chiefjason

I'm as sold as anyone on flat back holsters of all types. Except in this case. I make these and my mag holders 50/50. Cut, glue, stitch, then shove the object in and wet mold it. I just got frustrated trying to mold the top piece all the way down on the toe. That gets pretty tough with the 8 0z leather I normally use. And I seemed to need more length than just doing it the 50/50 way. When I do get in a position where I need to close a toe on a flat back I cut that area extra long so I can work it easier. And so I can line it up with the back when it comes time to glue. A little extra wiggle room when glueing is never a bad thing.

Very happy with this one. 2 layers of 5 oz W&C. Next one will be one layer of 5 oz and a thinner lining but this one is not too terribly thick. Exotic accent from a scraps bag I bought a few years back. Anyone know what this is? Looks elephant-ish. The leather at the mouth does 2 things. It looks REALLY good, and I have to stitch that anyway since it's lined. Edges sanded, burnished and 2 layers of edge coat.

You should be able to. I usually just run mine under the tap a couple times. The way I make my holsters I don't test fit them until they are finished sometimes. I have most of my problems with large revolvers. If I find the fit is too tight I'll run water through the holster then shove the mold in to stretch it a bit. It might not be as easy as if you had wet and cased it without the resolene. But you should be able to get enough moisture to make it work. And with it being IWB and tooled you probably are not doing a lot of molding and boning anyway.

I have not asked but I'm guessing it's a Gov/EPA thing. W&C is tanned in the US. TB is tanned in Mexico. Not sure on ALD but their bridle is not struck through either. And keep in mind, I'm dealing with 12-13 oz sides on my bridle.

Pushes against the pants or belt to help push the grip in more. Basically twists the holster into the body. I've found that if you short the reinforcement a bit to move it forward more and not just flat you can accomplish something similar. It forces the clip to twist slightly as it molds over the top of the slide a bit which also forces the grip into the body.

I had a guy ask for a refund on a holster. He had ordered 2 holsters about 6 months apart. He provided pictures of the 6 month old holster in the message for the holster he just bought. I responded that the pictures sent were not of the holster he purchased but didn't let him know I knew about the first holster. Based on the zoomed in pics I'm not even sure it was a pic of my holster. Blocked him after sending the message telling him that was not the correct holster. Agreed to refund a holster without my usual pics sent first. Got it back and it was badly scorched with a heat gun. Blocked that guy too. And I've gotten pretty good at weeding the difficult ones out by their questions and moving them along. I'll take care of legit problems. But I won't hesitate to block folks that are trying to jerk me around.

Worked this up for my wife to try out. First time using the Utiliclip. Really neat option, especially since she does not like belts. Added the mod wing as an option when I list it for sale. 5 oz leather which is a bit thin. If I sell any I'll add another layer down the back to stiffen it up a touch. Wanted to try something thinner than I'm used to working with.

Just picked up an adjustable creaser and really like it. https://www.springfieldleather.com/Creaser-Adjustable-HD-Large Before that I used an adjustable groover. https://www.springfieldleather.com/Groover-Stitching-Adjustable

Both are very good. I used Thoroughbred for a while and had a salesman I worked with there. He left and I kind of got bounced around. Tried W&C and liked their leather a bit more in the Veg tan and I always deal with the same guy there. Oddly, the Bridle leather from Thoroughbred was better in some ways though. They don't use the same tannery, some smaller distributors do. So their leather is actually a bit different. With veg tan W&C natural is really light colored while TB is a bit darker. With the bridle TB was waxed different and struck through while W&C is a bit drier and not struck thru but in general it's firmer. For leather, can't go wrong with either. Never had a CS problem with either. The only reason I left TB was getting bounced made ordering a bit more difficult. I could leave a message with the salesman and it got done before he left. So if you can get one person to deal with you would likely be good to go with either.

You want stitching chisels. Pricking chisels just prick, mark, the leather. Stitching chisels punch through. As for brand, I have some from Springfield coming today. I've been punching mine with an awl chucked into a drill press till now. Going to see if this is faster/better. I'm sure it will be with some items. This vid will explain the differences.

All that trouble? I would not have an issue suggesting he buy one from one of the online makers that makes that holster. Had a buddy bring one over. He showed me the one he found online and liked. I looked at the price and told him to buy it. Because I could not afford to track down the hardware, order it, pattern it, and make it for what that guy was selling it for. I don't mind doing special order or one off stuff when I can. But I'm not looking to break even or loose money on my time either. Sometimes you just have to move them along to someone that does what they want.

