chiefjason

The way I do mine, yes and yes. The back of the holster is the end pattern and cut exactly to size. The front is cut wider and longer than needed then glued to the back. Then it's trimmed to match the back. There are other ways to do it though. This one just works for me.

Water, cursing, elbow grease, more water, more cursing, throwing a few things, clamps, mumbling, sweat, and glue. That's how my first one went. I finally molded the front piece separately and used clamps to keep the leather down in the middle. Once I had it where I wanted it, I used scrap leather as pads and clamped it down on the sides and bottom and let it dry for a while. Mine was a double stack .45. Hateful thing.

Currently, I make a pattern for each holster and keep it when I'm finished. But some patterns will serve multiple guns the way I make mine. But I could see the above idea working well by adjusting the dye cut piece to the gun. I do a lot of OWB hybrids and I have seriously considered a clicker since I can do almost all the guns on 4 styles of backer. And I could get away with clicking 2 of them and cutting the other 2 based on sales.

Hand boning. Mold it down to the table. Retention is almost completely based on stitch line at that point. Stitching close will pull more leather down, making it tighter. I have gotten some VERY tight this way. I've since backed my stitch line off closer to where the glue line is. You get a good snap when it seats, but still draws well. I'm putting out a decent number of holsters, but not enough that I've gotten serious about other styles of molding.

I've moved over completely to flat backs. For me, the process seems faster. But it's probably because I have now made more that way than the other way. I mold the entire front first. Make sure to allow extra room on the sides and bottom for molding. I use the back side as my pattern. Once it's molded and heat dried, I'll work out how the 2 pieces will fit together. Mark the back where I want to glue. Then glue it and press it. Once it dries I trim the excess off using the back as my final pattern. Here is an edge shot of a 1911 holster, but it gives you and idea of the profile too. And the back.

I've gone completely to this on my all leather stuff. I was getting cracks too. The only thing I found that helped was to let the holster dry for 24 hours after every step where it was wet. Groon, baking soda bath, rinse, dry 24. Oil, dry 24. Finish, dry 24 X2. But that was not 100% either, just better. I have also noticed with the beeswax and oil I need to turn my heat gun on high to get the pores on the leather to open up after grooning and take the wax/oil mix. With dye it will all soak in on low. Basically, the groon nearly waterproofs it by itself.

My take on slots is that I punch the hole top and bottom, then use my round knife to connect the holes. Works pretty well. Although I'm seriously considering looking into a better punch. The one I bought from Springfield is way too narrow. Also, on the holster. Looks a bit dull finish wise. If that's what you are going for, that's fine. Matter of fact, my finish process now results in a more dull finish but I like the process better. If you wanted to shine it up a bit you can use neutral shoe polish to do it. I used to use mop and glo, cheap version of resoleen, but it was hit or miss on my grooned holsters. Some were great, some were terrible.

I think this ^^ is the main issue with mine. But since I built it to for one purpose, and it fits that purpose fine, I've just not bothered to try again. Oddly, all my OWB holsters are now flat on the back and everyone that has bought one loves it. I have also considered trying that with a snap on. Just not motivated enough I guess. Or too little time. Probably both.

One of the drawbacks to that style, and something you will want to watch out for, is that the front part of the holster has a tendency to lift away from the belt at the snap. Several folks have figured out how to keep that from happening. I built myself one. It does exactly what I want it to do. But it's not a CC holster because of the problem mentioned above. I can see between the holster and belt when I wear mine. Occasionally I can CC with it if I push it back behind my hip more so that the angle at the hip covers up the problem on the front snap. I've seen that same complaint come up a few times on other boards. Done right, it seems to be a better idea than a paddle. Done wrong, it goes in a box. Not knocking the idea at all. Just hope I can help you pay attention to that issue and avoid it.

Some of those pre dyed leathers will come with finish on them. It makes it tougher to wet them for molding. I use pre dyed on my hybrid OWB holsters. But I can't get it to mold as well as natural leather. So my all leather stuff is done with natural and dyed or vinegrooned. I know some of the guys here work with pre dyed so maybe they can give you better advice. But that's been my experience with trying to mold and bone pre dyed leather by hand. Not knocking W&C, everything I've heard about them is good. Just the nature of what I'm using and what a buddy of mine has seen.

It looks ok but, That Springfield has 2 safeties. And that holster design allows both of them to be manipulate and/or defeated while in the holster. And potentially not by your hand. That is a bad, bad idea. It's an ND waiting to happen IMO. A holster should do more than just carry a pistol. It should carry it solidly, safely, and easily accessible. And it's not a case of 2 out of 3 being OK. It needs to do all 3. But like a lot of things, your gun, your holster, your choice.

I'll second a dead blow hammer. I have one that came with a flooring installation kit. All of my punching is done with a deadblow. About 5-6 good hits and I'm through 2 layers of 8-9, 2 hits and I'm through a single layer of 9-10. That poly hammer just is not solid enough IMO. And a heavy hammer will bounce. A dead blow hammer will not bounce. I do a lot of my work in the garage and have resorted to using the concrete floor as my hammering surface. I just lay my cutting board on the floor. I also put a layer of thin cardboard under the holster, otherwise the force may transfer the grain of the cutting board to the leather. Although, recently I have been using a 4x4 scrap and laying a section of cutting board on it. That puts me in a chair instead of kneeling on the ground. Much more comfortable. I may buy a 12' 4x4 and make a pedestal out of several of the cut pieces for punching holes. My current, and most successful, method for belt slots is to punch a hole on each end and use my round knife to connect the holes. I can control it better than a pull blade. I lay a point in one hole and rock the knife forward towards the other hole. I'll rock it back and forth a couple of times on each side to cut deeper. Then turn the holster upside down and repeat from the other end. I'll finish up by carefully running the knife through from one end to the other.

