Cattle Hide

I do not usually comment on liability regarding holsters. However, when something does not work right with this one you may be left with the bag as the designer. I would choose not to do something I do not believe will work. I am an Ohio CCW instructor and would highly advise against his carry method. No belt+jogging pants, where is the gun when he needs it? Thumb break slower when he finally finds it! No material above the snap... Slower yet to draw. Butt just above the top of his pants... "Hey buddy why are you pulling your pants up like that, I said give me your wallet or I will shoot!" I like the name on the holster, the police will have less trouble identifying the body!

I understand about cost being an objective, but consider what is available at McMaster Carr. 2-1/2" Impact resistant PVC is $21/Ft. which is 2-3 heads worth of material. There may be others that will work, but this is about the lowest cost. Reference copied from thier site: Per Ft. In stock for $21.10 per ft. PVC PVC Material Impact-Resistant PVC (Type II) Backing Plain Back Finish Smooth Shape Rods and Discs Rods and Discs Type Rod Length Cut-to-Length Available Lengths Sold in 1' increments Maximum Continuous Length 5' Diameter 2-1/2" Diameter Tolerance +.075" Opaque Gray Operating Temperature Range -40° to +140° F Softening Point Not Rated Performance Characteristic High Impact Strength, Electrical Insulator Tensile Strength Good Impact Strength Excellent Tolerance Standard Hardness Rockwell R111 Specifications Met Underwriters Laboratories (UL) UL Rating UL 94V0

Thanks for The comment on the threads. I have number of arguments for both the outside tee nut design and the internal tee nut design. While I did not specifically think of the threads, the through design allows easy replacement. Inside looks the best. Outside is easier. Inside limits screw length. Outside....... Etc. You could add a sewn on circular pad to retain the tee nut that would be part of the spacer for the tuckable feature, but that is more sewing..... <Insert scream here>

Thanks Nooj for all of the positive comments. I had a vision for all of the tools and kept working until I got to where I thought I could. As usual this got me in some trouble as it did take a lot of time to do the UHMW tools. The good news is that this material is great for slickers. As you know from having worked with the stuff it actually feels waxy it has such a low coefficient of friction. Made the molding of the holster easy. Thanks for your comments on the tool rack. The pads for the cutting tools are self adhesive foam "Feet". They are about 1" wide by 3" long in the package. I also placed a couple under the the rack to keep the wood off the bench. Next project is another holster and some 4" square coasters of various designs. This will give me tooling experience and a pile of gifts when the holiday season arrives.

Thanks for all of the comments! To: BigRiverLeather The Leather strip is designed as a cover for a steel reinforcement (Not included in this first holster). I felt if the steel ended at the stitch line it would not hold the mouth open as well as a longer strip that extended onto the wing. I was trying to get most of the functionality of the Versa Max II and clones without the difficult wrap around construction. I did not think of the loss of flexibility of the wing! Good catch. To: dbusarow & BigRiverLeather I hurried the edges and used only saddle soap on a home made power slicker. Will embed the T-nuts on the next holster. I was so excited to bond the two halves I forgot! Also, the hook on the trigger guard looked much larger when I traced the Glock. I will reexamine the stitch line offset and see what happened. Actually the Blue Gun went in very tight and stretched a lot of leather except at the tip of the trigger guard. Other Comments: No one was more surprised than I was about how good this turned out. I again have to credit all of the posters on Leatherworker.net as the many tips and critiques helped me avoid multiple mistakes in advance.

The following photos are of the various tools I have made to fabricate holsters, sew leather and a tool rack for stamping tools. These are holster boning tools made from UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight) Polyethylene. These were a bear to fabricate as the material is extremely abrasion resistant. I used a combination of sanding, filing, buffing with a raw cotton wheel (No Rouge) and final polishing on a piece of typing paper! Don't laugh it works great on plastic. 6" long by 3/4" wide scale fro comparison. This is a power edge slicker made from a craft store spool and 3/8" bolt and washers. Canvas is tacked with small brads and saturated with natural saddle soap. These are knives made from a power hacksaw blade (At top of photo, unmodified). The lower knife was made 30-40 years ago by my father who was a tool maker. I sharpended these with the various instructions found here in numerous posts. The old knife is so sharp it practically falls through leather. Thanks Dad.... This is a horizontal stitching pony made from dimensional poplar wood available from Lowes and other sources. Scrap pieces are included to show how it works. Jaws are leather lined and simple clamps are used to hold closed and to the table. Table clamps left off for clarity. This is the rear of the pony showing how one can add leather shims to keep jaws parallel This is my strop made from poplar and poster board with red rouge Stamping tool rack made from dimensional poplar using my drill press with milling vice. 24" long holds 46 tools of various sizes and diameters.

The holster below is my first holster and my first leather project. I must first thank all of the many posters here on Leatherworker as this would not have been possible without the literally hundreds of posts I read regarding holsters, finishing, edging, sewing, etc. This is my own design IWB holster with Kydex clips. I used Weaver V-Notched shoulder in 6/7 oz. weight. Finish is Feibing's Pro Dye light brown with Bee Natural RTC top coat. Hand sewn with waxed polyester (De-waxed before use). Some homemade tools used to create this holster are posted in the leather tool section.

