mrfixit

Thanks, seller didn't have a lot of info on it. I asked what it was used for, his reply was "it was in a sewing business "

Local sale close to home, this is offered about $125. Will this do holsters?

It is for the S&W M&P 2.0 Compact 9mm with 4" barrel. As far as time frame......I'm waiting on a holster so I can take it to qualifications and then start carrying it. Not really a deadline to be had, more like when I get it. I've got a holster cut out that I need to do some work on then glue up, sew (by hand), and mold. I've been sitting on this a while so.....no deadline.

I just don't have time to do it myself by the time I need it, and I can't seem to find what I want on the web. What I'm looking for is a simple pancake holster with thumb break and matching single mag pouch for a S&W 2.0 9mm with 4" barrel. It is for plain clothes duty so the thumb break is a must have. I can find a holster I like, for instance the El Paso leather Tortilla holster, but they don't make a matching mag pouch. I've made a few myself over the years, and have posted some pics here. I just need to know who makes this type of set up. Scott

I need to make myself a holster for a 4" S&W M&P 2.0 Compact 9mm. I have a pattern for a Glock 19. My question is can I use the same stitch line around the gun, or will I need to change it? The holster will be a pancake style with minimal detail molding, and a thumb break for retention. I'm much more concerned with the stitch line than the holster design itself. Similar to this:

I would be interested to see the 80/20. I've made a few holsters for myself only, all for 1911 or Hi Power for duty wear plain clothes. I use the same pattern for both weapons, molding is the only difference.

This holster and mag pouch is over 4 years old as you see it today. I made it back then and just never posted any photos of it. This is and has been my daily wear for all that time. I am an arson investigator, so this has been worn 40+ hours a week for 4 years. This holster has held up well, I like the horsehide. the finish is natural for the horsehide, and the elephant was some scraps from a Tandy shop in Lubbuck Texas. I've been back several times in the last 4 years and they haven't had any exotic scraps again. At the time I grabbed the elephant, I also got a bit of Ostrich and Shark. I post this because I have another weapon I plan to begin carrying for duty. Some would say the 1911 is an old design, so I'm updating to the more modern Browning/FN Hi Power. I hope you can hear the sarcasm in my typing since the Hi Power was put into service in 1935. Be that as it may, I like this holster design and found out the pattern for a 1911 will fit the Hi power very well. Jeff Hays was kind enough to let me use his pattern for this holster, I made very small changes to the outline. I will be using a magazine pouch pattern from JLS Leathers and will be modifying it slightly as well. I would be glad to answer questions about this, and I plan on a 'step by step' on the Hi Power project in another post.

It's been a while, a few years actually since I was here and active in any way. Back in '11 I made a few Belt holsters for myself with mag pouches. I started with cowhide, and moved to horsehide. Jeff Hays was quite a bit of help with patterns. I finally made a nice natural horsehide set for my 1911, and was so satisfied that I pretty much stopped making holsters all together. I never intended to do them for anyone else, and I haven't changed my outlook. I've made a few knife sheaths for fun too. The holster has been worn on duty as an investigator 40 hours a day since I got it done, still looks great. But here I am again, and it's been so long since I did any work with horsehide I forgot a lot of what I thought I knew. My plan is to make a new holster for a different pistol. I have a FN Hi Power that I would like to start carrying on duty. Since the last horsehide rig has lasted so well, I would like to make another for the FN. My questions are who has quality horse butts now? I'm looking for heavy and with the natural markings or tiger striping. The last holster was left natural, but I can't remember what the finish was. So, what is the recommended finish for horsehide? 50-50 mop n glo with water still a good plan?

I just build holsters for me, no business or anything, so less wasted material and less set up cost would be better. That being said, I have a new to me Browning Hi-Power that will need a good holster. Just out of curiosity I have stuck it in my 1911 holsters and seems to be a prety close fit. I'm wondering if I can use that pattern to make a holster for the BHP? What I am really wondering is if anyone else has done this, and if so, how much do I need change the stiching on the outline to make it tight and right? Or do I just need to pony up and buy another pattern? Thanks in advance.

What weight veg tan leather should i use on a motorcycle seat? I'm recovering and using the stock foam. I want to do some tooling on the leather.

