Big O

Nice work. The stitching looks very neat. One thing I usually do is curve the top of the front piece. I feel it's more pleasing to the eye than a straight line.

Nice work. I do the very same thing with Zack White, and they've never let me down.

Fiebings.

6/7 oz cowhide, Russet dye (and neatsfoot oil). Hand-stitched.

That's a beautiful rig. I make them out of horsehide as well, oiled to bring out the patterns. I've taken to using thick suede for the straps, though, for comfort.

Take a nice piece of horsehide with plenty of visible pattern in the hide, and hit it with a very small amount of red dye mixed in with neatsfoot oil. Repeat the oil/dye treatment until the pattern pops out. It should be close enough to a tiger stripe pattern to satisfy your client. Example (not pink, though):

No ejection port. At all.

Beautiful! GREAT job on the edges.

I soak mine for about 2 minutes for molding. I've found that to be hit or miss. I'll have to try going longer and see how that works out. For stamping, I've found that when it's cased just right, the stamping comes out VERY crisp. The trick seems to be GETTING it to the right level. I still haven't mastered that.

From a business model, considering time invested, no. It's a hobby that pays for itself, plus a little extra. The time I put into it is "multi-tasked" with watching TV, which I'd be doing anyway, on my nights off from the real job. Most cutting and all stitching are done in my recliner.

Not even close to the first. But, yes, it's tricky to stamp and mold. I really haven't done any other "tooling". Probably doesn't help that the black is from those cheap Springfield drum-dyed strips. The backdrop is just the seat of an office chair.

Awesome detail molding.

Apologies for the crappy cell phone pic.

I've taken to using the measurement of the trigger guard, rather than the slide, to determine the placement of the stitch line along the bottom of the trigger guard. That's for pancake designs. For wraparound designs like the Avenger, I split the difference between the two measurements. I've only recently come to love the Glock. I've always respected them. I stippled both of mine. The first one was my former duty gun, which I bought and then immediately ground off the alien finger grooves which I hated so. LoL

Nicely done.

I make perhaps 25-30 a year. It's still just a hobby. I don't see it becoming a full-fledged business, as I feel that the key to my limited success is that it's all done by hand, and in order to substantially increase the income, I'd have to either: A. mass-produce using generic templates and a sewing machine, which would wipe out the custom, handcrafted aspect or B. charge a fortune for each piece, which would probably be appropriate in terms of the time involved, but not for the inherent value I typically charge $65 for an Avenger or reinforced pancake, $50 for a pancake or simple pouch holster, $125 for a shoulder rig, $25 for a single mag pouch and $30 for a double.

I use the black ones for belt loops for IWB holsters. I have made holsters from both the black and the brown. The brown ones appear to be hard-rolled and more suited to it, while the black ones appear to be soft-rolled and only really appropriate for holsters for smaller, lighter handguns.

I've just been using a utility knife, and sharpening the blades with one of those V-shaped carbide and ceramic sharpeners. And cutting in 2-3 passes.

Nice workmanship! The concept has a couple of safety issues, though. Visualize the draw stroke all the way from grip while holstered to the on-target position, and you'll see what I mean.

I think that one line pretty much says it all, when you explore its ramifications. In the time it would take Lobo to build this one holster, beginning from scratch, how many holsters COULD he have made using his off-the-shelf designs? And that's ASSUMING access to the same pistol and light combo, either the customer's or a generous friend's. In other words, how much would it COST Lobo in lost business opportunity? I can see his reasoning. It makes perfect sense for him, with the volume of business he has. This remains a hobby for me, so it wouldn't be an issue - for me - as long as I can have access to the pistola for the design and molding phases. But I'm handling about 1% of Lobo's volume.

Damn! Why didn't *I* think of that? ....because EVERYBODY makes mistakes.... I could've made a fortune......

Wow. I don't know if I'd be able to resist telling him that this is a common issue, and that the "damage" can be reversed by repeating the "cleaning" process while turning the holster slowly over an open flame.......

There are basically only two ways to enclose a handgun in critter skin. One is to wrap one piece of critter skin around it, and the other is to sandwich it between two pieces of critter skin. Pretty much all "innovation" occurs outside the interior stitch lines. A holstermaker named Thad Rykba came up with the idea of wrapping the one piece around "backwards", with the fold at the trigger guard, and a welt along the top. That was pretty cool. I tried to copy that once. He did it way better. Another one named Roy Baker came up with idea of making a pancake holster with THREE belt slots instead of two, so that the holster could be worn at one of two different angles. I tried to one-up him with an extra belt slot once, to make it a 3-way instead of 2-way. His way was way better. I even tried to "innovate" with a two-way Avenger design. Again, the original, boring, traditional way was way better. People keep asking me for "innovative" cavalry-draw SOB holsters. I keep refusing, because I will not play any part in their predictably perforated kidney, unless I'm pulling that trigger myself, and for good reason.