UberSquid

The first holster I made with Horse hide I used Tandy's Eco Flow All In One to dye it followed by Super Shene and a top coat of neutral Shoe Polish. I got a beautiful finish that gave me an almost three dimensional look to the grain of the horse hide and a nice shiny finish without looking plastic. Unfortunately the Eco Flow dyes the Linen thread and looks like crap so I've been trying to change my process a bit. I tried using Fiebings Professional Brown Oil Dye both hand rubbed and air brushed, then water formed, finished and sealed. The hand rubbed gets me a bit of definition of the grain but the air brushed gives me such a beautiful even finish that you can't see the grain at all! I'm thinking that maybe using a dark brown antique rubbed in then buffed off will get me the look I'm trying to achieve. Then if it isn't quite dark enough I could go back over with a diluted brown stain in the air brush to darken it up a bit. Has anyone else tried to accentuate the grain in horse hide? What did you do to bring it out? I really like working with horse hide for the grain but it just doesn't fit my needs since I want to use lighter thread to offset the darker colors of the leather. As a last resort I've ordered some brown linen thread and will go to back to the Eco Flow to get the effect I want but I'd really like to be able to keep the lighter colored thread. Thanks in advance for any assistance Jeremiah

The couple holsters I've made for my own use I just dyed with Eco-Flo all in one acorn brown on horse hide then gone over with several coats of neutral shoe Polish. I've also been using a bees wax paraffin combo for burnishing the edges. I really like the finish I'm getting. It looks better than any of the mass produced stuff I have so I've been slowly making holsters for all my handguns. The thing is that now I have friends asking if I will do some pieces for them and I want to make sure I'm giving them something quality. Is my Eco-Flo shoe Polish a good finishing method or should I be looking at something else. I know Eco-Flo gets little love on here but I love the depth I'm getting to the grain of the horse hide with it and really have no desire to change stains, I just wonder if I should have put something more on top than shoe Polish and wax

Just in case anyone were to decide and try to use my suggestion of using a toilet ring for waxing thread or as a component for sticky wax... I went to Lowes today and was looking at the rings they had there. It seems that the rings I found weren't bees wax at all! Some research revealed that they are actually a distilled petroleum product that I'm guessing probably wouldn't do leather a whole lot of good. I don't remember where I got the one that I have that says it's 100% bees wax but I wasn't able to find another one so ebay has become my source of choice for more wax. My apologies if I led anyone down the wrong path!

Many thanks to MrDabeetle for sharing this pattern! Now... Has anyone completed their Aviator Helmet yet? I'd like to see pics of a completed one and I'm sure that others on this forum would as well...

The one I have I paid $2 for and it says 100% bees wax. It is really soft and stickyat room temp though. I plan on melting it down and mixing it with different ammounts of perafin until I find a consistency that I like then casting small blocks for later use.

Could you use one of those bees wax rings they sell at the hardware store to seal toilets? I can't find bees wax around here.

Perfect! That's exactly why I thought I'd ask! Better leather and lower price plus it saves me two hours in the truck. With the money I save on gas I can get a couple pieces, heavier for the GP100 and lighter for my KelTec. I was going to double everything but from a cost and esthetic point I'm thinking of going with a pig skin lining. Thanks again for the advice! I can't wait to get my order in from Springfield!

How about this then? I'm heading to Indianapolis this weekend to pick up some new leather and this is right in my price range not to mention the right amount of leather for what I need! I simply don't need a whole cow laying around my house... http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/store/99606-11.aspx I know a lot of people on here don't seem to like Tandy too much but it's all that there is around here...

I wanted to post this as a thanks to all the members of this forum. You may not know it but all of your posts helped me quite a bit. I'd been frustrated with the quality of holsters I was able to find locally for a few of my pistols and I absolutely hate Kydex so when I came across a bag of scrap leather I decided to give holster making a shot. Hours of pouring through your posts and photos allowed me to finally produce my first pattern and holster. It's a knock off of a holster I already own modified to fit my Keltec. It's not quite finished, I need to burnish the edges, add stitching around the belt slots, dye the leather and polish it but functionally it's done. It isn't perfect. The slide side stitch line is off by a couple of degrees. I may go back and put in a row of stitches to tighten it up a bit but the molding is tight enough that it passes the upside down shake test. I've never done any leather work before this and if it wasn't for this forum I know I wouldn't have been able to complete this project. So once again, thank you one and all! I now have a comfortable new holster for my KelTec and an interesting new hobby. I'm working on the pattern for my 6" Ruger GP100 next! Jeremiah

Ok, so no bellies. Thanks for the input! Jeremiah

Is I know this thread is kinda old but I have thought about doing this very same thing. Where I live the only resource I have access to is a Tandy Leather an hour away. I have some scrap that I've made a couple holsters with. Unfortunately a lot of what I have is chrome tanned so is useless. My question is are bellies usable for holsters? I like the idea of gluing two thinner pieces flesh side together to get a lined holster especially is cheaper belly leather is usable! ThanksJeremiah