BOOMSTICKHolsters

Nice work on the holsters, shorts! I have an experiment you might try with your brown dye: Try brushing some rubbing alcohol on the surface of your leather before you apply the dye, then wipe it clean. It should serve to open the pores up and make the dye take a little better (don't try mixing the dye with alchohol as you will merely dilute your color). I have no idea if this will work, but I think it might. Bick 4 works great to help leather absorb dye, but you can't use it on holstes if you want them to hold their shape. I highly recommend it for belts, though.

That's cool! Very creative, tazzmann! I love that it looks like a holster. I bet you could sell a bunch of those to the CAS shooters around here.

I am not aware that anyone was flamed here.... I am merely trying to help, as it looks like the others who have posted here are (yourself included, Mr. Little). I offered my personal reasoning on the subject and an example of why I agree with bcurrier's observations, not baseless claims as your retort "flamed by the rocket scientists" would suggest. As far as being the end all and be all of gun leather design, I am deffinitely not. That having been said, when it comes to working out patterns or designs, this ain't my first rodeo either.... If you have an example of why I am mistaken, by all means let me know. I learn new things about leather work almost every day, and it certainly won't be the first time I've made a mistake. If you don't have anything to say, that's fine, but please don't resort to the useless act of name calling just because you believe someone contradicted your post.

Well, all you have to do is take a look at a straight belt that has conformed its shape to your body, and you will see that it doesn't make a perfect arc. There are spots with more bend and places that are fairly straight (ie. a compound curve). The funny part is, belts contoured on a perfect radius have to conform to your shape just like the straight ones do. This being the case, bcurrier's suggestion is probably the most accurate way to come up with a true contoured belt (the real trouble here would be having to ship the customer to your shop and back to take the measurements ).

Unless you have access to a vertical mill and a sander, stay away from the aluminum dummies. It takes at least an hour to clean up the aluminum dummy guns, and they are more expensive than the blue guns to start with. Tack on $40 an hour for shop time (if you can find someone willing to go to the trouble) an it starts to be an expensive venture. As long as you are only heating ther kydex in the oven and bending it over your plastic mold after that, you should be fine. Just don't go crazy with the heat gun while the kydex is on your mold.

OTB has a minimum order, too. Let me know how many of the spring clips you need and you can have them at cost (I'll have to look that up) plus shipping if you can't find anyone who will sell them to you.

Howdy, and welcome to the forum! Looks like you're off to a good start, but I would suggest you get some vegetable tanned leather to avoid compromising your slide's finish. If you want to stick with a single loop pattern, you might consider moving the loop closer to the muzzle; it would be closer to the gun's center of balance and therefore less likely to rotate, and it would allow a full grip on the pistol which is most helpful during a stressful presentation.

You can use similar principles without infringing on others' inovations, but there are only so many ways to make a holster. If I design a holster myself and see that a similar holster is already being made, I contact the maker and ask their permission if a distict feature I want to incorperate is unique to their work. I make my own variation of some of the classics, but permission can no longer be granted as the designers are no longer with us. With these holsters I still give credit to the original designers in my site descriptions.

You can use either a flat t-nut or a pronged t-nut. When it is going through only one layer of leather I cut the prongs shorter with some snips. As long as the t-nuts have no burs they are completely comfortable against your skin. If the barrel of the t-nut is way too long I hold it with some vise grips and sand it shorter on a drum sander. You should try to get a rubber washer thick enough to cover the exposed barrel of the t-nut so there is enough space to tuck a shirt behind.

AmmoHouse, The holster is lined with horsehide. The retention turned out perfect; I could shake the gun in the holster up-side down and it didn't budge, but the revovler came smoothly out easily during the draw. I would take a picture if I could, but it is half way across the country from me (the pictures iwere sent to me by the customer).

Hi bjbwt2. I use an 8x32 t-nut through the leather, an 8x32 bugle head cap screw in a counter-sunk washer through the j-hook, and a rubber washer and a star lock-washer between the j-hook anc the leather. I apply blue lok-tite to the screws before I ship the holsters.

Here's one without the Krinkles, Jordan (It's for a Taurus 651and features a 10 degree cant. I made this one first as a test pattern) Regis, I try to stay about 1/8" inside of the seem with the reinforcement. I have been tempted to go right through it but I don't want to change needles that often.

Hey folks. I finally started making belt holsters for revolvers and I thought I would post a few pics of my latest OWB snub-nosed revolver holster (for a S&W 642 w/CTG). It is a 15 degree forward cant holster made with hidden loops for a 1.5" belt. The throat band is also backed with sheet steel at the customer's request. It took me several tries before I came up with a belt loop pattern that I liked, but I'm really happy with the way this one performs. Comments/critiques are always welcome.

Nice. I always get a kick out of your rough side out modern holsters. Very cool....

HMMMMMM...... I may have to make some fuzzy ccw holsters now........ Seriously though, that was a good idea and I bet it drives the value of the knife up a decent amount. Great job.

