katsass

From the grump: This is about as easy as I can make it. IT AIN'T ROCKET SCIENCE!! (1) gouge (or groove, whatever the hell you want to call it) (2) dampen the leather slightly and run your overstitch to mark holes. (3) go to poking holes with the awl. That's about it. Look at the pic. On the right side you see the gouge, left of that are the marks from the over stitch, and left of that are the little holes with the flat edge of them in proper relation to the edge of the leather. That's a #1 needle and the blade of my awl (about 3/32" wide) for comparison. Those chisels are for lacing and aren't worth a red rat's toukas for stitching, JMHO Mike

FWIW from the grump; Ditto on Springfield Leather, but I do things a bit differently. I use two layers of 4/5oz shoulder leather, bonded together on their flesh sides. IMO I end up with a much firmer holster, and it's lined to boot. On the down side (to some) it takes a pot-load more stitching. Mike

From the grump; Hell, nothing else to say, except - - one needle at a time - - NOT !! "two needles at the same time". Mike

From the grump; what TO says is correct, but in addition, anything that has a greater ability to hold the powder residue etc. from the muzzle and cylinder face (such a 'suede' leather, a 'split' or even the flesh side inside the holster) can be detrimental to the finish of your shooter. The stuff lodges in the rough surface of the leather, builds up every time you holster a fired weapon, and ultimately acts as an abrasive, polishing (NOT so nicely), the muzzle and cylinder areas. Now, all holsters will polish these areas after a while, as anyone that has carried a gun for any length of time can attest, but the use of these types of leather speeds up the process - - a lot. Mike P.S. Just ensure that you bond the split down on the flesh side of the belt - - WELL. Then edge and burnish as usual. Mike

FWIW from the grumpy old guy; Hand stitching isn't quick - - period. Now, Ray at Lobo Gunleather has (I understand) some folks that hand stitch pretty damned quick and well, but not nearly as quickly as a machine can. For his production stuff, he uses machines, but for custom stuff, hand stitching comes into play. I expect that is the way most outfits operate. I'm just a dinky one-man operation that makes no production items - - all of my stuff is custom work, I even toss every pattern I draw after the item is completed. I hand stitch each item made, and, as a custom-made item, my customer knows and expects that it will be completed with my grubby fingers pulling the thread. That's just part of what he/she pays for. To speed up hand stitching a bit, one can punch, poke, drill or gnaw all of the holes first, then go to sticking needles and pulling thread. JMHO Mike

From the grump: YES - - NO - - YOU'RE WELCOME. Mike

From the grump: One thing about a paddle holster is that the paddle needs to be pretty heavy, AND there needs to be reinforcement on the back of the holster in the form of a thicker piece of leather to keep the thing from getting a permanent=nt bend or crease in it. Here's one I did recently. Mike

From the grump; these might help. Mike

From the grump: The Chief has it right. The mag release needs to always be clear, and there needs to be more clearance for a good grip. Also, a gun seats on the front of the trigger guard in the holster, not on the front of the grip area. Again, the Chief has it covered - - I just thought I'd add my two cents for something to do at before 4am in the morning. Mike

FWIW from the grump; They all look like pretty damned good, usable rigs, from what I see - - except the 'shield'. Not that, overall, it's not a good looking piece of equipment, I like it, it's just that I feel pretty damned sure that it will loosen up in time. I found out long ago that the first (and to me) the most important thing to determine, and anchor down when drawing my pattern, is the stitch line at the FRONT of the trigger guard, followed by the bottom of the trigger guard. They 'contain' the gun in the leather. That bottom line defines and regulates the depth that the shooter WILL drop into the leather, the other regulates whether the gun will cant slightly in the leather over time, and loosen up the whole thing. From those two lines the actual location of the mouth and toe can be determined when drawing your pattern, If you can't say for certain how deep the gun WILL (in time) go into the holster, you can't properly determine exactly where the mouth will be ultimately situated, and the same with the toe. On that one holster you may find that down the road, the muzzle may start peeking it's nose out. Your molding is great, but molding will not retain the shooter in place with a loose stitch line. SO, as you say, tighten her up a bit and you're off and running. JMHO Mike P.S. When drawing and working up a new pattern, I'll make up a sample holster out of belly leather. I wet that thing down and stuff the gun it's made for down into the wet leather just as far and hard as possible, just to be sure those stitch lines are where they need to be. It takes a little time at first, but actually saves time and problems on the other end.

