George B

Was asked by a local gun shop owner I do business with to make two CC holsters. One for her to wear in her shop and the other for her friend who is a LEO. Both are for the Springfield M1911A1. There are some things I found that had to be done differently, like where everything would end up after forming, or building up the leather behind the reinforcement to accommodate the length of post on the conchos. Not my cup O' tea but already have another order for one of the salespeople with a silver dollar embedded in the throat. Now if I can just figure out how to do the silver dollar.

The forward Holster should have more leather on the outside piece than the inside piece, allowing the back to remain fairly flat and the molding primarily on the front. I have not made many and am far from an expert. I cut the back to the size I wanted and the front oversized and longer on the ears. I wet the front piece and using my fingers and a vacume bag to form it how I want around the weapon. I mark the leather against the back with the weapon in it for cutting off the excess. Mark my stitch lines and then allow it to dry. Once dry, I glue it together and then sew it. Sand, dye, edge, burnish and then re-wet the entire thing and form and bone it. Depending on the front sight you may need to make a tunnel to accommodate it. There are a lot of tutorials here with a wide array of how others do it that are probably easier. Hope this helps a little, like I wrote...I ain't no expert.

Thanks and it is the med. brown English bridle. Dyed at the tannery. The belt tunnel and throat are W&C skirting leather in brown that was hand rubbed.

This my third attempt at the Avenger holster, customer requested this for a Springfield 1911 with a removable snap safety. Fully lined using 2 layers W&C medium brown 5oz. English bridle and 7oz. skirting leather for the throat & tunnel. Couple of things I'll do differently next time, but I think I at least have a handle on the patterns now. Any comments or suggestions are always appreciated.

Thank you, my brain still hurts. lol George

After months of paint, chrome, custom work and more I finally got the bike in my shop to assemble and mount the saddlebags. Not sure yet I want to do another set again. The brain work almost killed me. Started out a set of just plain old throw over the luggage rack bags, it then evolved into a project that was way beyond my experience. I used W&C English bridle leather and Watts stainless steel hardware. Bags have lift brackets and supports behind and use 2 buckles per side attached to a yoke under the rear seat to hold the bags in place and allow the user to take off and on fairly easily. Aluminum plate in lid sewn between 2 layers of 5 ounce leather, and a full aluminum back and top side supports. Front and back are 12 ounce.Traditional western saddlebag billows (customer did not want piping). 5 inches wide. Any suggestions, comments and criticism would be greatly appreciated, the money was pretty good and I would like to maybe do more.Thanks, George

My last order a couple of weeks ago, I asked Glenn at W&C what they did with the split, he said that because it is split numerous times there is nothing worth sending me. Makes sense I guess. At saddle school we used the Artisan splitter and if you attempted to split a 12 ounce side to lets say 8 ounces on only one run it tore the heck out of the finish side. If you took it down a little at a time it worked out great.

Taken from Wikipedia... "Gum tragacanth is a viscous, odorless, tasteless, water-soluble mixture of polysaccharides obtained from sap which is drained from the root of the plant and dried. The gum seeps from the plant in twisted ribbons or flakes which can be powdered. It absorbs water to become a gel, which can be stirred into a paste. The gum is used in vegetable-tanned leatherworking as an edge slicking and burnishing compound, and is occasionally used as a stiffener in textiles." When wet forming holsters some of it will wash out. I use it on English bridle with no difference, but I also seal my edges after burnishing with bees wax and have had no problems with it withstanding the elements.

Setting snaps straight was always a problem for me. Wasted snaps and time redoing them and sometimes no better than the ones I removed. Read a post here about using an arbor press. Bought the 1/2 ton at Harbor Freight and had a friend tap the end of the post for my tool, tapped a hole in the front for a thumb screw to hold the tool in place and bingo! I have not had one snap that did not set perfectly. If you search the forum you will find plenty of ways to set up an arbor press to do snaps and much more.

I order 6 ounce for the liner and 7 for the outer for holsters and lined belts. 4 ounce for belt bullet loops and for unlined I go with the 10 - 12 ounce without splitting. For the last 6 months or so I have been buying the English bridle for most items if I do not plan on stamping or carving, it has a great finished side that requires very little work after completion. Call and talk to Glenn Proud, he'll help you out.

I order 6 ounce for the liner and 7 for the outer for holsters and lined belts. 4 ounce for belt bullet loops and for unlined I go with the 10 - 12 ounce without splitting. For the last 6 months or so I have been buying the English bridle for most items if I do not plan on stamping or carving, it has a great finished side that requires very little work after completion. Call and talk to Glenn Proud, he'll help you out.

