chiefjason

Dwight, have you noticed veg tanned leather taking a serious down turn since Covid? I've ordered from 3 top suppliers with a real mixed bag of success with my leather. Stopped ordering from one well know place because the leather temper was way too soft. Had some holsters that would not hold the molding through drying. One pre dyed side so soft I can't make pancakes with it so I have to use it for other stuff. Ordered from another and the temper is so hard it's nearly unworkable. Now I'm on a third supplier and the leather seems more workable but the quality is lacking. But I knew that upfront and took a chance on the cheaper grade being less stiff and more workable. So far it seems to be. Just having to work around more defects. Been at this 12 years and this is the worst leather I've seen since when I was stuck buying cheap stuff a couple feet at a time.

I line some of my pocket holsters with pig skin. Never had an issue with it tearing or not stretching with the leather. Most annoying part for me is sometimes the edges don't take and want to split,. Then I get to re glue them after it's stitched and molded.

The M&P is going to be pretty close. But why not just use his gun? They don't make a mold for the SD9.

2 different shaped round knives- one for straight or more sweeping outside cuts and one for tighter inside cuts 1 small antique head knife for really tight inside cuts Montana Knife Company Speedgoat for small trim work and anything too tight for the head knife. I bought it for hunting, hiking, and fishing but it's so dang sharp it stays on my leather bench when I'm not carrying it. Gingher scissors for my 5 oz straps and loops. Utility knife for cutting patterns.

I'll paraphrase my FIL, A craftsman does not have to make everything perfect, you just have to learn how to fix your mistakes. And I have figured out how to fix some doozies!

I use them on the inside of suicide straps, thumb breaks, on the rare instance I can't talk my way out of them. I hate thumb breaks. But it keeps the snap off of the pistol.

I've used acetone with some success. But my new plan is to buy it by the gallon and transfer it into 20 oz screw top plastic bottles. I bought a snap on lid that doubles as a funnel to empty the gallon of glue. Body Armor or Gatorade bottles work great. Those are strictly for storage. For use I transfer into a 4 oz squeeze bottle. I refill the squeeze bottle after every use to keep it full so it does not harden up. The screw top storage bottle will not harden if partially full. I'm currently on the same squeeze bottle and have emptied 2 of the storage bottles into it and the glue has stayed usable. The new glue seems to refresh the older glue. And the squeeze bottle makes application ridiculously simple. AmazonSmile: 8-Pack of 4 Oz Plastic Small Squeeze Bottles and Caps - BPA-Free, Latex-Free, Food-Grade - Great for Icing, Cookie Decorating, Sauces, Condiments, Arts and Crafts and More! : Home & Kitchen AmazonSmile: Shur-Line 1783844 Red Silicone Mess-Free Store and Pour Collapsible Gallon Paint Can Lid (2 Pack) : Tools & Home Improvement

2 cutting boards that I keep on my table pinched together. They hold belts and straps well enough to burnish them. Thought about making something but this works too easy.

Did similar with the straps recently. Going to make a shoulder rig to carry my .357 hunting with them now. I don't care if it rubs off on the hunting gear. And I was using Olive oil, just used too much. Those straps sure are nice and soft though. The customer got all new straps. To the OP, try the resolene. If you used a light coat it might work. It stopped about 90% of the rub off after I over oiled my straps. I was surprised it did that much after Mop and Glo did nothing to stop it.

Consistent leather? I've delivered $6,000 sofas with bug bites and barbed wire scars, even a few brands. Leather is a natural product. Used in that state, it will have some defects. If you want defect free you are looking at very selective cutting to avoid that, which increases waste. Or manipulating the process to hide or remove defects. Or a man made product. Some people not only understand that, they appreciate it. Other folks would be better served with man made products that are flawless or paying considerably more because the maker has to throw out more leather to only use the flawless parts of it. To me, the more perfect the leather seems the less natural it also seems.

Oh yeah. Had a guy show me a mass produced holster he bought. He wanted something similar but they did not carry the color he wanted. He also wanted some tooling. I quoted him $100 since there would be a decent amount of hand tooling, and that WAS my family friend, local, cash discount price. He showed me the $42 price. I showed him the made in Mexico sticker and told him if I could pay someone pennies to do the work mine would be $42 too. He paid.

Don't compete with cheap stuff. Don't compete for cheap customers. I'm not the best at that but I price my stuff based on my time, experience, quality, etc. Usually, if anyone takes the time to compare you can see the differences you are paying for. I'm not going to give my time away. I sell some of my simpler and cheaper stuff on ebay. Occasionally someone tries to make an offer if I forget to remove that option. I always turn them down. They always get mad and don't order. But I'm not accepting a low ball bid where I break even. Some customers you probably don't want. It's not a popular opinion but over the years I've developed a sense for it. And it usually involves trying to haggle down my price or asking for lots of options I'm not offering.

This is true BUT If they are similar enough dimensionally that underlug could be built up easier than building a new mold.

Let the leather dry thoroughly. Usually a few hours. Pull off extra thread, the ends get most of the transfer Keep the needles close to the ends, the thread at the needle gets a lot of dye. If your thread is soft look for a hard bonded nylon thread, The bonded coating does not pick up as much.

I use 346 bonded nylon. Finally found a new source for the hard bonded natural. All my normal places have gone to soft bonded and it frays more than I like.

Your 3.5 oz leather is the issue. They are using 8-9 oz shoulders. Thin leather will shrink more noticeably than thicker leather. But I'll sometimes have 8 oz shrink enough to surprise me after drying a molded holster front.

Serrated shears and hide the edges under a layer of leather.

I use an awl chucked into a drill to punch my stitch holes in most of my stuff. On thick welts I do use a drill for the holes. I doubt an awl would go through that many layers straight. Actually don't see much of a difference in the two.

Less traditional. I've been out of archery for a while. Finally got some of my back/neck issues settled down and decided to start shooting again. But the strap on my release was starting to fall apart. So I worked up this quick fix in about 45 minutes from rough pattern to glue. Then hand stitched it later. it's working quite well so far. I just cut my old release apart to use as my pattern. Might go back and build another later just to clean it up a bit.

I have a shoe rack in my dryer that I use. 2 holsters get an hour. Single holster 40-50 minutes. The way I do holsters the heat can change the mold a bit so I put weights on the sides to keep them flat.

Good news, bad news. Good news. That little wrap of leather at the bottom will hold the gun up for a while. Bad news. It probably won't hold it as long as you think it will. Good news. You'll want to make another holster at some point anyway. When I build for lights/lasers I always close the toe under the accessory. The holster need a shelf somewhere to keep the gun from falling down to the grip in the holster. That is usually the trigger guard. When you add an accessory you take that shelf away. The only place to put one is to wrap the bottom of the holster and close part of the toe for a shelf. Left open, there is a possibility the holster softens with use and the gun just starts to work it's way deeper into the holster.

Yeah, this is a feature not a bug. Really want to have fun? Force dry the leather in an oven, dryer, or drying box.

Oxblood/burgundy and black is always a good choice.

Like making one for a Seecamp. They are so cute! lol I hate how square they come out. But just no way to get around it. Not enough room to get fancy or nice sweeping curves. You just gotta make it clean and nice. And you did a good job of that.

Tokonole works wonders slicking rough leather.