eyeman

I have not seen stingray that was sewn that looked good. The stitches have a tendancy to detour around the beads and look staggered. I would suggest either no stitching or do a lacing like the beatiful examples in the previous posts. As to grinding the stingray be careful with the dust and wear a mask. Also make sure the gun or knife does not come in contact with the sharp edges of any beads, for they will scratch it. I put silicone on the edges of my holster to protect the gun. This was my first stingray holster and as you can tell, I'm not a professional, I simply enjoy making my own.

My wife gave me a single six 22 for our anniversary, so I decided to try my hand at a belt and western holster. It fits well but it is nothing fancy. You folks will not hurt my feelings with any pointers you want to give me. My leather work is for personal use.

BobH, I recently made a shoulder holster for my Walther PPK. I figured 007 would be pleased with me matching the gun up with the proper leather design. I was sure to mess up and ruin some leather because of the critical fitting and the contours of the straps. I have several nylon shoulder, so I decided to use one of them as a pattern and I felt at ease with my first attempt. Here is a photo of my first one.

GhostRed7, you might find that an inlay might be easier that a surface apprication, that is if you plan on stitching afterwards. Stiching, stingray and I do not get along very well. The calcium bead will cause the stitching to stagger and look terrible. I have not seen any good stitching on stingray, although some may be capable of making it look good. I don't sell product, so I only have to please myself, but sometimes that can be even more difficult. I'll see if I can post a picture of the last paddle holster I made for my 1911, which was done by adhesive only with no stitching. As a word of caution, be careful that no portion of the beads can come in contact with the weapon, for the sharp edges of cut beads will definately scar the weapon.

I make holsters for my own personal use or for friends, so I am not in the business. I wanted to make a shoulder holster for my PPK, so I used some nylon designs for patterns. I had several of the Uncle Mikes and others for different handguns and I found them comfortable. You might want to think about that route and also consider all of the good info previous to my post. I'll try to post a picture of my first attemp a this PPK holster which also has double mag. pouches.

Fredo, those grips look great, I did a paddle holster a few months ago for my Kimber 1911, but I was very concerned about abrasions from the sharp edges of the calcium beads of the stingray. It was even to the extent to where I ran a heavy silicone bead around the mouth of the holster to protect the weapon. I had thought about doing an overlay on some extra wood grips I have, but shyed away from it for fear of abrasions. How are you avoiding this on your grips or is this a non issue? My crude leather work is not for sale, but instead for my own personal use. Here is a photo.

As to the stitching, I have never seen it look good on singray. The stitching when pulled tight will channel itself around the beads and appear to be poor stitching when it is actually not, but instead simply unavoidable. The only way I have used it on holsters is to cement it over the completed stitched hide or inlet it and carefully finished off the edge by Dremel ginding and then painting. As a word of caution, the beads when cut are very sharp, so be careful to smooth them off on any edges. This is a paddle holster I did for my Kimber.

Can someone help me on an inlet of exotics on a holster? Are there two layers of leather on the front surface of the holster with the top layer cut out for the exotic? I have done exotics as an overlay but not an inlet. Thanks for any help for I would like to try this on my next project.

I have been facinated with stingray hide and decided to try my hand at a holster using it. It was a real learning experience dealing with the calcium beads. I had seen some stitched and decided that the appearance was not what I wanted. It is impossible to have any uniform stitching, for the thread has to route around the beads and it looks bad. My answer was to glue over the finished holster and grind the edges down. One caution using it would be to make sure no beaded edges come in contact with the weapon for they would surely put scratches on the gun. Another answer would be to inlet the stingray under leather which I think i'll try next .