Handstitched: A little recitation of my younger days, just for the fun of it. That rig is newer that one i helped operate back in '53 and '54. At that time, my folks owned an alfalfa 'ranch' which I would work on from morning 'till dinner time. I'd catch a couple of hours of sleep then join a couple of friends and work for other hay farmers, either hauling the baled hay from their fields or, in this case, getting the hay from the field to the stationary baler on his property. We EARNED or spending money either way. i don't know how it's done 'down under' but in the U.S. the treatment of hay is done differently depending on the region of the country. In our area hay ended up in compacted rectangular blocks of field product (bales), held together by either a special twine or 'baling' wire (which could be, and was, used for all sorts of quick repairs on anything that we could imagine). For the job on this particular farm, the hay was cut by a horse drawn sickle-bar mower, with a bar of about 6 foot in length. We'd follow with wide hay rakes and rake the cut product into narrower snake-like mounds called windrows. The hay would then sit in the field to dry to the proper moisture content. When dry enough, we'd just fork sections of the windrow into a horse drawn hay rick (wagon) and transport it to the stationary baler. That thing was a mechanical monster, driven by an old hit-n-miss gasoline engine. The "POP, pop pop pop, POP" of it's sound set up a rhythm to which we worked. Hay was forked into a vertical chute, but you had to be in time with things because a ram (or 'Chinaman' as we called it) would forcefully stuff the hay down into a square compression chamber (I broke more than one pitchfork in my time from poor timing with the Chinaman) in which another ram would then force the hay against a pair of wires clamped to provide tension. As more hay was fed in, the wire was automatically released to allow the bail to grow in length. When the bail was long enough, the operation was stopped, wire cut and hand tied around the finished bale. This tying was always done by the farm's owner because if twisted too tight, the wire would break, ruining the bale - - if too loose, the bale would fall apart, again a ruined bale and lost effort. The final act was to move the 100 to 120lb bale to a different location, and stack it with others for sale. It was a bunch more work than when on our own place, to harvest this old man's hay. We had mowers attached to tractors, rakes attached to tractors and the automatic tying baler was pulled through the field by a tractor. All that was left for hand work was loading the bales from the field and transport them to a haystack, by truck. Things are different now, everything done by one machine, including stacking the bales, and I doubt that many on this forum remember 'the old days'. Mike

From the grump; I've purchased from them a couple of times, but only for harness needles (they have all sizes) and a couple of small items. They didn't mess up my order. Mike

Just another comment from the grump: When drawing my patterns, I draw the outline of the gun then establish the cut line - -At the front of the trigger guard - - then the stitch line in the same location. From knowing the depth that the gun will be in the rig allows me to determine the location of the mouth of the holster and,in turn, the toe. I can then figure the cut and stitch lines around the entire shooter. It's just the way I do things, because, in my mind, the stitching at the front of the trigger guard is (arguably) the most important - most everything else is done in relation to that location. Mike

Gentlemen, your responses to my 'return' to this forum REALLY humbles an old fart. I have never understood the 'social network' thing, in fact, it scared the hell out of me. I did register on Facebook one time because Ma Kat felt that it could be 'fun' to use it to enter a contest for something she felt would be of benefit to us - - through a Facebook link. The instant that I registered on Facebook, every swin ... uh,... person on my email list was notified that I was 'on' Facebook - - AND everyone on each of THEIR email lists was also notified of the same occurrence. It sacred the crap out of me - - talk about 'BIG-BROTHER!! I instantly DE-registered. In retrospect, I guess that this forum is also a sort of a social networking, although I always just thought of it as a place for me to add a comment of two about the few things I have learned over the years of butchering up chunks of dead cow skin. My comments were just in order to, maybe, give someone a hand, and never considered it in the manner of true 'socializing'. Your responses on here have given me insight (a bit) to the phenomenon, because, even though you don't know me from a blind hound's left hind leg, your responses feel sincere. For that I thank you all. Mike