Along those lines, I wet my edges before I edge them. Really cuts down on the prep afterwards. It partially burnishes them as it edges. Really lays any nap on the leather down. Not sure how common or uncommon that is. I just brush the top and bottom of the edge as well as the end with water.

I prefer to sandwich mine when I can. But you need to use brad nail T nuts. They are the flat ones with holes for brad nails. I seriously doubt you will have any issues with a T nut. I would imagine loosing one that's not sandwiched would be the most likely problem of any. Bit of advice. Plan your stitch line according to the metal base on the t nut. Nothing worse than grooving the stitch line and realizing there is a piece of metal under it.

170 degrees, lowest setting, in the oven for 18-20 minutes will get it pretty close to dry. I would watch it closely after that. Second positive effect is that it stiffens the mold. I do this on the side, so I'm never in a position to finish too many steps at once. Most of my holsters sit overnight after getting baked. I'm currently quoting 3-4 weeks and turning most of them in about 2-3 weeks.

Retention is a function of your stitch line on a flat back. A very tight stitch line will draw in the extra material towards the back. That decreases the amount of room for the gun and increases the retention. I can get one tight enough to get close to not practical even with a flat back. I have backed my stitch line off and try to get it exactly where the leather meets so it does not close the holster any. Doing it that way you get a nice snap into place, still have good retention to hold the gun, but also have a smooth draw. Speaking of stitch lines, you have a harder time getting them wrong too. Instead of working up a pattern, sewing, and forcing the gun into it; you are pre molding the front and placing your stitch line exactly where you want it. That is one of the things I really like about it. The flat back is the idea that hybrids are totally based on BTW. Same concept. I have gone completely over to flat back holsters and have had zero complaints about it so far. And I now have folks coming back for repeat orders.

A buddy of mine makes gun belts and custom furniture. He cuts all his leather wet. He says that it's easier to cut and does not dull the blade as quick. I agree with easier to cut. But it's not worth the time spent for what I do with holsters.

I'm getting ready to do something similar for a Commander size 1911. The customer refuses to put the 1911 in kydex. He already has an OWB pancake of mine. I like the reinforcement. I've always just used a layer of 8-9 oz leather there. I've been doing all my holsters with flat backs lately. There is a lot to like about that technique. For the loop posts, I traded out with a buddy that makes single layer gunbelts. He wanted an IWB hybrid, and I got a near lifetime supply of 13-14 oz leather belt ends that make fantastic posts. I have a big ol box of them under my table in the garage. Me and a couple guys test drove the loops with kydex posts and we came to the conclusion that they are just too noticeable. They tend to dig in and scrape your side. The leather is hardly noticeable at all once it's edged and burnished.

Too funny. I was trimming the extra leather off of the second one and my round knife slipped. I had a moment of panic where I though I had cut the sweat shield. Luckily it was a near miss. Stitch line on this one will be fine too. I need to get this one done. He's not in a hurry, but I hate having something out there needing to be finished. And there's about 5 more behind him needing to get done too.

It seems that stitching the belt loop half closed with the stitch line from the trigger guard is problematic. On the plus side, I did not make the same mistake I made on my AIWB a while back. Learned a lesson that was 3 steps into the process. But adding the belt loop to the back on step 5 or 6 was not thought through completely. My stitch line below the trigger guard would run right through the belt loop. DOH!! Good thing the customer is not in a huge hurry. Reinforcement/belt loop has been reconfigured and cut. Re cut the pattern. I'm pretty excited about how it's going to look when it's finished. I just have to get there first. I'll probably finish the botched holster for my own collection. I don't think it's non functional. It's just not nice enough to go out the door. BTW, it's for a Ruger Mk II with 5.5" barrel. It's a mini hog leg. That is all.

Standard XD 9mm and .45's are the same size. As are M&P's. And a quick look on XDTalk confirms that the XDm's fit the same holsters too. Most .45's are bigger though, just not those 2 manufacturers.

My 1911 mags read 1.37 wide and .55 deep on the calipers, and 4.75 long. Hope that helps.

The tedious part for me was doing lots of backers for hybrid holsters. And the finishing process I was using. I've stopped using mop & glo as my final finish on my all leather stuff. And I've gone to pre dyed for hybrids. I grooned 3 holsters today. I grooned them, then let them set a bit to turn good. Then let them soak in baking soda and water for a bit. Then heated them in the dryer for an hour. Let them cool off. Then oiled them once. I'll start sewing tomorrow. The old way I would have heated them in a light box for several hours then let them dry 24 hours. Then two light coats of oil, let dry 24. Then start sewing. Then apply the finish. Dry 24. And a last coat of finish. I was having issues with the finish spiderwebbing if the leather did not dry well between steps. With the oil and beeswax finish that's not a concern and allows me to speed things up a bit. There is really no real time difference between dying and grooning now. IMO, it's worth it though. The combination of cost savings and the complete black you get keeps me coming back to it.

Dwight, if you can find some of Chuck Barrow's posts about it he explains everything very well. My search-fu is not working and I can't track them down at the moment. His posts were the most helpful to me. It's a bit tedious, but I still use it because it's such a complete dye.

I'll sometimes email them some instructions with the final email letting them know it's shipped. That issue is why I started using oil and beeswax as a finish. It must be a testosterone thing. Guys just have to bend the darn holster. Drives me nuts.