I've used W&C for about 2 years now and have found it hit & miss. Sometimes the sides are great and sometimes not so much, fuzzy flesh side, abrasions, and so forth. I normally use the overstock sides, they normally are special and utility at good prices. I have ordered the standard a few times and have found that the overstock was a better side of leather. They will also split the sides at no extra charge, but be prepared, it can take 2 to 3 weeks to get them.

Unfortunately sometimes the only money I make is on factory saddle repairs, I do however check the damage out with the customer at my side, and then only take on the job if I can do it. Your repair looks outstanding by the way and so far is beyond what I have done in repairs. I have found that just about anything a factory can cheapen up they do, and with the worst materials you can find. I have also found that most customers who cannot believe what they are made like, run right out and buy another when they need one instead of spending a little more and getting a proper made saddle. Heck, I have customers who have two of something when they could have had me make one for less than the cost of two they own. Sometimes people are just hard to figure out.

As a "noob" I have found this forum to be a regular, bubbling fountain of information and appreciate every bit of knowledge I've gleamed. The forum's search function on the other hand has been problematic for me. I'll search the forum and get back the "nothing found" page. Then I search Google and most of the time it shows lots of results found in this forum that I just searched and found nothing. I now search google first to find the results I want here and cut through all the wasted time trying to word my search criteria correctly for the forums search function. I have had some questions answered by those with more experience and appreciate it. I have also had the "why not just search the forum" answers from those that take the time to write a response but not the time to actually answer the question or point me in the right direction to find the information myself. I guess that is expected when some one tries to get information for free. I can see both sides of this debate. I have used tons of scrap leather figuring things out on my own and I have asked questions when the solution evaded me. I figure if someone does not want to answer a "noob's" question they simply move on and do not hit the reply button. But, to get worked up enough that they take the time to knock the "noob" down a notch with a negative or useless comment makes no sense to me. Maybe it's time for them to take a break, sit back and contemplate why they feel so strongly against "stupid noob questions", I guess they were born with all the info they needed and never had to ask for someone's help. You cannot teach stupid, but asking a question is not stupidity it is simply someone trying to pull themselves out of ignorance. Why keep ignorant people ignorant and then rant against them? Once again, I thank everyone who took the time to help me here.

I just happen to have one similar to the rig Chuck Norris used in "Walker Texas Ranger", strip or bikini holster, for a Ruger auto and I just happened to see the same model in their cabinet. This one has been changed (improved?) in the sight tunnel and not once locked up or had the front sight catch. Had so much fun making one for a customer I decided to make one for sale. The shoulder rig will be hard to take in as I sell out as fast as I make them, but I do have referrals who will be more than happy to talk to him. Great advice, Thanks

I've been stopping into a local (small) gunshop for about a year now. I'de take in some of my latest works and show them off a little about once every couple of weeks. I do this at my towns two small gunshops, leave cards, leave some samples, smooze with the people there and so on. One has turned out a lot of business for me and has never asked for any compensation, not once. The other has netted not one response and furthermore everytime I talk to them they want to buy them at wholesale and resell. I understand this, we are all trying to make some money, but they never commit to anything. Well, today I hit the two shops for my regular visits. Made a sale at one just being there, customer even gave me a cash deposit. The other shop, not so great. Both salespeople had just recently purchased holsters, one for his Kahr a Galco shoulder rig, and the other for his Springfield, a strip pancake. Both were wearing them. The shoulder holster owner told me how great it was but had problems with it fitting him correctly, and every now and then the weapon would pinch in the holster and not come out easily. He also had a problem with the mag carriers unsnapping and have a mag fall out. The pancake guy was also very happy with his holster and it only took him 4 pulls before he could remove the weapon. The front sight kept catching on the bottom, the last couple of tries I felt sorry for him as it must have hurt his reproductive organs. It was everything I could do not breaking out into hysterical laughter and costing myself any future business. I simply told them I would have made it more functional and got out to my truck as fast as possible. I was still LMAO 10 minutes later as I pulled in to my drive. I guess I win!

There are so many things to learn with making leather items, most I learned by trial and error as well as many hours researching this forum. Learning to build western saddles did not prepare me for making gun leather items, that itself has been a year or better in self-education. The most useful thing I learned is figuring out what went wrong and why, then re-engineering and correcting the problem with what I learned. Keep at it and it will get easier. In regards to the credit card holder. Try using a 1 inch wide strip of the material you are using for your measurements, this helped me understand how leather thickness changes the required material. Once I got that into my head pattern making became much easier.

