BOOMSTICKHolsters

Nice one. Yay, Lefties!!!! (I'm biased on this one )

I could be a bigger geek and point out that "aikuchi" refers to the koshirae (mounting style) where the saya (scabbard) and the tsuka (handle) meet up without a tsuba (guard) in between, but I won't mention it either; thus, this ultra geeky conversation never took place.... Either way, those are some great looking sheaths! I really enoy seeing your work, Dave.

Excellent work as usual, Dave. I really like the tanto's sheath.

If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have offered holsters for so many gun models so soon. I still haven't re-couped cost on some of my dummy guns, while others paid for themselves right away. There are a lot of things to consider when it comes to this matter. When you purchase a new dummy gun, you have time and meterial costs invested in all the new patterns. You have to spend time with familiarizing yourself with the gun's controls and your customers' carry preferences so you get the right version. If you aren't used to building holsters for that pistol, it will also take more time to bone and shape the holster. All of these little things add up to a lot of extra cost and time investments that you may not have thought of yet. You should consider all this when factoring in whether supporting the new model will be a worthwhile investment for you. Of course you want to please your customers and help them as much as you can, but you can't put yourself out of business trying to do it. There are plenty of folks making holsters out there, so it isn't like there aren't alternatives available to them if you can't help them out. Figure out who your clientel is and cater to their needs and wants. Your products will improve, your customers will be happier, and you will take less time than you used to building the same holsters. If your normal repeating customers request a specific model several times, by all means get the dummy and invest the time in the new patterns (as that model is obviously in your clientel niche). Hope this helped.

That looks really nice, Timbo. I hope you never have a need for it, though.

Thanks, Luke. How are things? carr52, I used a bone folder and the handle from an antique tap and die set to mold this holster. Part of the reason it has such good detail is becuase it was such a light weight leather at 6 oz.. I learned to mold and bone holsters with 8/9 oz., so this was a breeze by comparison. You can build a rubber press if you want to speed up the process a little (it will press the leather around the form and "expose the lines" so you can chase them with a folder. Run a search under holster press on here and you should see some examples. The rest of it is a lot of practice, and knowing when to quit. I still occasionally have trouble with that last part, though.

Hmmmmmm.... I think I would be tempted to make a tiny little gun belt and use it as an ankle hoslter! Nice work.

Hey folks. I haven't posted anything for a while so I thought I would show some pics of my latest IWB holster. It is made from 6 oz. Wickwett and Craig leather, with a shark mouth band that is steel reinforced. The forward cant is set to ten degrees as per customer's request. The spring clips have an inverted edge that grabs material so they can't back off. Any and all criticisms, questions, or comments are welcome as always. Thanks for looking.

Amazing work as usual. I think this one is even better than the last one I saw.

Nice job, Grunt!

Here are a few pointers to think about - Consider moving the rear belt slot closter to the trigger guard, so the butt of your grip is pulled in closer to your side. You might want to shift the sweat shield a little bit forward too (or trim it), so you don't trap it against the pistol's back strap when you make an aggressive draw. Adding a sight channel will keep you from getting leather "fuzzies" on your front sight after a draw. It looks like you might have made the holster just a little bit longer than it needs to be. Remember that the holster should be as short as possible with out exposing the barrel (if you are using it for CCW). Finally, try to avoid sharp corners like the one to the rear of the muzzle, as they are easily bent and damaged.

Thanks for the idea, Frank. I heard that home anodizing was being restricted by the EPA, but this makes me wonder if that's true. I would rather not use aluminum nuts if I could keep from it, though the idea of custom colored hardware is pretty tempting.... Hmmmmmm......

I don't know about anyone else, but I don't want to tie up that much capital in t-nuts right now. I am still just breaking even at this point, so I try not to spend any more than I have to to keep things running. In the future that will change, but for now what I want to do doesn't matter as much as what I am able to do, if you follow my meaning. To that ende, it is actually more expedient for me to pay a little more for fewer items if it means I don't have to invest as much immediately. For all I know the rest of you are just too cheap to buy that many .