Feel free to send them my way, TwinOaks. There is a picture of this in the IWB page on my web site. I do get wuite a few orders for lefties. I am actually a lefty but I moat often carry on my "weak" side. The scary thing about some of the custom 1911 pistols is that the safeties are so long and wide, it's too easy to disengage them. I haven't had a complaint yet, so I'll probably just stick with what I'm doing in that area until I can devise a better way to do things. I would much prefer that they stay exactly how the user intends to carry them, than make a more generic mold that allows enough movement to let them change positions. Still, it sure would be nice to accommodate all the various aftermarket safeties out there.

RWClark, I appreciate the feed back. I definitely get what you're saying. I have run into that issue already. I am considering building up the safety area on my dummy guns so that any custom safety should have enough clearance, but then I am slightly concerned that some of the safeties will have room to work themselves to the off position. The way I construct my holsters, it is almost impossible not to show every little detail in the dummy gun. I would love to get a 1911 or a dummy for every make and model out there, but I can tell you right now that ain't gonna happen due to cost restraints. When you make your 1911 holsters, do you simply refrain from bonning the safety area? Thanks again for the help. That's how I learn to improve my products.

Thanks for the comments. To answer some questions: Regis, those are actually line 24 snaps. I need to get some directional snaps before I go into production with this design. RWClack, the holster is surprisingly sturdy for its weight, and the shark band holds the mouth open better than I ever would have believed. I haven't really even broken it in, but so far there is no trouble whatsoever with one handed re-holstering. I think I am extremely close to releasing this holster series for sale, which is a great relief after the amount of time and money I spent researching and testing ccw holsters.

Hi folks. I am excited that my Inside the Waistband Holster design is in its final stages, so I thought I would share some pics of the latest prototype. This is a Steer Hide rig with Shark skin accents built for a Heckler & Koch P7. Thanks for looking. Comments and critiques are welcome.

SWEET! You just keep getting better, man. Nice work. I may have to pick your brain about sheath design some time.

I like the stitch pattern. I think the holster looks good. Every time you post I see more improvement in your work.

Hi RDB. I think you're off to a pretty good start. Here are the things I would change and the reasons why: First, you might consider rasing the position of the loops in relation to the holster. I know that can make the holster hang down a little lower, but it will hold it closer to your body and minimize the tendancy for the top of the pistol to lean out away from your side. You can accomplish this by making the throat support and tunnel loop out of a single piece of leather, and by matching the angle of the holster where the rear loop is to the angle of the pistol's handle so you have room to raise the rear loop. You will still have the room you need to get a full grip on the pistol, so don't worry about that. Also, you might think about moving the rear loop closer to the trigger guard. The more space you leave between the pistol and the rear loop, the more give you will have in the holster. This give lets the holster bend more, which allows the butt of the pistol to stick out away from your body. If there is less distance between the loop and the pistol, the holster will pull the butt in tight to your body and the gun won't stick out so much. I tried to draw a sketch of what I am talking about (now it's obvious why I make holsters for a living instead of working as a graphic design artist, huh?). The blue represents the edges of the leather and the read marks the stitches. The loops aren't to scale, but you get the basic idea

Two 4/5 oz. glued and stitched will work fine. It might be just a tad heavy for your pistol, but no worries. I always stay away from bellies. They aren't good for anything to do with holsters except maybe figuring out new patterns.

Here Mark. This might answer someof your questions. "Section 653o of the Penal Code prohibits the importation, possession with intent to sell, and the sale in California of products made from several species, including polar bear, leopard, ocelot, tiger, cheetah, jaguar, sable antelope, wolf, zebra, whale, cobra, python, sea turtle, colobus monkey, kangaroo, vicuna, sea otter, feral horse, dolphin, porpoise, Spanish lynx, or elephant. Existing law allows the sale of crocodile and alligator parts or products until January 1, 2010. Violations of this section are a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $1000-$5000 or 6 months in jail."

This is only my opinion, but your draw method has more to do with snagginng than holster design. Check out the Ayoob pocket draw and note how he places his thumb on the hammer spur for any pocket draw. I think your design concept is an excelent one. Different pocket holsters perform different jobs, from camouflaging the weapon to just making sure it is in the same place every time. I believe the most important feature of a pocket holster is to protect the trigger from coming into contact with anything at all, especially groping fingers frantically trying to grasp the pistol during a panic situation. Your design does that, also camouflages the outline of the revolver, and seems like it would hold the pistol up stationary in the same spot. Nice work. Concerning the exposed cylinder; Lint isn't as much if a big deal as most people think. There are a lot of folks who pocket carry without a holster (bad idea) at all and I have never heard of a failure due to obstructions. If you inspect your pistol before you head out the door every day (which you should do anyway), you should be good to go. Here is a picture of one of my original pocket holster prototypes that underwent testing by an objective outsider. It worked how it was intentd to and got good reviews. I commend you exploring new ways to make holsters. Keep up the good work.