weconway

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. A lot of my hobbies involve learning to make things. If nothing else this makes me appreciate some of the amazing gunleather I see here and other places. There are real artisans at work! William

I just finished my first holster. It is for a .44 Special Ruger Blackhawk with a 5 1/2" barrel. It is amazing that you can make a mistake nearly every step of the way and still come out with something to really be proud of! I started out with the info in my previous thread: http://leatherworker...showtopic=35588 Some lessons learned: 1. My pattern has some issues. The flap to form the belt loop is off, and will need to be moved away from the fold when I redo the pattern. While I'm doing that, I think I'm going to drop the gun a 1/2" or so relative to the belt. Also, the bottom of the holster is a little tight. It needs more room 2. I jumped the gun and started to fold the holster early to see what it looked like. This prevented the raw piece from laying flat, which made a lot of subsequent steps harder. 3. Daubers hold a LOT of dye when soaked, and I got dye all over the back of the piece when it squeezed out. 4. I was going to go with a light dye, but since this was my first effort I used the worst section of my hide. I had to re-dye darker to cover the blemishes which popped out when the first pass went down. 5. I didn't dye the welt before gluing it in place, and thus had to dye the whole inside of the holster to match. 6. I cut the stitching grooves to early, and didn't get those right. 7. I drilled holes for stitching with a dremel, and I got the first half at the wrong angle and got them close to the edge on the back. 8. Wet forming went well, except for the tight spots near the muzzle. I had to redye some areas because of the stretch. Next time I'll cut a piece of dowel to fit between the front sight and frame, as the really tall front sight made a hump at the bottom of the holster. 9. Burnishing was a cinch with a piece of old blue jeans and some saddle soap. I'm already starting on re-doing it! This is fun! Any input is greatly appreciated.

Got my two books - "How to Make Holsters" and "How to Hand Stitch". WOW! Lots of knowledge in there. I debated getting them, but they'll more than pay for themselves in wasted leather. William

MBOGO - That's a good tip. I was wondering how to hold a formed holster for stitching (I also bought Stohlman's "How to stitch" book). My wife is deeply appreciative of my personality. Doesn't stop the frequent eye-rolling, though.

Wow, that is stunning. Really nice work!!!

I'm an avid homebrewer and bbq cook. My wife swears my personal philosophy is "why buy something for nearly nothing when you can make it for triple the cost and countless man hours of work?". Good tips, all. I have the holster book on order. I'd think that you could secure the retention strap at both ends with snaps and have it completely removeable, or at least so it could swivel out of the way. William

Holy cow!! Thanks, Lobo! I think the style is an elegant and efficient way to carry a SA Revolver. That, and I'm a sucker for old fashioned gunleather. William

I'm new to this forum/craft. I was shopping for a threepersons holster for my single action, and the more I looked, the more I thought it would be fun to make my own. I'm a tinkerer and DIY guy, and I love projects like this. I've read a ton on this forum, and watched hours of videos on You Tube I think I have an appreciation for what goes into it. I was wondering if the threepersons style would be good to start out with. It seems that it is a little more straightforward than doing an avenger style holster for a semi-auto, for example. I'm going to use it as a field holster for my back up gun when hunting, so I want to use a snapped retention strap to keep everything in place. I'm thinking that'll make fitting the gun easier, as exact fitting isn't as critical. Thoughts? Are there challenges of this style that I'm missing? Thanks! William