DOH!!! You got me there. I never asked any of the kydex holster manufacturers. I have only seen them use non barbed t-posts or chicago screws. Thanks for the idea, I'll give it a shot.

K-man, that's the first idea I had, but I never found anyone that would share a source with me. I even asked the folks on the pistolsmith forum quite a while back with no luck. If you have a source we sure would appreciate it.

Definitely worth loking into, then. I haven't had the best luck with their cold blueing or brass black, though. It tends to wear off somewhat easily in my experience.

Powder coating adds too much thickness in the threads, and phosphate or black oxide is not durable enough. Hot bluing would be ok if it weren't for the zinc plating that these come in (which will inhibit the blueing process, I believe). I have some guys fairly local that due some sort of black zinc coating that I think will work. I have to make some calls tomorrow and see.

With the screw, you can adjust the tension to your preference, or even use more than one type of magazine. For the IWB holsters, you can replace the loops with different colors or sizes depending on which belt you are planning to use.

Sounds good to me. I'll get back to you nex week with some quotes if I don't hear from you sooner.

ArtS, t-nuts are basically like the female half of a chicago screw with barbs tunrned in to the leather so they don't rotate. I use them to back retention screws on my magazine holders and to secure loops on my inside-the-waisteband holsters. The top two pictures on the right on this page show how I use them for the mag holders. Rhome, when do you plan to get back to the states? Brock, I'll check things out on my end and see what it would cost and how long it would take to have some coated. On the duracoat issue, I have used it to refinsh firearms for a couple years now. It's decent stuff, but it would be a real pain in the butt to apply it to sever hundred t-nuts. I think I would be willing to have some coated before I tried that.

Hey Brock. So far I have had no luck whatsoever trying to track down a source for these. Basically, I was told that I have to order a few thousand and have them refinished. I had to go that route with my belt buckles in the end, so I guess I will have to give in and do it with the t-nuts too. What size/type t-nuts do you usually use? If this thread doesn't yield any results, maybe we could split an order.

Excellent work, Severe. You don't see many like that anymore.

Nice work, Rhome! I have seen some of your work before, and I can typically pick your holsters out of a crowd as they seem to have a consistent style. I really love the look of the stingray, but I hate working with the stuff. My toro tends to snap the bumps off as it stitches, and edging it is a real pain! Any tips for those of us with little stingray experience?

You've pretty much got it figured out. The Springfield 1911A1 from Ring's does have an extended ambi safety, so that might be something to consider. Other than that, you know as much as we do. There are so many 1911 variants that it would take forever to check them all. Some times the best thing to do is talk to the companies that produce them and ask questions about specs. I defininately want to encourage everyone reading who makes holsters to call rings and request a Springfield Champion and a 4" Operator. They are sorely missed models in the world of dummy guns.

"Where do the Kimbers, Taurus, Wilson Combats etc fit into the Colt and Springfield blue gun line up? Ambi safeties?" There are multiple length 1911 pistols in production from a myriad of different companies. They generally break down into the following lengths: 5": 1911 configurations like the Colt 1911, 1911a1, 1991, etc. with a standard right handed safety. 4 1/4": The Colt Commander, some pistols from Para Orsnance, and several custom pistols are this length. 4": Kimber Pro Carry, Springfield Champion, etc. are this length, but Ring's doesn't make a dummy gun for these (call and request it; it can't hurt). 3 1/2": Colt Deffender, Springfield Micro, and several others are made in this length. "What's the difference between the Colt and Springfield blue guns (the only 1911 blue guns available)? Is it in the length and width of their dust covers? Unfortunately I don't have access to any guns right now so I can just compare them side by side. Any help is appreciated. " The Springfields have slightly wider dust covers than most 1911's. The length is, for all intents and purposes, the same. "I'd like to be able to send out well-fitting holsters for requests I have, but I don't have the opportunity to fit test with the real gun before shipping it out. I need some help matching blue guns to real guns. Thanks" The good news is, if the blue guns are out of spec, they are usually smaller than the real thing due to shrinkage from the casting process. This means your holsters will mold a little tight, if anything. That's better than being loose.