My Experience: I managed to get two nice 1-1/4" thick pieces for free from a counter top fabricator. He was the second place I asked. Got them from the dumpster. Be sure to ask for scrap. Production Tool Supply has the 12"x18"x3" granite surface plates at about $43 if one is near you, no shipping. Grizzly is less expensive, but shipping is high due to weight over 70 Lbs.

Thanks for the chance to see the videos! RE the pattern video it would have been nice to see a brief view of the flat leather pieces and then the completed holster. You have a very steady drawing hand. No need for french curves, it looks great to me just the way it is.

I wish it was only the brass/copper plating over the steel core, however, I have ground to enough depth and it is brass through and through. I will test and see if this marks cased leather. I will be able to use this for a while and that's all I wanted. I need to do some hand stitching to get experience to decide stitches per inch, thread size, Etc. for holsters!

Reviewed the internet listings for Granite Supply in my area and found about 8-10 names that sounded likely. Went to the first name. It was a slab distributor so they had no scrap, but the nice staff printed out a list of all of the fabricators within 50 miles of my house! My second visit to a counter top fabricator netted a trip to the dumpster and two nice slabs of granite went home in the trunk for free. Each has one straight edge. One is somewhat irregular, but has at least a 15" x 15" area for stamping. The other is a magnificent looking sample that is about 22" x 30" in size. Very nice. Note: Most counter top material is 3 cm thick. This is about 1.2 inches. There are a couple of very minor scratches on the face of the smaller piece and one 1/8" or so nick on the bigger piece. Ask nice, find the right location and ask for scrap pieces. By the way the other guy wanted to sell me a finished remnant with polished edges about 15" x 20" for $100. I like the second guy's deal much better. Thanks to all who recommended this method it worked!

As an interim measure I purchased a Tandy overstitcher so I could practice hand sewing before a bigger investment such as a J. Watt or other high end wheel. Since I have experience with my flexible shaft grinder as a jewelry maker I thought I would give modification a try. I selected the tightest tool with the least wheel wobble at the store. Removed the pin with little effort and found the arms of the tool surprisingly soft! Then I attacked the lateral fit and stoned the sides of the wheel to flatten the wheel which was concaved on one side. Re assembled and attacked the very dull pricking teeth with a small diameter fine stone. Got it nice and sharp too. The down side is all of the plating is now gone from most of the wheel and it is brass underneath! Can't they use steel to make these tools? Now I have to worry about the brass discoloring my stitch line and all I wanted to do was improve the POS tool and get it to mediocre. I guess the news is don't count on modifying these things as the chrome is the hard surface others provide with actual steel and heat treating. ARUGGGH!

Search for Drying Cabinet and you will find that many of the holster makers dry wet molded holsters at 120-130 deg. F. for 30 or more minutes to stiffen the leather. Some like to lightly oil with Neatsfoot after drying. There is a long article at: Cuir Bouilli/Hardened Leather FAQ that covers additional methods and historical data. Hide quality and the area from which you cut your pattern can also influence stiffness. I noticed that Weaver Leather had a new product in their catalog called a leather hardener. It was in gal. quantity only and I have no added details. It appears to be an acrylic material. Others may have additional methods.

Thanks to those who have replied to this thread! To Lobo: Your answer let me find at least some of the previous discussion regarding the addition of oil as part of the finishing process. You are right about the "Heat" in the discussions. However, as I believe you also said, Actual Hard Data would be great to have. I must admit, however, I will not be building a holster bend tester to see if you really need extra oil or whatever in the finish. To Nooj: I have no idea how much oil is included in "Oil Dye", and I bet Feibing's will not tell us exact percentages. Also, I do not believe the top tier commercial holster manufacturers will not be revealing their finishing secrets very soon..... However, if somebody wants to give up their method, I would be ready to listen!!!!

I just visited the Weaver Leather showroom in Mt. Hope, Ohio, to purchase tools, dyes and leather. The low end stamps and some tools are Tandy Craftools. Weaver has some of their own tools. I purchased a Weaver edger which was very good quality, just below the Horse Shoe Brand tools. They have a display area with one of each tool available for inspection. Much of the machinery was available especially the sewing machines. If you are on site you can pick your own leather from the various grades and thicknesses available. The leather storage area is fairly large and has a broad selection, but some types and thicknesses were out of stock or low. Most of the leather is listed in the catalog as TR grade (Tannery Run) and some of the pieces were rougher than others. I asked to see a Herman Oak side in 6/7 oz. to compare to the v-notch double shoulders I was purchasing. This was only one of three pieces left in this thickness and was of surprisingly poor quality. My guess is that this was the dregs left after others had picked out the better pieces from the tannery run. I would not have taken this home with me at 1/2 the price as there was little usable leather in the piece. I was a little surprised to see HO of this quality. The staff was very efficient in getting my order together. I had good help in the leather room and only one tooling item was out of stock, but I was able to substitute a different size edger for my use. Overall a good experience!