FWIW from the old grumpy guy; Damned nice work, especially for one just starting to make holsters. My only (slightly) negative comment would be is to the holster in the second set of pics. It 'seems' (it may just be the pics) that your grip clearance is a bit tight. In other words - - if you needed to get a fist-full of that shooter in a hurry, WTSHTF if you will, you might find a bit of interference from the hind-side of the rig. In subsequent models, you may want to drop the top of that ear a bit. Now for the positive - - one thing that I really like seeing is that you have the stitch line - - at the front of the trigger guard just as it needs to be. That's the one place that a new maker misses, or screws up usually. Many do not realize (especially 'newbies) that that chunk of stitching is arguably the most important in the whole damned rig. It sets, or limits the depth of the gun in the rig, and, in turn, relates to both the location of the mouth and toe of the holster. If you KNOW were the gun will sit, you can then 'see' where the mouth needs to be for your requirements, and design accordingly. Same with the toe - - if you don't know how deep that shooter CAN go down in the leather, a newbie will usually end up with the muzzle of the weapon drooling out of the open toe after time has worked on things for a while, and no amount of molding will take the place of a proper stitch line. Again, very nice work - keep at it. Mike

FWIW from the grump; OK, I'll try to give this a 'go'. I figure that most all the things folks can talk about has been said - - except...... When making a holster pattern you have to know where the gun seats (or is going to seat) in the rig - - on auto pistols, it's basically always on the front of the trigger guard. On wheel-guns, it's the same, usually, but can be the front of the frame, and in some cases , both areas. As your rig sits, that shooter will ease it's way down 'till the muzzle sticks out like a lazy cow's tongue on a hot day. On your pattern, the stitch line must be close enough to limit the depth that the gun can drop down in the leather, which, in turn relates to the location of the top of your holster. It is LESS in distance than the stitch line is from the outline of the gun around the BOTTOM of the trigger guard. In other words, ease that stitch line at the front of the trigger guard, up - a bunch. That distance is also just slightly LESS than the distance from the outline of the muzzle of your shooter (on paper) to the end of the holster - - for an open-toe holster. For a closed-toe holster, you need to add enough to allow room for the muzzle AND the stitching. Probably clear as mud, but that's the way it goes.. Mike

