TwinOaks

Hi and welcome to Leatherworker.net. We're glad you found our little corner of the internet. There's lots of members, both amateurs and professionals, who'll be happy to help with any questions you might have. Ask away, and enjoy one of the friendliest sites on the 'net.

Take two pieces of leather and lay them flat and punch a hole through both and add a Chicago screw. That represents the 'wings' of the holster. With it laying flat, lay the washer over the Chicago screw, then add the belt loop. That gives you a spacer between the 'holster' and the belt loop. As for the flat side, I'm talking about cutting off part of the diameter so that there is a flat area where the waist line will be. Like this:

I use a leather washer (make them yourself) and cut a flat side on them. My pancake IWBs are usually two pieces of leather, one for the front, one for the back. Attached to that is the reinforcement band at the mouth of the holster. Depending on the price tag, I will also glue and stitch a piece to the sweat shield to have grain out on both sides. The 'wings' are extensions of the front and back pieces of leather. I typically use either a T-nut or Chicago screw to attach the belt loop. The washer is placed between the belt loop and the rest of the holster. Glue it in place if needed.

Hi and welcome to Leatherworker.net. We're glad you found our little corner of the internet. There's lots of members, both amateurs and professionals, who'll be happy to help with any questions you might have. Ask away, and enjoy one of the friendliest sites on the 'net.

For your belt slots,use a punch to make a hole at each end of the slot, then connect the holes. Someone on here advocated using a wood chisel and I extrapolated on that a little.....wood chisel was about $8, putty knife was $2....hmmm. I ended up using the putty knife and putting an edge on it. No more mis-cut slots! The reason to use a punch instead of a drill is that the punch will cut the circle of the hole and push the surrounding leather away. A drill makes holes in leather by tearing it, and as you saw, makes a mess of the fibers. For the molding, be sure to read and follow one of the threads on proper casing of the leather. From your description, it sounds like you may have been trying to mold while it was still a little too wet....but that's just a guess.

Looks really good, but since you asked here's what I see: First and foremost, the area under trigger guard needs to be more relieved so that the wearer can get a FULL firing grip on the handle of the pistol before ever starting the draw. Trigger finger should be outside the trigger guard anyway, so the amount of leather covering the trigger guard is fine. The stitch lines could be a little closer, giving better stability and retention to the holstered weapon, and that will come with experience in working with the leather. It will stretch a LOT, and you can use that to your advantage to get a better fit. Also, try to mold the front of the holster so that the seam of the front and back pieces on the 'top' of the weapon align with the weapons sights- this gives you a built in sight channel. Third: The top corner of the 'front' wing looks to be an almost 90 degree corner, but the top corner of the 'back' wing is radiused. The radius will wear better over the long term, where the sharper corner is more likely to get bent or folded. Either is bad since it can cause the layers to de-laminate over time. Regardless of whether you want a radius or a corner, the appearance of the holster will be improved by having the same thing on both ends of the holster. Last is the molding: I've discovered that if you place the holster in a gallon sized plastic bag, you can chase the lines of the weapon better without causing a defined burnishing from your tools. Start with a rolling pin (if the weapon is large enough) and just mash the leather down. Then use a stylus or tool handle to start pressing the leather in all the nooks and crannies. You should start seeing the details of the weapon as you go. Try to push as much of the flesh side of the leather against the weapon as you can. Though there's a lot of debate between the holster makers on the best specific method, I think the majority of us agree that the more leather you have against the weapon, the better retention you'll have. P.S. Go ahead and dye the inside of the holster when you dye the rest of it. It just looks better and once the dye is dry and sealed it won't affect the weapon at all. If you use white thread, plan on dyeing BEFORE stitching so the thread doesn't get colored or transfer dye where you might not want it.....like the other side of the thread hole.

One of the aspects of business that I've learned is that " When you do right by a customer, they may tell a friend; if you do poorly by a customer they will tell ten." At the time of this post there are 14783 members on this forum (#14784 is pending approval), and even if only half are active....that's still over seven thousand people that read these posts.....not counting the non-member visitors of which there are currently just over a hundred visitors (real time). It is my sincere hope that Siegel Leather can reestablish their name and credibility to those who have had issues, and continue the service that has made them one of the top suppliers.

