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Wow...thanks for all that information Adam, greatly appreciated! And HOW did you KNOW I had loads of money set aside?? Now that this leather working addiction has taken ahold, I'm slowly watching the 'ol bank account dwindle..BUT...ITS....FUN...DAMMIT. Seriously, this is the friendliest, most helpful site I've seen; it seems there are no ego's here, and no one has any problem helping someone else out, even if it gives away "trade secrets". That's really cool. And I thank you. It probably doesn't help that I live only an hour and a half from SLC, so I don't have to wait on mail delivery to force me to be patient, a new idea pops into my head and off I go to SLC, and once through the doors, the aroma of thousands of types of leather hits my nostrils, and about an hour later, my wallet!

Thank you for all the recommendations guys, it's much appreciated!

Hello Gentleman/Ladies, I'm new here and to leatherworking. Other than it's addictive nature, I find with every project (mainly holsters, sheaths, guitar straps for now) that I need a tool I currently don't have. My question to all of you: When starting out making holsters, what 5 or so molds are MUST HAVES? Currently, I'm using actual guns from customers, okay, friends that allows me to practice the craft. Thank you for your time and this wonderful resource for us newbies.

It could be an interesting contrast to an exotic skin, like a black and white snake. I think the contrasting thread color would either blend in real well, or even being indistinguishable amongst the varied black and white pattern of the skin.

Ahhhh, there's the difference. You're using a vacuum bag, I built a vacuum press with pegboard as the top...I heat the kydex while it's clamped between the frame (picture a small screen window with kydex in place of the screen), then place the firearm/replica/object on the pegboard. The frame is slightly larger than the weather strip around the top of the pegboard. When kydex is soft and "droopy", I turn on the vacuum, and place the whole frame over the object. As it seals around the weather stripping, thwwaacckkk, sucks down tightly over whatever object is within the boundaries of the weatherstripping-be it firearms, knives, Hot Wheels cars, whatever you want to get a great mold of! I get great results from .06 up to .125 thickness on the kydex. This latest attempt, as it does gets sucked down, I continue the pressure from above with the foam and backing board...completely overlooked the vacuum bag! That would explain why you get good initial definition 360 degrees, and I'm just getting it on the "public" side of the holster...hmmmmm might have to try the vacuum bag route...but dang, it's a blast creating molds of the most trivial, stupid household stuff just to get practice! I really appreciate your help, and will try to get some pics up soon of some projects!

Thanks for the reply! I think we're kinda on the same page here, as I made a vac press also. 6hp ShopVac with homemade box. I found I could get unreal detail in vacuum forming kydex (much more so than my kydex "press") , and decent detail in a single piece of leather (for pancake style where I only needed top detail). Then it hit me, I combined my vac press with my "typical" kydex press, and compress everything under the foam press while applying vacuum. I just can't seem to get that "perfect" casing that I can repeat everytime! This might be due to the slight variations in leather don't you think? I can repeat the exact same time, temperature, water faucet, etc. and still get different results! Arrggghh. As a beginner, I thank you guys that are willing to help us newbies, and I'm sure MOST of my problem is getting TOO anxious to see the final product and hurrying along too fast. But I'm sure I'm the ONLY one here that has ever done that, right! Quick story, hard lesson--I messed up the top piece on a pancake style hybrid I was trying, leather was WAYYYY to wet, so I thought I could lessen the drying time by putting it in the oven on low for a while...well, it shrunk up like an apple head doll, and was hard as armor! I soaked it for 4 DAYS in water, it didn't change shape at all!!! That's why the experience and knowledge of guys like yourself is so beneficial to us newbies. Thank you again.

Great work Adam, thanks for the tutorial. Question: how long are you casing the leather prior to the boning process? It seems to hold the definition nicely, and am curious as to your casing method. Thanks again!