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.

Get ready... you're about to get a LOT more holster orders! The holster looks great. I agree that 8oz is a little thick for IWB holsters, especially when you've got the wraparound reinforcement piece. 6-7 oz will be plenty thick for that design. I've done the same thing with making the snap loops to tight as well. I measure 4.25" center to center for the holes for my snap posts and it fits snugly, but works for 1.5" double layer belts. I also wet form them around a 1.5"x0.25" paint stick when molding, and then snap them around a belt while still damp to make sure they'll fit.

I just got another veg tan double shoulder from Roger. Nice to deal with, and great leather. How is the drum dyed leather to work with? Will it wet mold for making holsters? Is it much harder than regular veg tan, so that hand stitching might be too difficult?

I'm using JustHost.com. Haven't ever had to contact customer service, but haven't had any issues.

Dwight, I've learned a lob from you on this forum but, to be honest, I don't see your logic here. How is this style of holster more likely to weaken or fail than a pancake or IWB? All of my holsters are hardmolded for retention.

I make a holster like that as well. You can make them several ways. One way is to have the separate straps attached to a pancake style body. like in the picture. With that, you make a holster out of the front and back piece, with a T-nut between them, to which you attach the snap loop, via a 6-32 screw through the male snap post. The advantage to this method, is that you can switch between different sized loops to accommodate for different width belts, and replace loops if they ever wear out or stretch. Also, it makes for a more efficient use of the leather when cutting out the pieces. The drawbacks are that it adds an extra layer of bulk and, because the straps are only attached at a single point (the snap), the loops of this design are probably the most prone to rotating/tilting away from the holster when worn. (More on that later.) The other way to make this holster is to make the straps part of the front panel of leather, extending either from the top or the bottom, which wrap around the belt and fasten to a male snap post mounted on the front panel. Something recently pointed out to me from another holster maker, is that if you make the snaps come over the top, like I did below, they will tend to rotate outward unless you use two snaps per side. If you make them wrap the other way (with the loops snapping upward) they won't rotate outward, and you can get away with just one snap. I like the look of the snaps coming over the top better, but I offset the snaps toward the center of the holster to resist some of the outward rotation. I also added a convex curved the to inside edge of the straps, to help as well. It works better, but using two snaps per side will be probably the most stable design. Here is a template for a holster I just made. When laying out your pattern, keep in mind how much room you'll need in curves for your sanding and burnishing tools. Good luck with it!

Looks terrific! Nice job!

I wanted to post a couple of recent holsters I made, because I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out, and my improved results have been the result of learning from many of you here on the forum. Feel free to critique or ask questions! The 1911 holster is for the Sheriff of a nearby county. He's got quite a collection of high end 1911's, and I'm hoping he'll be pleased with this piece. I'm really please with my edges on this one. I changed my process a little bit, and found it works better. I edged and sanded them before molding and baking, and then again afterward with finer grit sandpaper (320... only because I didn't have finer!) followed by burnishing with a drill press and cocobolo burnisher (from Spinner!), dying the edges with black oil dye, Slicked with Fiebings Glycerin soap bar, rubbed with canvas, burnished with wax and then a canvas burnisher in a drill press. These are all hand stitched, dyed with Fiebing's black pro oil dye, with a light coat of neatsfoot oil after baking, finished with 50/50 resolene/water apllied with a sponge, and a final coat of Sno-Seal to give it a softer, waxier feel than the plasticky acrylic resolene. Second holster and mag holder set was for an HK45c, and the customer also ordered an IWB holster from me. It turned out to be a good looking set!

Yes, and a very good point! It was for that reason that I used to leave them on the outside. But I made one, once, with them sewn in, and it looks so much cleaner, to me, I have a hard time going back. I do worry about a customer stripping a T-nut, but I'll take that chance. I think I could replace one with a fairly clean looking fix, but I haven't tried.