Scrap leather cut to size here too.

This is my way. You can click on the pics to view them in PB. Annoying, and why I don't use PB anymore.

FYI, molding and dying the holster strips some of the moisture from the leather. Introducing some oil is not a bad thing. Most makers apply a light coat of something. Either directly oiling it or I mix mine into my beeswax to accomplish the same thing. I apply 3 coats and it's not nearly enough to soften the holster. But it does great things for the look of the leather.

Then you are in for a treat. Be advised, this is the lightest colored veg tan I have ever seen. I guess the process is different. It's a very light cream color if you ordered the veg tan. It surprised me when I got my first side.

I use U 82 saddlers oil, but I wouldn't call it natural exactly. For natural maybe neatsfoot oil, but the real stuff not the compound. And I use paraffin in there if I need it to be thicker. I get mine to a paste like consistency, think lip balm in the metal containers. Rub that on the holster then use a heat gun to get it soaked in.

I'm solidly in the flat back camp, and I get nothing but positive feedback about how comfortable they are. But it's not flat vs curved. You can pre curve a flat back. It's flat back vs 50-50 mold mostly. 50-50 is the standard way of making a holster. Half the mold in the front, half in the back. With a flat back the entire mold is to the front. As for retention, I'll assure you I can make a flat back tight enough to barely be able to draw it out. I have a few sitting with molds in them now to start the break in process. Personally I feel like the flat back wears better. Less against the body to push on you. I feel like once it's broken in the belt slots show less too and fit tighter to the belt. That makes a more rounded profile to help conceal it. With the 50-50 you have more material standing off the belt. Ultimately, they are both 2 layers of leather with a gun in them. But it seems the flat back rides tighter and conceals better. Keep in mind this is kind of a 9mm vs 45 question too. Someone will be along shortly to tell me I'm wrong. lol

If it's nothing fancy, it won't be long. My last order I had them split a side and it took 8 days from order to sitting at my door.

Dwight and I do things kind of similar. But I use one piece of 8-10 oz for the back and one piece of 8 oz for the front. Click the pics and you should be able to view them on the photo bucket site. They went stupid after I posted this.

Avoiding chrome tanned for holsters is a myth. Lots of IWB holsters are chrome tanned. It's firmer than veg in thin weights. You won't be molding it, but for the softer generic looking clip on IWB holsters it's useful.

There does look to be a crack on that edge. It also looks like belly leather. Couple be a combination of old/dry leather and belly. If you are buying sides, cut your straps closer to the spine. If you are buying straps or by the foot, you kind of get what they send you unfortunately. Belly leather is softer, usually nappier on the flesh side, and tends to separate and wrinkle like that when bent.

If it just looks like it's going to crack you may not be getting the dye into the leather well enough. I've had a few pieces with a lot of "pull up" where the grain really shows because the dye didn't get into the leather deep enough. If it's actually cracking you probably have a piece of leather that's bad. I've had it happen when I ordered straps in a weight I don't buy sides of. But they basically break in half as soon as you flex them after dyeing and conditioning. In my experience leather does not "kind of crack". It's either the grain pulling up, or it's ruined. No in between.

I generally talk most people out of them. But if they don't change their mind, at least they know the problems. First question is palm out draw or palm in draw? That usually sets the direction of how I pattern. Palm in I can usually get away with a holster with some serious cant so the grip is near vertical. Palm out, a lot of times I do a neutral cant IWB holster for the opposite of their drawing hand. Making a second holster for a guy now, right handed shooter with basically a left handed neutral cant single clip. He loves them. Go figure. SOB and cross draw both have to fight with grip angle and keeping the belt out of the way.

So, this is my second try at this. First one was just scrap leather. Kind of a proof of concept because I have to build this one much different than I am used too. The gun side mold is still flat on the back like most of my holsters are. Been seeing a bunch of these around. Had a buddy ask about it a while back. Got a little time recently to work something out. I'm happy with this one. I'll probably still tweak the pattern a bit more. A bit more space in the middle of the holster than I would like. Might lower the mag a touch. And I added some leather on the gun side edge back piece to make glueing it up easier. It wears better than I expected out of something like this. I won't be giving up OWB though. But if I can sell a few, yeah me.

That's a solid name in the belt game, but they also changed hands in the last couple years as the original owner retried IIRC. My guess, that's a piece of leather that looked good and didn't have a lot of signs of it being soft. But it was. Likely got cut too close to the belly or it will sometimes happen towards the ends of an otherwise good section of leather. Glad they are taking care of you.