jackd942

So I finally caught a break from all the pancake and paddle holster orders I've had and got an order for a Glock 22 IWB holster with clips. While I was at it, I made this one for my Glock 27 with straps. I've been wearing it for a few days now and really wish I had made one sooner. We'll see how orders for these go.

It loaded on my ipad Chris.

Definitely Ran...many ways to skin a cat. All comes down to what works for us I guess. Thanks.

I used to dye first after sanding and then burnish. That was about all I did and it worked pretty well. Now, I burnish with water and saddle soap after sanding. After this, I dye and burnish again, followed by the wax and a final burnish. I do use a wooden dowel chucked in my drill press with grooves cut in it some. I put quite a bit more work into the edges now, and overall I like them better. For one thing, after burnishing with water and saddle soap, the dye line is a lot more defined or crisp. When I would dye raw edges before, the dye would soak in more and I had a tendency to have a "fuzzy" edge line. The paraffin is just Gulf paraffin wax. I pick it up at my local WalMart in the canning section. There are 4 or 5 "bricks" in a pack and I just soften the end of one up next to a heater and rub it into the edge. Seems to work pretty well. It's actually wax that I've had around the shop for a few years now...so a little goes a long way. I originally bought it to rub on the soles of my handplanes for woodworking. Makes a plane glide over wood almost effortlessly. Still haven't picked up any Barbour's yet and not sure if I'm going to anytime soon. I really disliked the Tejas at first, but now, I love it. I guess I just had to use it for a bit to get used to it.

Ahh...Vaalpens...a Ranger rig...Don't have a clue when I'll ever get the time to make one, but it's definitely on my list. That's a good looking sheath you made there. I've made a few of those myself and I really like them. The reason I went with the case for this one is the knife is more of a hunting/outdoor knife instead of a tactical folder and I think the case goes better with a non-tactical type knife. As far as stamping, there are many different opinions on it, but for me personally I almost always carve/tool/stamp before wet forming. I have never had much problem with losing detail at all. Most of the time the tooling I do doesn't really get touched during forming, so it probably doesn't matter as much. At lest that's my thought process and it has always (thus far) worked for me. I did not use edge kote, it is regular Fiebing's black dye. I've changed up my process a little since I made this case, but generally I sand and bevel, rub with saddle soap/canvas followed by burnishing stick. After this, I apply a couple of coats of black spirit dye and after it dries for a little bit, rub with a burnishing stick. Finally I work paraffin wax into it and rub it very briskly again which leaves a very nice shine.

I bet that rig has definitely turned a bunch of heads! Nice work...

They supply it Chris. Usually the trooper wanting the holster brings it to me, but for this one, HQ in Jefferson City relayed it down to my part of the state so it could be a surprise...which I thought was pretty cool.

A few of the local MSHP Troopers got together and had me make a retirement gift for one of the retiring Troop Lieutenants. When I was a city police officer (some years ago), this Lieutenant was a corporal in the zone that covered my town. He is a very good man and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to make this for him. It is a right hand pancake in burgundy/black and has his collar brass attached to the stiffener.

Where's the "Like" button? Looks great Red Cent!

Ditto on what TXAG said. You can do the same with Inkscape. I used to use it to make scrollsaw patterns. Not home right now, but scrollsaw workshop has some Inkscape tutorials on YouTube that could probably be adapted to come up with good images for carving.

Thanks Red Cent... Good info

That looks great Josh! Love it...

It's actually "Trace Bitmap" I believe and it's under the "Path" menu. Google Inkscape Trace Bitmap and you'll get a bunch of tutorials and YouTube videos on the subject. You can resize a JPG as well, but it will become pixelated the larger you go. If you Trace it into a path (or turn it into a vector), you can resize without the pixelation.

Just out of curiosity Red Cent, how do you size a dedicated gun belt? Just wondering about a whole rig that straps on over your pants and regular belt.

Thanks for posting that...

Great work!

Didn't see the "dog ear", guess I need to look a little harder. Guess that would help with a seatbelt or center console as well... LOL red cent...I just watched it for the gun leather:)

Looks good Vaalpens! One of these days I'm going to do my own modern interpretation of a US Calvary flap holster...it's on the list along with some Texas Ranger inspired stuff among others. The tooling is a nice touch BTW...it would be ashamed to waste all that good real estate.

In watching the show tonight, I got a little better (but very brief) look at the holster. There is a flap on the outside that almost looks like a reverse sweat guard. It doesn't appear to be a hammer thong or thumb break...I guess it's just there to protect the gun. She draws the gun at one point and there doesn't appear to be any retention other than the friction of the holster. Definitely haven't seen another Ranger rig with a flap like that in any of my searches, although the setup in general looks almost just like the Extreme Prejudice rig.

Thanks Red Cent...there's a lot of great info there!

I did notice that there seems to be more than 1 rig at least in the promo photos. There is another rig in some if the pics that has some red or burgundy in it as well as flaps and snaps over the mag pouches. Hard to find any good detailed pics of any of it tho...in watching the show, the only setup I've seen her wear is the one I posted. Thanks for the info Mike, I'll do a little research and see what I can find on A.W. Brill...

Wow...

Anybody else seen the Texas Ranger rig she wears in this show? I'm feeling the urge to make something similar...can't find many good pics of it tho...

Thanks Mitch

Very nice! That will be a conversation piece in the gym...