Good morning all. Thanks for the kind words, and I apologize for not getting back sooner. I got the holster done of Sunday afternoon (the 14th) And wasn't feeling too well, but delivered it to the gal about 6:30 that evening. She seemed to like it. Got up on Monday morn feeling like hell, called my doc but he was heavily booked, so, by around 10am, Ma Kat got hold of our son who ran me up to the E.R. Got in there, told them what I felt like and they slapped me in a chair, gave me an EKG - - and all hell broke loose. They stuck me in a bed, jerked my shirt off, poked a couple of needles in my tummy, and a big I.V. in my arm and called in a cardiac doc. Turns out that my ticker was going in and out of a-fibs for more than a week, and when my heart rate hit about 230, and with a low blood/ oxygen level, I finally quit rationalizing and decided that something wasn't quite right. Anyway, they kept me in there long enough for me to get real tired of a guy next to me (in the room they finally stuck me in) who had a hip replacement. He squalled and squawked day and night - - when he wasn't asking if I had a personal relationship with God. Well, my relationship(s) with anyone (including God) is my business, so after I told him that I was agnostic and prayed to old Ma Nature, he quit talking to me. By Wednesday I was feeling close to normal, even if there were a bunch of little bruises from I.V.s and semi permanent spots all over my chest from multiple EKG's. I saw the cardiac doc and he said things were pretty much back to where they should be - - and I should go home pretty quickly. I got dressed - which freaked the nurses out a bit, but I finally got out of there around 5:00 pm that evening. OH, and if you noticed, I refused to even think about the "food(?)" I'll try to answer your questions in chronological order: immiketoo; The holster has an open toe, as most all of mine do because, out here in the desert areas, dust and crud shows up down in there pretty easily - - and NO ONE ever cleans out the toe of a holster. Jake: No, the paddle is 4/5 oz backed with a chunk of 12oz. then molded with alcohol. Seems to stay a little firmer that way. Also, there is a piece of 12oz stitched down to the outer layer of the holster itself (skived down on the edges) which improves the rigidity of the back of the holster where the paddle and holster join. (i think you can just see it in the pic) The 'inside' of the paddle, (that will go closest to the lady's firm, smooth, tend - -- uh, closest to her skin) is left with the flesh side out, so that it has a small amount of 'tooth' to help it hold firm. T.O.: I set the rivets that way so that there is no protrusion pointing towards the firearm. Even though the rivets are copper, and softer than the gun, I don't want them being able to scrub against the metal of the shooter. The flat side of the rivet is inset a bit, so it's smooth on the inside of the rig; the 'outside' burr is also inset so that the little 'bump' is as close to the actual surface of the leather as possible, and (usually) no one feels a thing - - at least no one has so far. Horrrk: When I do a dye job like this, I dye the lighter color first, all over the flushdingering thing and allow it to dry, I then shoot a coat of pure neatsfoot oil on it (pure neatsfoot darkens less than neatsfoot compound) then immediately airbrush the darker surround. The oil seems to 'pull' the darker color just a bit to 'soften' the transition from dark to light. Again, thank you all for the kind comments. Mike

The biggest thing to do with a knife, no matter what size, is to keep it SHARP. Mike

FWIW from the old grump; I have found that the hand-held drill (even if it is 'rigged' up) with it's variable speed capability seems to be the most useful. I even have all of my Dremel tools (three of them) hooked into simple light dimmers to facilitate speed control on them. Yes, I do know that at least two of them have a variable speed control built in, however it's a lot easier and quicker to just reach over to the handy light control, and slide the switch to where I want. For a bench mounted mandrel I'd want the same variable speed ability, so a motor speed controller such as a rheostat (or whatever modern, solid state gizmo is now in use) would be a necessity for me. Actually, I'd like a similar set-up on my drill presses, and that may be something I'll look into. Changing belt locations can be a pain when you are busy. Mike

As always Bob - - beautiful work. Mike

Thanks Chief, your comments are always appreciated. When doing this one I had a devil of a time trying to find rivets and burrs, had to order them. In our modern age, the new, big "hardware"(?) stores that have mostly wiped out the little guy, only seem to carry nothing but 'pop-rivets', and the kids working in them didn't even know what the hell I was talking about when requesting assistance. I have found that it's a grin to find a small, well established old town while wandering the country, and just amble through the local, old-time hardware store. Of course my pleasures are generally small and simple. Mike P.S. The color is Fiebing's dark brown around the perimeter, with a center of British tan. Shows a smooth and subtle transition in the sunlight, and isn't overly gaudy.

No mike, it's all leather, similar to the early style, Here'a a pic of the top side where the paddle joins the holsrer. It's a lot heavier than those first ones from years ago were, actually, both sides are heavier. Mike

NoName, thanks for the compliment, and no offence taken. There's usually more than one way of doing things, and I'll be damned if I'd tell someone that what he's doing aint right. Mike

Good looking rig. Mike

Well, I haven't made one of these in years, but here it is; a real simple, very plain, paddle holster. The customer is a retired female LEO, that carries this Sig P-226 in a CC purse. She'll use this thing about twice a year, when going to her old Dept's range, and is required to carry in an exposed holster. Her requirements were that it was to be plain, had to be able to put on without removing her belt (or anything), and not having anything that hooked, snapped or "anything like that to mess with". Just simple and quick. She said that she had seen something like what she now wants some years ago - - so I showed her a pic of an old-time paddle rig. She said that that was what she wanted - - and got. Hell, I coldn't find a rivet set to work with, and hadn't set a rivet in ten years. Mike