woodandsteel

well, I've got five of those. I guess I need to get crackin'!

Yeah, I think holster design is always going to be a series of compromises. An IWB holster is never going to be as fast as an owb "speed" holster and, in designing one, you trade some of that accessibility for concealability and comfort. The screws on single point attachments do loosen up some over time. I just snug them up if they ever come loose, but a light Lock-tite would work.

Hmm. That's good to know... Frustrating, I'm sure! I wonder if the trigger guard on the Kimber matches any other 1911 dummies. If so, perhaps you could cut one of those down to a 3" barrel size (I've thought about this approach for 4" and 3.5" defender size 1911's). It looks like the blue gun has a thicker trigger guard than a real gun, as well, which will create some play in the retention fit around the trigger guard.

Good insight Malabar! I cut my sweat guards with a curve to clear as much of the thumb as possible. Would this one be sufficient for your requirements, or would it need to go even further?

Nice job! I haven't ever thought about reducing the leather, like that, for the T-nut to be inset. Very clean! Clipping the prongs is another good idea, since I can rarely find the T-nuts with shorter prongs. I've found that even if they poke through, they're hidden by the snap loop on top, and help to grip it. But they would poke through further if I carved the pocket out for them like that. Your work looks great!

Thanks, Colt Hammerless. The truth is, most of what I know about making holsters I learned from Particle and other people here on this forum! I'm a big admirer of his work (He's one of only two makers who's holsters I still think about scraping money together to buy for myself!) so I feel a bit awkward offering advice, but that's part of what makes this forum such a great resource.

Wow! I just looked at your knives, too! GORGEOUS! And your leatherwork looks terrific too! What's a ballpark price for one of your damascus folders? I can't afford one, but I'm curious what kind of prices that level of work brings to a craftsman.

Looks really classy! Nice lines, colors and molding!

I use oil dye before stitching and assembling, and then bake the holster after wet forming to harden it. Then I give it a light coat of neatsfoot, to condition the leather and give the color more depth and consistency. I've found that if I skip the neatsfoot, the resolene finish will soak into the leather unevenly and get blotchy. I've been thinking of forgoing the neatsfoot oil and use Leather Balm with Atom Wax for that step, but I haven't tried it. If you dyed after the wet forming, you probably don't need to use neatsfoot oil, but it might help.

Looks good! I like how the signature shape of the reinforcement panel makes it clearly look like one of your holsters, even though it's a popular IWB style. As others said, I think you might want to raise the front snap attachment point a little, to lower the ride height. By doing that, you might (but might not!) find that the added unsupported length of the front wing doesn't pull the gun in to the body tight enough, so you might make the reinforcement panel shorter, to decrease the length of the gap between the gun and the front wing. Or not I started out placing my snap loops much wider than probably necessary, but have settled on bringing them in to 1" from the stitching on either side. That leaves me enough room for a good grip on the gun, and just enough room to fit a sanding drum in the curve between the front wing and the body shield. I usually make holsters with an 18 degree cant, which I find usually works well to conceal even full size grips.

Nice work! That's a novel approach to the tuckable design, having the uprights be folded over from the bottom. Is the folded part stiff, or do they flop down?

RJFleather.com is a site sponsor and has some drum dyed colored leather. Good leather, good prices, and Roger is very nice. I just ordered another shoulder yesterday.

You should definitely do the FNP45, FNP45 Tactical, and FNX-9/40. I've made and gotten requests for those. I'd also agree with the Ruger Sp101 2inch barrel, and the 3.5" 1911.

Hmm... sorry to hear that. I was planning on ordering some soon. At the moment, I buy my pull-the-dot snaps from Paragear.com.

I only use Fiebings Pro oil dyes. I dye my pieces with a foam brush before stitching. After assembly I wet mold, bake, oil, and then finish with Resolene. It sounds like Particle may be right, that your leather is too dry and it's soaking up lots of dye and darkening. If the leather is drying completely after wet molding, it shouldn't darken dramatically.

oops! Sorry: http://woolfegunleather.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3_5

This guy will sell them to you. I asked him where he found black T-nuts, and he said he paints his with rustoleum and bakes them.

I had a similar problem with my Apple iBook. The screen would freeze up and cut out. I found a temporary fix was to clamp it to my desk with a 12" wood clamp, putting pressure right next to the track pad. It worked for a while, but eventually even that didn't help. I've since given up on it and have commandeered my wife's laptop when i need it, and my iphone works for most of my email/internet/forum posting.

If only I wasn't already buying a bunch of blue guns this month! If you still have it in a couple weeks, I might be able to pick it up.

Interesting!

Yep, and yep! I just bought an LC9 to make a holster for a customer. I think Lobo has posted about that before. He talked about buying guns that don't have dummies available, and sees buying the real ones as an investment that will retain value or increase over time.

Welcome! That's how I got started about a year ago. I don;t have any advice on the Threepersons, but I'm sure you'll do fine!

What kind of flame are you using? Is the black not just soot, that rubs off?

It looks like it's a flat back design... How did you go about designing for that? How do you keep the back flat in the molding process?

Those look great! Are you handstitching those?