I am asking for help folks. I 'kinda know' what I need to be doing, but I want to make sure before I mess anything up. Here is the backstory if it is of interest to anyone'; I have a bike, Yamaha Vstar 1100 Classic to be exact. I have a long range plan of customizing it and am taking it a step at a time. Basically, I am going for "western" or "modern day Cowboy" theme. To that end I plan on a custom paint job with artwork on the tank, and custom leather seat and saddle bags both in brown 'oil tan' type finish. I plan on making a set of calvary saddle bags to fit the bike. For the seat, I want it to remind folks of a western horse saddle. So right now I am asking for some help with the seat. I actually find the stock seat on the classic comfortable, so I just want to recover it. My inspiration for this is from AZ Rider and his thread here. I bought a used seat for a classic, so I have 2 the same, one to ride and one to work on. This is the seat in stock form: I don't like how the seam for the top piece goes all the way to the tank and most of the way to the pan. So, I marked up the set to show where I want my top to be: I took the seat cover off the pan and cut out what I had marked on a piece of about 6-7 once leather. Even after making the top a bit smaller than stock, I will still have to stretch/form the sides over the seat to make it fit correctly. Here, I have marked the portion of the sides that will have to be stretched/formed to fit the contour of the seat foam: This is as far as i have gone so far. For what it's worth, I have made several holsters and mag pouches. I've wet formed leather and horsehide. My questions, in no particular order should I trim the top smaller? I plan on doing the Mexican loop braid to secure the top to the side. I want to make sure that the braid isn't going to irritate my legs when I ride. I plan on a basket weave stamp on the top, anything I should know or worry about there? My thought was to overlap the edge of the top and the side, gluing them together, then braiding, instead of butting the edges together and braiding. Good, bad, other ideas? I don't even know what else I don't know at this point, so, suggestions are more than welcome. Mr Fixit

Thanks for the help. I think the Calvary style is what I am looking for. The question now is, how does the "floppy' leather work at highway speeds?

I've got a vision for my bike, it's gonna take a while to get there but I'm ready to start working on it. Basically, what I have in mind is a "cowboy" or "old west" style to it. To that end, I am ready to start saddlebags. I'm planning on some tooling details, and brown leather not black. What I am asking is what design details make a better saddlebag? Things like pros or cons of the flap fasteners, depth versus width, and even thickness of leather, or to use a lining or not. Basically, what changes would make a good saddlebag into a great saddlebag. . I'm not looking for patterns but the details. I am planning on matching the seat and bags Looking forward to advice.

I've only just started with horse hide, but you might want to hold off on dyeing it. These i did dip dye in brown Fiebings cut like 8:1 denatured alcohol to dye, it is a very light color that I might even call tan. But, I think the dye evened out the striping. The mag pouch I finished first. Cut, dip dye, dry, glue, sand edges, sew, wet, form, dry, oil, dry, finish. The mag pouch I finished with Tan Kote, and the stripes barely show. So the holster I did all the same, but the finish was Resolene. Same thing, the stripes barely show. On another thought, I also tried the resolene on some undyed horse hide, and the stripes showed up fairly well. But I just thought that that piece was also un-oiled. I wonder if the dye or oil is what made a difference in the stripes. By the way, the holser, mag pouch, and undyed piece all were within inches of each other on the butt strip of leather.

You guys are both very close. The stitch line is just the way I layed it out. I layed it all out from the pattern i had. BUT........................................ The pattern is for a full size government model with 5" barrel. I have commander with a 4.25". I had thought about it before I layed it out, thinking to myself that I need to correct the pattern for the shorter gun. Then a couple of hours later I layed the pattern out on the leather, traced it............. I didn't realize what I had done (or rather didn't do) until I had already sewed it and was about to form it. I hate it. It just looks wrong to me. Guess I'll just have to make another. On a similar note, my middle son asked me "Why do you keep making all those holsters?" I told him the truth; "I'm trying to get one right."

You're close, but actually that is the way it is designed. I'll tell later tonight if I get back on the 'net.

This holster making is getting addicting. I was given a revolver, a S&W 586 with 4" barrel. I need to make a holster for it. What I am trying to envision is a tooled holster, OWB, without a retention strap. So I have 2 questions; 1. how do I build in retention on the holster for a revolver and 2. how do i build in retention without smoothing out the tooling I bet there is some easy answer, but I cant figure it out.

I messed up! I had some patterns, and decided to modify them. The mag pouch seems to be turning out ok, in fact it's finished and is fine. The holseter..........No go. I sewed the stitch line to close, way to close, I cant even get the gun in past the barrel. So I cut some more horsehide and made a pancake holster with the pattern I had. This is it, after forming and before oiling and finishing. This will be the third holster I've completed, and the fourth that I have started. In the major leagues a .750 average would be great, glad I'm not selling these. I'm unhappy with this holster because I made a mistake that I couldn't fix after I recognized it. It stares at me defiantly every time I look at it. I wonder how long it will take you folks to see it. I hope my stitching has improved from my last.. I'll oil and finish and post photos of the completed holster and mag pouch soon as i get it done. Mr Fixit

Well, after posting my opinion of a newbies review of horse hide, I finally got a chance to go and work with it a bit. First, I want to say a big thank you to Jeff Hays. He helped me out with some patterns, which I have modified for this project. I also want to say thank you to the many members with advice about dye. For this project I used Fiebings dye in brown and thinned it a lot. About half a small bottle of dye with enough denatured alcohol to make a quart. The horsehide cuts so much easier than the cow hide I've used before. In fact, I had to be very careful not to cut too much and get inside the pattern. I dip dyed all the pieces so they would match. I'm really excited about seeing how the patterns in the horse hide come out. So far I like working with the horse! A few pics to show how it's going: You can see how much of the smaller butt strip it took for a holster and mag pouch A little closer on the grain or figure in the leather before dying. And a close up after a dip in the dye. I hoping the figure pops out later again. I hope to get back to it in the next couple of days. Mr Fixit

An excellent answer. Thank you.