I don't know about the 'wise ones' part, but..... I'm glad you didn't get a cheap machine from feebay, you would've been sorely disappointed. As to what you are looking for NOW....I was looking at the Luberto's Cub, but ended up with a Boss from a member here. The only advantages I see with the Cub are that it's a full rotary machine which means a good tinkerer could motorize it, and it says there's only two adjustments on the whole thing. I'm not sure about the last part because there's top thread tension, bobbin tension, presser foot pressure, and stitch length to think about. The slot machine lever action of the Boss works well for me because I can sit closer to the 'left' of the machine and not worry about torque. I also tend to work off the left side of a table when I can, so not having the 'throw' of a rotary is a good thing in my case. I haven't used a Cub, but did strongly consider it, so I am familiar with your research....in fact, I posted the email I got from them that gives the full description. I have noticed that the ad banner at the top of the page still lists the Boss for right at $1200, so it appears they are continuing the "holiday" pricing to get a little more of the market in a bad economy. If you haven't read it, here's a thread about the Cub and a comment from Art, one of our moderators: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=22959 I'm pretty sure either will do the job just fine, and if you decide on the Boss, shoot me a PM and I'll give you some info on how I mounted it to be a truly portable machine.

I've also had some great experiences with Springfield Leather. Pleasure to deal with and prompt in processing and shipping.

If you are referring to the area directly beneath the belt loops on an IWB holster, it usually has a small stack of leather to act as a spacer. This allows the holster to ride in the correct position, and the spacer gives clearance for the waist of the pants. If the spacer is not there, then the loops can bind or cause a bunching of the waist band of the pants.

Anytime you apply dye, you should buff it (you'll have to experiment with dye + conditioner like oil or lexol to see which way you like....there's lots of info here). Allow it to dry between coats if you're doing more than one. I use a 'box o' rags' from the local boxmart or Lowes, paint dept. It's really nothing more than t-shirt scrap material. I like it because it's soft, has a fine weave, and is white which shows any color transfer as you rub/buff with it. You need to buff it to get rid of any solid particles from the dye that aren't dissolved or didn't get absorbed. Keep buffing until there no transfer. After that I apply a coating of my super-secret-can't-tell-anybody-about-it-or-the-leatherati-will-come-and-get-me homemade version of resolene. It's Mop-n-Glo. You can cut it with water if you want to, just be aware that it's already pretty thin. I swap back and forth between straight from the bottle and 50/50 mix. Kinda depends on what I'm putting it on. Y'all don't thank me, I got the idea from this forum....I think Katsass has posted a couple of sheaths that are done it. I tried it on a multi-tool sheath and it works very well.

Ditto. If you use a good glue/cement, then once the pieces are bonded you'll literally pull the leather fibers apart before the glue bond.

You can eliminate a lot of the color transfer by buffing the dried belt. This eliminates the non-absorbed dye particles. I've been finishing belts with home-made resolene, which is an acrylic wax/sealer. Two light coats, with drying between them. After the second coat dries, buff to a gloss and it's done.

I think that qualifies as straight forward, sharing your experiences and what you were told through various communications. Thank you for sharing that. Hopefully, that post will get back to the boss at Siegel of Ca., and some actions will be taken to insure that it doesn't happen to anyone else.

Toluene.

I've had excellent results using Dap Weldwood from Lowe's or HomeDepot. Buy a quart AND the little bottle with the brush- should be less than $15. Use the bottle/brush and refill from the quart. If it gets dry on the leather, you can heat it and get it tacky again. Caution: it does have VOCs and should be used in a ventilated area. It's also pretty permanent, so don't stick something in the wrong place and expect to slide it over.

Just stick to the truth. Don't make accusations or write anything that isn't true. Tell the good with the bad and give an honest review. If you want to share any personal opinions or thoughts, just be sure to preface it with "I think....." or "I feel....." to avoid any issues of LIBEL (printing/publishing anything that isn't true and could cause 'damages').

