woodandsteel

My mistake, all! The Sig dummy is a P226, not a P220. It had been a while since I had looked at it and I remembered it wrong. I fixed the original post.

I have a collection of dummy guns I'm selling. Would love to sell as an entire package, but will sell individually. The models included are as follows: Rings Mfg Colt 1911 5 inch barrel Rings Mfg Glock 9/40 subcompact (26/27/33) Rings Mfg Sig P226(No Rail) ***Edited: I had this listed as a P220 before. Sorry for the mistake*** Rings Mfg Springfield XD9/40 Subcompact (XD9sc, XD40sc) Rings Mfg Springfield XDm9/40 full size Rings Mfg Springfield Micro Compact 1911 ***Corrected** ***NOTE: I cut off the left side thumb safety and taped in the safe "cocked and locked" position for holster molding purposes. It can be positioned or glued into either position. Rings Mfg Kahr PM9/CM9 Rings Mfg Kahr PM9/CM9 spare magazine Rings Mfg Heckler & Koch HK45c Rings Mfg Heckler & Koch HK45c Spare magazine (added a wooden dummy round to the top) Rings Mfg Taurus Model 85 revolver (Though not identical, this can also be used to make holsters for Smith & Wesson J-frame revolvers) Rings Mfg Smith & Wesson Sigma 9/40 Duncan's Ruger P345, Aluminum dummy. (Heavy! Rare. Could use some dremeling around the ejection port for more detail there.) I also have a 10 round Glock 22 magazine. Can be used to mold magazine holders for both 9mm and .40 Glock magazines. This is approximately $600 worth of dummies. A great start for a holster maker or sell them individually. Will sell the whole collection for $300 shipped to continental US, with seller paying paypal fees. Will sell guns individually for $30 shipped. Mags $15 shipped or $10 if combined with a gun. Check your local laws. Will not ship anywhere where prohibited. If it is prohibited where you are, the auction will not include the 10 round Glock mag. Email me directly at tjedmond@gmail.com with questions or to purchase. Thanks!

Alright, sounds like sage advice! I'll look into something for upholstery. Any models I should keep an eye out for?

Hello all! Will a Cobra, 441 or other sewing machine good for holsters and belts also work well for upholstery with thinner fabrics and leather? Any other recommendations? Thanks!

The pictures you posted are too blurry to see what it is.

Hello! I'm just down the road from you in Athens. I know there are several others on here from the North Georgia area. You might try contacting forum member ABC3. He's up in the Cumming/Gainesville area and has a Cowboy Class III, I believe. He makes gunbelts, primarily.

I heat dry in a countertop convection/toaster oven. It does seems to harden the holsters a bit more than just air drying, but I could be imagining it. The bigger factor for me is dry time. I live in the humid south, and it would take days to dry otherwise.

Really great looking rig! Nice work!

Your work looks very nice, and I don't want to discourage you, but I don't think that design is a good idea. A person carries that type of gun for self defense, in which case they need to be able to deploy it very quickly, and have a solid shooting grip on it. A pocket holster that encloses the grip and has a retention strap prevents that several times over. The person would have to fish it out of the pocket, possibly switch hands, unsnap the strap, push their fingers into the pouch, pull the gun out, and THEN reposition the gun in their hand so they have a proper firing grip on it. All of that takes way more time than you would likely have, in a self defense situation.

Yes, all of the above, I've learned from experience.

Eric, the measurements that work for me (with 6-8oz leather) is 4 1/4 inches center to center on the holes, and then I add 1/2inch on the front end of the strap and 3/8" to the back end of the strap. That gives me just enough room to rock the pull-the-dot snap onto the post, and makes the front end of the snap strap sit 1/8 inch taller than the back to get your thumb behind it. I wet mold the straps around a 1 1/2inch by 1/4inch paint stick, and then around a double layer gunbelt just to be sure. I also rub a little bit of paraffin wax onto the snap posts, which makes them snap and easier at first. I used to put a leather washer under the straps, but now mount them directly against the holster body.

It's a really great looking execution of the hybrid style design. I especially like your use of the punched slot as a solution to molding and stitching around the end of the barrel. Was it a profitable design?

The more I make holsters, inspect classic designs and other makers' work, and try to to come up with my own good, functional, improved designs, the more I see that most of the best design ideas have already been done before. Often when I go through the process of tweaking design ideas, I end up with the same design someone before me ended up with. Many times we're all finding the same solution to a problem. That shouldn't discourage anyone from still trying to make a new and better design but, for me, it instills more respect for the great designs and makers who have come before me. I haven't had the benefit of apprenticing with a holster maker, but with the internet I've spent a lot of time studying the work of Alessi, Del Fatti, Tony Kanaley, Lobo, Particle, K-Man, Dwight, Katsass, Brigade Gunleather, Ryan Grizzle, and many more. When I first saw Malabar's work a few weeks ago, I asked him about how he was doing it, to learn how he was doing his flat-backed holsters. I try to learn from everyone!

Well, as a relative newcomer (I've been making holsters just over a year) this has been a very educational thread. Let's keep it from getting nasty, though. K-man, you've got many years of experience you share from, and I appreciate the opportunity to learn from your insights. Your points make sense. On Malabar's behalf, though, Milt Sparks, Galco, and El Paso Saddlery all make flat-backed holsters, and that design does seem to add to comfort, even if it loses something in strength or retention. http://www.epsaddlery.com/pc-150-11-snap-off-elite-thumbreak.aspx When I first started making my own holsters, I made a flat-backed IWB design that is quite comfortable, and I still wear it, but I never quite got it right, and decided it was more work than it was worth. K-man, after I made that holster, I saw a picture of yours and though, "Well, shoot! That's what I was going for, and that guy already did it way better!". Why did you stop making that one?

I'm in a similar position as you. I have a full time job, wife, and other duties and can only turn out 1-2 holsters a week. I don't make much at my day job, and my wife is a grad student, so more often than not, most of the income from holsters ends up getting used for living expenses. If a dummy gun is available for the customer's gun, I've gone ahead and ordered it and just sucked it up as the cost of doing business. Most of those have ended up being used again for additional orders. Several customers have come back and ordered additional holsters for the same gun. I can't see charging a customer extra to order a dummy, or to develop a pattern, assuming it's something I'll use again, like a standard IWB, pancake, etc. Lately, though, I have started questioning whether it's worth advertising the option to do custom work, as opposed to just offering set models. I have had several custom requests for holster ideas that I know are not going to be very practical, or work well, and which have ended up requiring long email correspondences, and multiple design sketches, requiring valuable time on top of the existing orders I'm trying to fill.