chiefjason

My first couple stiffeners I made from kydex. I'll probably buy a few here soon. If you buy them look for the plastic inserts that go in the snap too. Keeps the metal snap off the gun. Best advice, cut the strap extra long on the pattern. Once the holster is 90% finished you can set everything up and trim the strap to the right length. Also, most 1911's are carried cocked and locked. Most blue guns are hammer down. If you have a 1911 to work from, no worries. If not you might want to try to get one to get the strap right. It's not a huge difference, but it may be loose if you set it on a hammer down blue gun and you certainly don't want to guess.

Glad to hear you have received what you ordered from Botach CC, a lot of people have not. Their Customer Service seems to be lacking in the "give a care" department from what I hear. I deal with Rob at Bluegunstore.com and all of his come without the final finish. Never had wear off from his. The only one I've had finish come off of was a M&P Shield I got to borrow from the LGS before the blue guns were for sale. But that was a shiny new store demo piece anyway.

Any sanding is minor and done by hand. I burnish them well though. FWIW, they will get wrecked pretty quick and the belt will do some burnishing on them with wear. I get them decent and functional and focus on the outside edges for looks.

Good stuff. I've gotten into the Oxblood color recently. I've found that oblood with black thread, black interior, and black edging really looks nice too. I like the contrast stitching too.

I've found that avenger patterns are a bit more work then just flipping. But not bad. It could just be how I go about doing things too. Now I do have several left hand holster backs that I need to make into left hand holsters. But that's because I don't read my pattern before I cut.

I have one of the Springfield punches. It's a great punch, but it's not wide enough for a gun belt. I had to punch it twice. I went back to punching the top and bottom and bought a French Skivver in 1.5" to cut the middle.

Best part, that is exactly the kind of tool I've been looking for to burnish the inside of my holsters! Picked one up today.

The key to success is less in making a perfect thing by hand, and more learning how to make the imperfections go away. In short, a master craftsman is not perfect. He knows how to fix his mistakes so you don't see them. Fix it. My best guess on that would be re glue, edge, sand, and burnish. But if the mag release is hitting that bad, that issue will need to be addressed too. A well placed round punch might do the trick.

It will lighten up in color as it sets. By the time I get to it there is no water on the surface and it's usually starting to lighten up. I'm getting a better feel for it now, so it's hard to give a time. If it feels too soft I'll let it set there longer. Sometimes I can just prep my tools and get right to work though. It's not a long wait though, minute or two at most. The less time I run water over it the less it has to set too. Like everything else leather, it's trail and error and getting a feel for the material.

Like said above, just a few seconds under the faucet for me. Get it completely wet, then another quick once over. If I have a reinforcement piece I may try to let the water run over it a couple more seconds. Total, less than 20 seconds for any holster I do. Then I let it set a few minutes to let the water soak in good, and let the water on top evaporate. Then you've got 15 to 20 minutes of working time. Once you get used to it you will start to notice the leather changing as it dries. Once it's molded I put the shoe rack in the dryer and run it on high for about 20 minutes to force dry it. This heat changes the characteristics of the leather and makes it stiffer and firms up the mold.

I go in this order; thumbs, back side of my edger, toothbrush handle. You will want something rounded and smooth for the big forms around the slide and trigger IMO. I start on the slide side and work my way over the top to the trigger side. Once the big shapes are blocked in I go back with modeling tools, folders, and such to do the detail work. Make sure the water content of the leather is right. Which takes some time to figure out. Too wet, and it molds then starts to release before it sets. To dry and it does not mold well.

Is that an FNX mag or did you sub another mag for it? I've got someone asking but don't have the FNX mag. Looks good. I've become a fan of the more varied, kind of antique look, when dying holsters. Black is about the only absolutely solid color I do right now.

There are differences in construction too. You can make a pancake that is molded 50% on the front and 50% on the back, pretty standard for a lot of makers. These are usually completely stitched before molding. Or you can make a pancake that is 100% molded on the front and flat on the back. These are either partially or completely stitched after molding. As Lobo said, it's a compromise. 50/50 molding will offset the gun a touch from the belt. But you get a very solid pocket to retain the gun. Flat backs ride closer on the belt, but have more potential for gun movement if they are not stitched tight. Clear as mud, right?

I've found one of the keys to good edges is prep work. I hand sand mine after edging to get the grain under control. Hand burnishing is OK. But know that I'm doing mine on the drill press, I only hand burnish on hard to reach spots. It makes a big difference IMO. Belt loops look good to me. One thing on the design, and maybe this is because it got too deep. But make sure you clear the mag release. The leather can release your mag if the mag release is covered. On the rare occasion I get it off, I'll go back and recut the holster to clear it. I'd rather have an odd cut and a clear mag release than a covered release.