Welcome to Leatherworker.net! You have reached an excellent source of information for both the beginner and experienced leather worker. There are a lot of good books you could order, specifically books by Al Stohlman. You can also learn all you need right here. From the main forum page (click 'leatherworker.net' at the top left of this page.....not LW home) scroll down until you see a sub-forum called 'Paul Burnett school of leather ornamentation'. Also, scroll further down in the section called "the business" (in the brown bar) and look for the sub-forum called "Getting Started". There's a lot of posts there, and many of them address the question you've posed: What do I need and how do I get started. Feel free to ask specific questions, too. You will get some varied answers, but that's to your benefit because there's no one specific way to do things. We're always around and happy to help.

I made my IWB for an all steel, govt. 1911 out of a 6-7 single shoulder I got from Tandy. Handstitched, molded and boned. I wear it just about every day and it's holding up fine. Is it duty rated? Of course not. But, it IS 1. thin enough to be comfortable, and 2. firm enough to securely hold the pistol. Although, if you really don't want that 6-7, you could just ship it to me....

John, it's in the right place. The moderating team (Especially Johanna) doesn't necessarily check the 'patterns and templates' forum all that often. We DO check the 'Feedback and Suggestions' section for threads like this one, designed to help the forum members.

Start by reading the threads you have bookmarked, there's a lot of very good info on this site. For your design, lay the pistol on a piece of cardboard (or scrap linoleum if you can swing it) trace the line of the pistol, then fold the cardboard up to about the halfway point ...or the center of the slide, longitudinally, and mark it. Lay the cardboard back out and measure it. That is the distance away from the pistol that your stitch line needs to be. It's okay to round up to an easy fraction and 3/8ths to 5/8ths is pretty common, depending on the thickness of the leather you are using. On paper, completely trace the gun and decide where you want each side of the holster mouth to be. It doesn't have to be a straight line (and probably shouldn't be), and should cover everything that needs to be covered. I'd like to suggest NOT covering the magazine release, because it's a little embarrassing to get a hug and have a mag drop free.....or lean against something with the same result. If you cover the release, the leather can act like a really big finger pressing on it - you could get pressure on it from up to an inch away and get an unintentional release. After you've designed the mouth of the holster (did you forget to include where the thumb break snap will be?) you need to add the 'wings' where it will attach to your shoulder rig. That can be vertical, horizontal, or somewhere in the middle, just try to find a balance point on the holster. When you've gotten that far, you should know where your thumb strap will be and it's time to design it. Trace the mouth of the holster from the outside piece of leather onto another sheet. You'll be making an additional piece (mouth band) shaped like a "T" or an "L" depending on where the strap will be. Draw parallel lines for your strap...and leave it longer than you think you'll need. It needs to a little wider than the snap you'll be using. The tracing of the holster mouth should match the edge of the mouth band. Transfer the pattern, cut, color, stitch, mold, seal and dry....and there's your holster. P.S. Get enough leather to do at least two, because you may need it....hope not, but you might. And if you don't need it, well, you gotta have leather for the matching mag carrier anyway.

It would depend a lot on the thickness of the kydex and especially the type of leather used. As far as construction methods, I have successfully made a kydex mouth band and inserted it into a holster by sewing 3 sides of the band before installation. If using a cylinder arm machine, it shouldn't be too hard to mold the kydex, insert, and close the layers, then do the final stitching on the edge of the holster to close the whole thing.

Be cautious using ink as it often has an oil base and it can "migrate" through the leather over time. I've had good results with Sharpie markers, and nowadays you can get them in a full spectrum of colors.

Welcome to Leatherworker.net, we're glad you found us. There's a lot of sewing machines to chose from, and lots of holster styles to pick. Check out the supplier's ads at the top of the page (they'll ship to just about anywhere) for several of the more common ones, and read this thread. Saying that you need a sewing machine for holsters and belts is kinda like walking into a gun store and saying you want to buy some bullets. We need some more information to be able to help you with your decision.