Thanks to all who answered everyone had useful advice. Yesterday I took the day to making two kinds of IWB holsters for my Ruger Sp-101 .357. One using all leather with a 2" X 2" light piece of kydex between the 2 layers of leather in the back. I placed it where the cylinder lays to spread the bulk. The second was a cross-breed kydex with leather backer. Both had the same pattern using the same leather belt loops. What I found was, Both holsters required the same amount of belt length, the leather holster did not require any more belt length than the lighter cross-breed. Depending on where I wore the holsters the belt length required would change. On the side, needed 1.5". near the back only 3/4". I was constantly moving the kydex holster around to find a more comfortable position, not so with the leather holster. The kydex wore the bluing off the edges of my Ruger after only an afternoon of use. The leather did not collapse in the leather holster when the weapon was drawn. This may change with use however. The leather holster was by far the more comfortable of the two. The cross-breed holster took a lot less time to build, a plus for profit. The cross-breed had less cost in materials. The cross-breed required very little finish work. All that said, I'm sitting here writing this wearing the leather holster. Thanks again, George

Hello to All, I have recently made a couple of belts specifically for customers using IWB holsters and although both fit well I have some questions. I searched the forum for this topic and found nothing so I figured I'de ask the pros. If I measure with my own weapon ( Ruger SP-101 .357 ) in a IWB holster I have to let the belt out between 3/4" to 1" but have read elsewhere that the belt should be 2 sizes longer. Seemed kinda long to me. I understand that different weapons and IWB holsters will will add or subtract girth but was wondering if there is a rule of thumb one can use for a majority of IWB carry weapons. I have started asking customers who do not have a IWB carry belt to measure using a current belt of the width they want but with some this is very time consuming. Any suggestions? Thanks to all, George

I have a couple of head knives in the shop that became time hogs and after a few cuts required sharpening, over and over again. Seemed like I spent as much sharpening as I did cutting and as a newbie it made all of my projects take too long. Well, maybe not anymore! I received my new head knife today, did two entire projects and the blade is still razor sharp! Think I'm going to order another and then maybe a couple of kitchen knives as well. Got it from a guy in Oregon, who makes them by hand and the choice of wood handles is great. It's made with dendritic cobalt alloy, and it really hols an edge. The site is www.jcookblades.com

Thank you to everyone, turns out is just spew from oiling. Talked with Jill at SLC and she confirmed it...good old spew. Unfortunately I was so disgusted with my SAA holster I pitched it. Yes, I know, stupid move. Have another horse butt however and plan to make my new holster with it after I get caught up with an order for a couple of saddles. Once again, thanks to everyone with their responses. George

Leather is W&C, I sure miss Siegel of California Some hardware including D rings from Bork in Oregon 3-way rigging plates from Bowden trees Flat plate rear rigging Ds from Weaver (horseshoe brand) I think I drove the lady crazy asking "US or China" every time) Neoprene seat padding from Foam Factory Flex tree and stirrup forms (replacing metal parts with SS made in the US from my local hardware store, special order of course) from Ralide (Customer's choice of tree) and some misc. items from Springfield Leather. I do have to add that Jill at SLC was Fantastic!

Monday this week I had my first western saddle order in quite some time, customer gave me the deposit and off I went ordering what I needed. I've been doing gun leather for some time and always buy my leather and hardware that is US made, for gun leather items it is not too difficult. After 2 days on the phone and the internet I now have everything shipping and it is all tanned and made right here in the good old USA. At first I thought, "should be easy". Not so, the stainless steel hardware, especially the 3-way rigging plates and solid cast stainless Ds for the rear of the flat plate took two days to locate. Mostly I found China this, and China that, or it was brass or bronze and after the first day it became more of a quest. Finally, after ordering from vendors I normally do not use I found everything I needed and it only took 5 orders from 5 separate vendors. I start next week after everything arrives and when completed it will be 100% American Made! The best part is all the items only cost about 10% more than the Chinese made ones. And now I have suppliers with materials made right here in the US, although after all of this I can understand why others don't ask and don't tell. My hat off to all those people I dealt with on the phone, they earned their pay. George

Hi McJeep, that was my first suggestion to him but he insists on buckles. All the buckles will do is tie the bags to the yoke, most of the weight will be supported by a set of brackets behind the bags. I am leaving an extended piece of leather on both the yoke and the back of the bags to protect the paint from the buckles and will leave me enough leather that a zipper can be used to replace the buckles if they become a problem. Thanks, George

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I think you are right on the aluminum, and as he is a metal worker by trade it should turn out great. The bags will actually have a tubular metal support bracket behind them that will hold a majority of the weight. We have made a set of clips for the back of the bag that will allow attachment and keep the bag from bouncing off the bracket. Thanks for the great advice, George