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!

Back from visit to Weaver and the low end tools are "Tandy" Craftools. As others have stated above the Horse Shoe Brand tools are excellent. Weaver edger is also very nice.

Do you add neatsfoot oil or a leather conditioner to your holsters after molding? Do you use heat (Drying cabinet) to dry your holsters? I have read almost every thread on the holster making process and as everyonesays, ask a dozen people and get 12 different answers!!! Some people seem to freely add layer after layer of various finishes, oils,waxes, acrylics finishes, more oil, waxes, shoe polish, etc. This all seemslike too much in some cases! We have an organic matrix (Leather) that we wantto be firm (Holster), but we add things that soften the leather so it does notcrack. I worry that some of these things are incompatible and may damage theleather or the finish over the long run. Another way to saythis: If I heat dry a holster is it mandatory to add oil? Have you actually had holsters crack withoutthe oil? Have you ever hadincompatibility problems with parts of the holster finishing process? I will be buyingleather and "Liquids" very soon and would rather not reinvent the wheel by trying things that may not work together. Simple seems the best. Mold, dry,dye, finish and done.

For those who use an angled blade in your swivel knife, what size do you use, 1/4" or 3/8"? Is this your primary swivel knife blade? How does the performance of these two sizes differ?

has anyone here purchased the Weaver Leather stamping tools? Not the Horse Shoe Brand tools, but the low cost tools also sold by Weaver. Also, are there any Weaver tools you like? Edgers,round knives, etc. Going to store next week and would like to know what stamps and other Weaver tools you have purchased and liked!

I have tried to find posts regarding the quality of various stamping tools offered in the market place. It seems that the current quality of Craftool stamps is lower while custom stamp suppliers are considered very high. It seems like $5/ stamp yeilds lower quality and $40 to $60 to $80/stamp is high quality. Where is the middle ground for us who are beginers, but want somewhat better tools? There are site advertisers and other independent leather and tool suppliers who have tools, but the quality is difficult to rank from photos, impression images, etc. What tools and sources do you like? Who has something better than Craftool but not all the way to King, Beard, Watt Etc. How well do you like tools from Weaver, Springfield, HideCrafter, Etc. I am a retired individual who is just starting, but like "Quality" things. I have taken the usual Tandy free classes and intend to do some Sheridan, figure and original art leather pieces as well as traditional decoration of belts, wallets, etc. This will be the fun part of the leather work that I have planned along with some holsters for myself and friends (The more serious part). Very little decoration will be used on the holsters.

Still looking for comments! Especially regarding tapering polyester or nylon for hand stitching and should you purchase waxed thread or inwaxed and hand apply wax yourself. Thread sizes you use would also be useful.

I will be hand stitching modern design holsters and want to use nylon or polyester for durability, chemical resistance and water resistance (UV resistance with Polyester). Many high end holster makers seem to use nylon on sewing machines. Is nylon or polyester hard to work with when hand sewing? Can you get a tapered end on the thread so the needle pulls through work easily? What size of thread for hand sewing holsters? RawhideLeather's Hand Sewing Guide mentions Nyltex indirectly and per The Thread Exchange this seems to be size 554 Any suggestions, comments, experiences, etc. Finding size data has been very difficult to say the least. Many vendors sell thread for hand sewing but do not indicate the size. Many leather workers talk about hand sewing but do not include details on tools, needles and thread. My hope is to start with well tested options and reduce the inevitable experimentation that everyone seems to go through.

How about some additional data about makes and models of prefered tools, needle and thread sizes etc. Please!

Many of the above posts are very good.... but let me add.... I have not made my own leather holster yet (around a dozen Kydex Plastic Holsters) but let me advise that if and when it becomes time to draw your gun in a emergency you will be behind the curve (Too Late and needing to catch up). You will want to find the gun exactly where you left it and draw in the fastest way possible. The action will be close, fast and violent. You will want to be on the move which makes finding, drawing and aiming the firearm even more difficult. This all means a belt mounted holster designed to stay where it is on a sturdy thick well made belt. Then when you find the best life assurance/insurance system learn to dress around it and know you have done every thing you can to survive. Being a women you will find it somewhat more difficult to position the holster as your hips can get in the way of the classic right handed 3-4:00 position (Center the clock on the navel). You may have to go forward to the AIWB (Appendix) position or slightly further back so the butt of the gun is not jambed into your ribs. The good news is thousands of women have solved these problems and successfully carry every day. Even better an oversized jacket, sweater or top is considered stylish by many so there will be ways to hide not only a small revolver, but even larger firearms. Good luck

I am currently researching what I need to know about hand stitching holsters. A few key facts seem to be hard to find so I am asking here. I have not done any leather work since scouting many decades ago but have made a dozen or so Kydex holsters for myself and others. FYI the kydex is very hard on gun finishes so I want to move to leather. Questions: What is a good stitching groove distance from the edge of the leather? I have seen numbers like 1/8" to 3/16" or equal to the thickness of the leather. What do you like and why? What thread type and weight do you like? Prefered tools for preparation and sewing such as stitch groover, overstitch wheel, awl(s), needles (Weight/size), stitching pony, etc. What is your personal method used for stitching? I have found may partial answers to these questions, but help from those who have done this work is invaluable. I have not purchased the Stohlman book yet, but will very soon. I would like a sewing machine, but this is a retirement "Hobby" level effort and $2-3000 is not in the cards. I plan on probably 20 holster a year maximum for myself and friends.