Shooter McGavin

The depth of the stamping on the black 1911 rig is impressive. Are you using a Barry King stamp as well? Thanks for the info on the buckles! I've been using the cheap utility roller buckles, time to step my game up on these new belts. Much appreciated!

I always enjoy your basketweave holsters. I'm afraid to try thm for myself. Mind sharing the supplier of those buckles?

Elephant never sits long enough to get dusty around here. I recently purchased a 25 ft/2 piece to make full elephant belts from. Matt: I learn a lot from this forum. I would still be making landfill material if it werent for this website and the helpful people in this forum particularly. It makes me feel good to be able to give back in the rare opportunity that I can.

haha. I took about 20 pictures and these 5 were the only ones worth showing

Last month I picked up an awesome polished stainless CZ75B in 9mm. I bought the VZ grips even before taking delivery of the pistol. Had a customer who wanted a bullfrog pocket holster for his LCP so I called up John Fong and ordered half a dozen frog skins and told him to surprise me with the colors. When I opened the package from John I was excited to see one particular skin as it seemed to match my grips pretty closely. So anyway, heres the pancake holster I built for it. both the front and the back panel are two layers of 4-5oz Hermann Oak leather with flesh sides cemented together to create a "lined" holster. The frog skin is pretty tough stuff and between that and a large group of elephant holsters I'm in the middle of it killed the needle on my Tippman Boss stitcher. Anyway, heres the pic. Oh ya, it's kinda hard to detail mold through 2 layers of leather like that.

Heres what I do. I have quite a few of these out there and just happened to be in the middle of building another so I snapped some pics for you. I've never had any complaints with this particular design, and I wore one myself for awhile and sent the first two to a friend of mine to wear every day to give them a better test than I can on weekends. No complaints to date. Hope the pics help.

dotsun: I dyed the whole piece saddle tan and then I did the mahogany. The larger parts I did with a dauber, then used a 3/16" wide artists brush when I got closer to the boarder. Thanks for the compliment!

I would make the straps wider. Everything else looks great!

Looks nice! Did you come up with the pattern yourself or use something as a guide?

I made these for my uncle last year. Not a holster style I typically offer for sale but will make them on request. This one for a 2" Colt Lawman This one is for his S&W 457

Buy a cheap extended safety and put it in place after grinding the old one off.

I had weaver make me a 1.60" x 0.375" punch that has put belt slots in many a holster. SOOOOOOOO much easier than the way I was doing it.

Very nice, both of them.

Hi Bob, For the majority of my black items I use Wickett & Craig drum dyed saddle skirting. Some of the sides I get from them are light on the back after being split so I use Fiebings Pro Oil Dye on the interior and the edges. After wetforming I use neetsfoot oil, and then after a day or so for it to absorb, a nice buffing with wool shearling and then my sealant is applied inside and out. Hope that helps. Dan

Thanks all! For detail boning, I use my thumbs to get the basic outlines, the use one or both of these Tandy tools. Craftool Plastic Bone Folder http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/8116-00.aspx Horn Creaser http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/8118-01.aspx

Looks like it hardly penetrated. Did you apply anything before the dye? Was the leather still wet when you applied dye? USMC Black is hardly water soluble so it's not really the fault of the sealant but a failure on the dye.

I had good luck with frog skins through John Fong Leather in San Francisco

Out of curiosity, what happens when you wet the leather? One time I dipped a holster in boiling water. It shrunk up badly and turned hard as kydex lol.

Hi Chris re exotics: I like them because the only thing more politically incorrect that carrying a firearm is carrying it in the skin of a dead animal, the more endangered the better! For most people though I'd guess it makes the holster more "theirs" than a store bought mass produced rig while adding a touch of beauty. I'm not sure how many states are Open Carry states nowadays. I dont do a lot of IWB holsters with exotics but I certainly do a lot of OWB's that way, I appreciate the comments!

Eco-Flo dye?

I also mold pretty heavily around the safety of a 1911.... the extended ones at least. While they do manage to help prevent an unintended safety disengagement, I would never go as far as telling people it will flip the safety on for them. Even if it happens to do so.

Been awhile since I posted any pics of my work. Feel free to comment, criticize, question, make fun of, or use for inspiration or ideas. I get a lot out of looking at photos you all post and figured I would post some more of mine. Thanks for looking! Dan Some newish holsters and whatnot: (click the thumbnails for bigger pics) Dual layer gunbelt with random stitching that matched customers boots: FEG Hi-Power clone in a pancake holster with elephant trim Ruger SR9c Snapcake Sig P250c IWB-5 Tuckable Sig P226 Thumb Break Pancake Glock 26/27/33 IWB-5 Tuckable Part of a batch of green holsters I did for a St. Patricks Day special Ruger LCP Pocket Holster with Bullfrog Skin Steyr M9A1 Pancake 3" 1911 Clamshell holster with Stingray Inlay Commander 1911 pancake with Cape Buffalo trim panel Glock Compact IWB-6 "The Jakester" reinforced mouth version of the IWB-1 Sharkskin Magnetic Money Clip

Welcome to the forum! Personally I would not use belly leather for a holster.

Took quite a few days for this to wear off. Had a hole in the glove that went unnoticed.

The closer to the pistol that the slots are, the tighter it will hug to the body, especially on the grip side. Of course you can take that way too far and make a holster that isnt wearable. I dont know the rules, if they exist, but I do prefer to leave an ample piece of leather to go behind the belt. If it were me, I would move both of your slots towards the gun. The lead side by not quite a full slot width, and the trailing side by a full width. Good looking holster BTW.