bugboy449

Cave, I'm new at this also and what I do sometimes is draw my belt on the pattern paper and then mess with the gun to find the center of gravity of the gun. I like the balance point of the gun to be somewhere on the belt line. It can be at the top of the belt line but I usually shoot for the middle.

You are lucky then. Last week my gall bladder decided to act up and I felt like crap even when asleep!!!! The jerked it out and feel better now. Getting older sure does suck.

I joined this forum in November of 2012 thinking I'd start doing some holsters. I made a few for me that turned out OK. I made a few for some friends/coworkers and they seemed to like them,,,,,,,,,, yada yada yada,,,,, I've finished/shipped 4 holsters and 4 mag pouches and have "orders" for 4 more holsters. I kind of just wanted something to do to keep me occupied and now work seems to be piling up. There seems to be a big demand for holsters. I'm trying to avoid becoming a "business". Has anyone on here "accidently" gone into the holster business?

I've only just begun playing with leather and have got my horsehide from Zack White Leather so far. You can also email Tannery Row for prices and availability.

I made a couple of modifications as suggested by "haystacker" and used a little heat,,,,, I think it is going to be fine now. Amazing what a little trimming did. I'd like to try a lined holster, but I think it is a little beyond me at this point. I'll give it a go when I've built up a little experience/confidence. Thanks to all for their help and input. I just need to keep at it. I've already learned a lot from just these 3 holsters I've made so far. The good news is,,,, all 3 are useable (not something I would show off to people that know something,,,, but useable).

Lobo, Thanks for the indepth reply. Everything you said makes sense. I think I'll just use this holster as a "learning aid" and BBQ rig. I don't think I'll carry an SP-01 Shadow as an "everyday carry" at 42 ounces! I was hoping to make a holster for IDPA and will look at other styles (pouch or avenger). I'm having fun learning this stuff and it helps to have knowledgeable folks on the forum that are so willing to share their experience. After making just 3 holsters, I've already got a handful of people wanting to me to make them a holster. Since I'm currently "Obama-nomics retired" and retired military,,,,, I might just try to sell a few just to finance my leather and IDPA addictions. Thanks to all for their help and inputs.

I didn't do the oven thing. The leather is single shoulder from Springfield (9-10 oz.) the straps and reinforcement are horse. I guess I'll try the oven thing on this and see if that helps.

I tried making a snap style pancake holster for my CZ, but when I tighten my belt enough to hold the weight of the gun the mouth of the holster collapses inward at the back of the trigger guard and makes re-holstering difficult. Did I put my "rear anchor" point to far back or not far back enough? If I provide more "slack" in the rear snap strap, would that maybe help?

Yeah, I got it glued up and THEN remembered the reinforcement piece. The edges are somewhat burnished,,, just hot very well (apparently). I still have some experimenting (a lot actually) to see what works for me. I'm on "old retired E-7" pension, and am not willing to put a lot of money towards this hobby right now. Thanks for the kind words.

I've been snooping around and learning what I could from this forum for a couple of months. I finally dove in and gave it a try. Here are my first attempts. These are all from Zack White horse butts, a few cheap tools and misc. parts I scrounged up around the house. There are some problems with the items I made, but since they are just for my personal use, I'm fairly happy with the way it all went. I'd like to thank everyone here that provided all the knowledge to get me started off this well. The most important thing that I learned is that hand sewing a belt kind of sucks!