Needle is 7x3 230 round point with 346 thread. Recommendation straight from Tippmann. When I tried the chisel point it was worse on the tear out. I'll need to break out the magnifier and see what size chisel points I have to make sure I have the right size. I got a box of goodies but they are all tossed together. I pulled the leather off the top of the scrap pile, so I don't think it's too old. Kind of acts like it on the back though. I even ran one with the back damp. The main difference was more track marks from the machine. Thanks for the advice. I could really use this thing up and running. As it stands, I'm too busy to work on it much even though it would save me a lot of work. Making some progress makes me feel better though. I need to get back on it this weekend. And here is a pic of the old girl. Lady in red.

So, I'm trying to work out the tension on this new to me machine. It's a 10 year old Boss 1. So my questions are- How do these look? Do you see anything that obviously needs to be addressed? Any advice on addressing it? I'm still getting to know the machine and have figured out a few things it does not like. These are the last 2 test pieces from today. They are the best yet. Presser foot could probably still use some tweaking. I'm using 346 thread from Tippmann and 7x3 230 needles (round point). The round point still blows out the back some, but the chisel points were worse. First test stitch- front Front with starting point and backstitch. Stitch starts on top. Back stitch is the end and bottom. Back side of above pic. Back side of test piece. Second test piece front Back side of two Close up of starting and back stitch. The large wad of thread was where the bottom bobbin ran out. Next time I'll back out several thread so I can keep tension on it when I re start.

For a temporary fix, hit the spot with neutral shoe polish. It will lay down some of the fraying, and make it a bit slick. If it's too tight, it will help the gun slide by a little easier. Not a permanent fix though. I made my personal holster out of a piece that just did not cut it to sell. I've touched a spot up on it a time or two. But my issue was a small soft spot in the leather near the top edge.

That residue is one of the reasons I have moved over to mostly Gum trag for burnishing. I may use a 50-50 beeswax/paraffin block too. The white saddle soap is not as bad as the yellow. If you have not oiled it yet, the oil will darken the leather up and may help hide the boo boo as well. It's not about being perfect. it's about fixing the mistakes you make. Good luck.

They've upped it again I see. I talked to a guy that got in at $500 first order. I checked about a year ago and it was $1000 first order. My .02, what is your time worth? Going into business to sell at cost is a loosing proposition.

To add to the above, I have found a punch and the round knife works great. I punch the hole. Put the point of the round knife in the hole and roll the round knife towards the other hole. Do that for both sides. Flip the holster and reverse it. Now the lines are cut straight and probably 95% of the material is free. I then carefully run the point of the round knife from top to bottom to free the piece of leather and knock it out. I recently ordered a Vergez Blanchard straight skiving knife. it's a touch wider than what I need so I need to re profile it a bit but I'll use it like a chisel once I get the profile right.

I use Blue gun store. I ordered a blue gun last night (Saturday) that was in stock. I got an order update today (Sunday evening) that it's getting ready to ship. If you use BGS, look at the bottom where the details and amount to order are listed. If it says "in stock" he will generally ship it quick. If it's out of stock, it might take longer because it usually ships from Ring's. At least the silliness seems to be easing up and you can find things in stock again. It was crazy there for a while.

I hand stitch, so the main con is not a problem yet. But it would take specific presser feet to sew up to the molded leather with a machine. My mag holders are stitched before molding. I have found you use less leather with that style of pattern. I use more leather if I mold the front before stitching. It's not bad, but you need a looser pattern to allow the leather to move around and still cover the back piece of the holster. Right now, the pros outweigh the cons for me. I get good tight stitch lines because I'm not guessing where the gun will be, you just trace around the mold.

If you are looking to stiffen it, you need to heat it after wet forming. Wet the holster. Form it. Then put it on a shoe rack in your dryer on high for 20-30 minutes. That force dries the leather, gets the water out, and stiffens the collagen in the leather. FWIW, that holster looks better than some I see on ebay. If I were you I'd finish it. And as suggested, re stitch it with thicker thread.

Back when I was doing them that way I would take a dead blow hammer to the back of the blue gun to seat some of them. I don't suggest it with an actual gun though. I do mine very differently know, even the avengers, setting the stitch lines and stitching is done after the molding. It has it's pros and cons.

If this sewing machine deal works out I might give this a shot. I'm doing mine a bit different right now. Still getting good results. But never hurts to try something new.