Red Assed Dog) and registered it with the AKC. We never explained what ROORAD stood for. Acronyms are fair game in naming all kinds of things. Just something to think about. Mike

Gary, thanks for the compliment --- here I was saying 'good morning' to you folks and it damned near the middle of the night over there! Yes, we still have a lot of area in which we can engage in many shooting sports. There are some locations which restrict the possession of firearms, however they seem to quite a bit east of us here on the west coast of the U.S. I shoot trap, as does my son, and we both do a bit of firearms repair. I specialize in Smith & Wesson pistols and older shotguns --- my son in newer higher end shotguns. The state of Arizona (adjacent to California) still has open-carry of hand guns which can be a bit disconcerting to folks from the eastern states or from 'across the pond'. As a retired peace officer I have an almost lifetime concealed carry permit. The holster is done in very dark brown with an inlay of ostrich shin leather. Mike

oarsman, that was natural waxed linen from Springfield Leather. First you might make SURE that the thread from Tandy IS linen. Tandy sells some stuff for 'hand stitching' that is not linen. After that, I might suggest that you do something like my procedure and see if it helps. I pull the thread I'm to use through a piece of paper torn from a brown paper grocery bag in order to remove as much of the surface wax from it as possible. For some unknown reason other types of paper don't work nearly as well. Pull the thread through a folded piece of the stuff quickly enough to be able to feel a bit of heat --- a couple or three times. Then pull it through a block of beeswax once. Pull it through your fingers once to remove excess, and then go to town stitching. It works for me. I just don't use Tandy for anything much anymore --- they were fairly good 40 years ago, but have diminished in quality (IMO) in more recent times. Mike P.S. If the thread came on a spool of any sort, and/or the label in or on it says 'Tex' anywhere in it --- it ain't linen.

Good morning, The grumpy old guy again; Gary has it right, but I knew just what you purchased --- it's an overstitch (on this side of the pond) and most likely made by Craftool, a maker of fairly good stuff 40 years ago but on the very low end of things in this day and age. These multi-taskers generally don't work out nearly as well as a good single sized tool. As I mentioned, my work is primarily with holsters and items for shooting sports, and 6 spi is a good general-use size to work with in this category. Here is an example of my hand stitching on a custom holster I made a while ago --- at 6 stitches per inch with 7 cord waxed linen thread.. Mike

FWIW from the old grumpy guy; I primarily make holsters and items for shooting sports. I almost exclusively use a #6 overstitch wheel (6 stitches per inch.) --- that's what you are calling a 'stitch marker'. Actually it can (an is) used to mark your stitching holes, but possibly more importantly (IMO) is it's use after stitching to smooth out and finish your work (That's why it's called an 'OVER-stitch'). Mike

Kingswarior; BoubleBarP has it down to a 'T'. I spent 35 years in law enforcement myself, 15 of that was as a 'Range-master/Armorer (as one of those 'other duties as assigned') and one of the most difficult ideas to get across to the troops is that "you dress to conceal". I live and worked primarily in a desert area, and got a lot of 'discussion' about the ability to conceal a handgun in a pair of shorts and a tank-top. One other item; when one carries a concealed weapon, many times the way he carries HIMSELF gives him away. Remember that the true 'bag guys' have had a lot of experience at observation --- for both victims, and a plain clothes LEO. JMHO Mike

Well Craig, my advice to anyone starting to work out how to make holsters is to buy Al Stohlman's book "How To Make Holsters" It's dated in some ways, but will really give you a good start on the procedures and the necessary skills required. Most of the leather supply outfits carry it, and at somewhere around $12 or so, it's well worth the nominal cost ( especially compared to some other books I have) I bought my copy in the early 60's, after playing around with leather for a while prior to that --- and I still have it and use it occasionally. Good luck in your pursuit of working holsters. Mike

Well BanjoMan, believe it or don't, but I have used a 50/50 mix of 'Mop and Glow' and water (yes,the floor stuff) for a finish for almost 50 years now. It's basically the same as Super Sheen and Neat Sheen --- an acrylic finish. AND, it's a pot-load cheaper than either of those. It's easy to apply, doesn't seem to streak or blotch and after a final polish with Kiwi neutral shoe wax, ends up with a mellow, non-plastic sheen. Here's a pic of two matching holsters (or as close as I can get to matching) --- one finished and one ready for finishing. Mike P. S. I use an airbrush to apply --- just mist it on, but others have used sponge paint brushes or a lint free cloth with no problems. I mist on a coat, allow to dry for 10 minutes or so and hit it one more time. It's dry in half an hour or so. Then a very thin coat of the Kiwi, buffed out.

BanjoMan, from the old grump; I like it, you done good. The only thing I would do differently is to keep the muzzle end open. Too much crud accumulates down there over the years and NOBODY ever cleans them out --- but that's just my personal preference. Mike

From the grumpy old guy; Looks like you done good. Mike

OK Craig; First, thanks for your compliment re. my work, I appreciate it. I make almost all of my holsters from two layers of 5/6 oz veg tanned leather bonded together on their flesh sides. My patterns are drawn by me individually for each customer --- very seldom will I make a duplicate of anything. I use 'Weldwood Contact Cement' for all of my work. My method requires stitching all edges but I believe that that enhances the finished holster. The method also gives one a lined rig. Apply the cement per the instructions, stick the two together and roll with an old wallpaper roller then forget it overnight. This holster was made for a Colt 1911 Long Slide as a 'transport' holster --- no belt loop. The colors are a combination of Fiebing's Saddle Tan and Fiebing's Dark Brown applied with the cheapest airbrush the Harbor Freight (Their 'quick change' rig) sells. After the dye is applied I wait 24 hrs. before touching the work, then apply a very light shot of neatsfoot oil through the airbrush and wait another 24 hrs. I then do my stitching. When that chore is completed, I wet mold and (since I live in the desert) allow old Ma Nature do the warming and drying. The final step is the application of a 50/50 mix of 'Mop and Glo' (the floor stuff).and water. It's almost identical to 'Super Sheen' and most all of the Sheen products --- at about 1/10 the cost. I 'mist' on a coat of the stuff, allow to dry for a half hour or so then do it again. Allow to dry for a couple of hours and finish with some Kiwi Neutral shoe polish rubbed in by hand --- no rag, applicator etc. A very light coat is all that you want, then buff with a soft cloth. On my stuff I have a lead time of about two weeks or so, but nobody expects an old man to do anything in a hurry --- besides, I may want to go fishing. Anyhoo, my customers know that they will wait for their stuff --- made to their order and expect that the workmanship is worth the wait. No gripes in over 50 years now. Hope this gives you a hand. My method ain't quick, but it works well for my stuff. Mike

Mijo; Well, frankly, I don't know. I quit using the 'T' place some time ago. They used to be pretty good 30 or so years ago, but my experience is that their quality of goods has diminished since their reorganization. Mike