I understand there are different ways of making belt slots. I have tried a couple myself. But i have a question about the details of the slot itself. No matter whether you drill holes and then cut with an exact-o or chisel, or punch a hole and connect the same way, or even use a punch to do it all at once....... how wide are the belts slots supposed to be? S[specifically; for a 1.5 inch belt, the belt slot would be exactly 1.5? or do you give a little wiggle room and make the slot 1.6? And what is the 'standard' width? 1/4, 5/16, 3/8? Trying to learn and improve my work. Thanks Mr Fixit

I second the question. (can you do that?) I thought Springfield got them from Horween. SO where are they from? Mr Fixit

I'm looking forward to playing with the dye and seeing what I get. I need to thin my med. brown dye so I dont cover anything up. I'd love to know the dyes and ratios others use to show figure through the color. And it's just personal opinion, but I'm not a real big fan of a holster that the outside is molded perfectly to match the pistol. It does look too much like plastic to me that way. I do however want to be able to mold in some retention on the weapon. Unfortunately, it will likely be after Christmas before I can get some time to get in the shop and work with this stuff. Mr Fixit

More flexible than this is?

I wanted to try some horsehide for making holsters and accessories, partly because I had heard how much better horsehide is and partly because of some photos of really uniquely figured horse leather I have seen here. Of course, I've also heard that horsehide is not any better than cowhide, and harder to work with to boot. I looked and looked all over for posts and thoughts on using it, honestly with not just a terrible amount of luck. I had seen the banner ads here on this site that Springfield Leather had horse butts for $12 and really got to thinking about it. The little devil on one shoulder said "Go ahead, try it", the angel on the other shoulder said "Oh what the hell". I took the plunge and ordered 2 butts. After I got them a couple of days ago, I thought I would post my thoughts on them as a newbie in the hope of helping other folks who have thought about it but never were sure what they might be getting into. I've heard several things about them such as; they are tougher than cowhide they are thinner harder to work/form/mold because they are "hard rolled/compressed" they are stiff like plywood the available strips are too small and you can only get one holster out of it Now, keep in mind I'm a newbie. My leather work experience so far is small kit type pieces when I was a kid and now again with my own kids. I really got started by making a couple of knife's and sheaths for my office and a friend. Then I thought, I would like to make a holster or two for myself. So I don't have enough experience to matter much, in fact if I were you i wouldn't listen to much of what I say at all. I ordered 2 butts and here they are: As you can see they are different sized, one wider than the other, both about the same length. I wanted, and asked for pieces with "figure or grain". I got some. As and aside, you can see I use the International system to show scale, a US quarter, British pound coin, and Euro Coin. Hopefully you can get an idea of size and what you might be able to get out of them. As I said I had heard or read rather that these would be stiff. But I didn't find that to be the case. In fact, they came rolled in a box about the size of a loaf of bread. They did not feel stiff or plywood like at all. In fact, they were softer and easier to fold than the leather side I got from Tandy. As for thickness, these are thinner than the 7/8 oz side. Ignore the poor edge on the holster please, just for comparison. I had read that horsehide would have several "range marks" or damage that you would have to work around. And in fact these had some: Some damaged areas, nothing huge, but it does limit use somewhat. Between the size of the hide to start with, and the blemished areas, layout is going to be really important. I can see that the smaller of these pieces will likely be able to make only one holster, but I can likely get several smaller pieces out of it as well for mag pouches and the like. Thoughts on these: The feel heavy compared to how thick they are. Very dense. The best comparison I can think of is it feels like a piece of vinyl floor tile; smooth, dense heavy. Maybe a better analogy is a piece of angle food cake compared to a piece of pound cake- denser and heavier in the same size piece. The surface is very smooth, I'm sure from the compression (something like 30 tons?). Compared to the cowhide, it is slicker and smoother, think of them as a piece of wood sanded with 60 grit paper (cowhide) compared to a piece sanded with 400 grit (horsehide). I truly wonder if some of the conflicting reports I've read about horsehide is possibly due to some talking of the compressed and some talking about the non-compressed. The compression of the hide would make it very hard to absorb casing or moisture. Maybe non-compressed has characteristics more in line with cowhide? I don't have any idea. I am looking forward to using these. I need to make a new holster since the one I'm using now which was my first completed holster and needs improvement in several areas (stitching, edging, etc.). I'm really looking forward to seeing how the leather will look finished, I want to see that grain or figure. In my opinion I don't think these will be significantly harder to work with than cowhide, however I do think the finished product will be distinct. I think that these will be harder to detail mold to a weapon. Anyway, just some rambling thoughts from a guy new to leather. Maybe someone will get something out of this. Mr Fixit