stu925

A while back I picked up an old S&W Model 10 (no dash) that was built in the late 50's. The gun belonged to a retired NYPD officer and had a considerable amount of use as can be seen in the pictures. I decided that an old cop's gun needed an old cops holster and eventually settled on building a Bill Jordan style holster. I did a bunch of research on it and eventually decided mine wasn't going to be an exact replica but more of an interpretation of the original design. Mine is a bit narrower at the toe of the holster and there is no metal stitched into it as there would have been on an original. I did however include a welt between the belt loop and the body of the holster which helps to kick the butt of the weapon out from the body to make the draw a bit easier and faster. Mine also has a strap that pivots out of the way so it doesn't hinder the draw at all. The holster has a couple of issues but nothing I can't live with. I misjudged my stitch lines which made the holster so tight that it needed to be wet molded to force the gun into it which obliterated my basket weave in the sight protector area, I should have given it another 1/4"-3/8" and the revolver would have dropped right in. The tight stitching also doesn't allow the gun to go into the holster quite as deep as I would have liked. What I can tell you is I now understand why the holster was designed this way, it is very fast to draw from. Since the butt of the weapon sits right under your hand and the holster is canted butt forward it's the fastest holster I've used yet. I'm sure some will comment about the exposed trigger, please note this is not a carry rig. The purpose for this particular holster is strictly for range use and since the double action trigger pull of this revolver is somewhere in the 12lb range I don't feel the exposed trigger is a liability, if this were a carry rig the trigger would be covered. By the way, while stitching this holster closed I was stitching through 5 layers of 7-8oz leather, almost a full 1" thick (7/8" to be precise), the stitching took quite a while.

Looks great Snubby. Nice job Stu

Awesome work, can't believe I missed this thread before. Stu

Nice work on both the sheath and the knife. The handle scales are beautiful, what type of wood? Stu

Even in that setting it should have lasted longer than 4 years. We have duty holsters at work that are probably twice that age and still going strong and they are worn around the clock (well they're supposed to be anyway). We're not allowed to furnish our own holsters so we turn them over to whoever relieves us . Our holsters never see any maintenance either, a true testament of how tough leather really is. Stu

Looks good, nice work. Stu

That's a good looking sheath. It should loosen up a little bit with use, I wouldn't make any changes unless it's so tight that you can get it out without a fight. Stu

I think it depends on how hard it's used. For a police holster I would think it would see a lot shorter life span. For a pancake or IWB holster that's used fairly regularly I would think it would last 10+ years with some basic maintenance. 4 years seems a bit of a short life span to me but again it's going to depend on how hard it's used. Stu

Looks great, I like the border on the stiffener. Nice job. Stu

My holsters sell for $75, I charge an extra $10 for basketweave so that holster if I were selling would go $85. if you're in a hurry to sell knock $10-20 off of that and call it a sale price. Stu

They look great Rohn, nice work as usual. Stu

Nice work, had a guy at work ask me for a similar style holster. Hopefully it'll come out as well if he goes ahead with it. Stu

I have always stitched prior to wet forming but I've used 2 different methods. Just recently I went to cutting both pieces the same size and wet forming after stitching. This makes stitching much easier for me, prior to that I was cutting the front a bit larger than the back and gluing and stitching first one side then the other and wet forming afterward. Stitching the first size always goes smooth but once you glue up the other side that stitching becomes much more difficult to keep straight from front to back, often the chisel goes through at an angle and I wouldn't even notice due to the holster not sitting flat on the surface. This method would produce a pancake holster with a flat back but would give me stitching issues, the new method produces a molded back with much neater stitching. Personally I prefer the neater stitching. http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc492/stu925/Crossdraw%20Yaqui%20Slide%201911/Back%20with%20gun_zpska2wl7iy.jpg[/img] This crossdraw slide was created using the new method. This is the back side and you can clearly see how it's molded. http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc492/stu925/KelTec%20P11/Ruger%202_zps6wxaaek4.jpg[/img] This pancake holster was created using the old method, on the back here you can see how the stitching runs very close to the edge in a couple of spots. Stu

Wow, nice work. I really like the stamp pattern and the color. Good Job.

That looks very nice. I haven't tried a "Snap-on" style holster yet, might have to give that a try. Stu

Geez we're practically neighbors, I'm in the Catskill Mtns. myself. It's a beautiful area and a great place to build a cabin. The political climate on the other hand is a whole other story. Cabin looks great, should be able to get plenty of work done now. The timber frame cabin idea appeals to me a lot, I'd love to build one some day. Stu

Looks good, edges looks very nice. Good work. Stu

Looks good, nice work. Stu

Great work, I like that pattern a lot. Not as busy as some of the other stuff I've seen. Stu

Looks great for a first holster, nice work. Stu

Another vote for condition 1. My thought is you might as well be carrying a rock if there's no round in the chamber. When things go bad and you need that firearm odds are you're going to need it quickly and at short range. Having to rack that slide at best will delay your response to that the threat and at worst get you killed. There are too many variables involved in self defense situations for me to carry a 1911 in any condition other than condition 1. In my mind even a BBQ rig should be geared towards getting that gun into action as quickly and safely as possible. If you're carrying a firearm it should be ready to go for whatever situation presents itself. Truth be told I prefer the simplicity of a DA revolver for self defense, point and shoot, no safety involved and the heavy trigger makes it awful hard to have an A.D. under stress although I still carry a 1911. Stu

I use 9-10oz for my butt cuffs, I also cut the strap for the cartridge loops from the same piece of leather and then skive it down until I think I've got the right thickness. The cartridge loops need to be pretty flexible so I skive until I think they're flexible enough. I've done slings from 9-10oz also with no issues although 10-11oz would probably be a bit better choice. For me 9-10oz seems to be about the best choice of leather for 98% of my projects so it's all I keep on hand, I figure I can always pick up a thinner leather if I need it for a specific project Stu

Looks good, the only thing I can see is the seating depth that you mentioned. I'd prefer it if it sat all the way in the holster but shouldn't be much of an issue as it is. Nice work. Stu

I don't know if it's gospel or not but years ago I was told no ammonia based cleaners on brass cases. Ammonia will supposedly weaken the brass, I've never been willing to test it to see if it's an urban legend or not. Clean the green off and shoot them, the tarnish will not hurt the brass. Once fired run them through a tumbler before reloading and you should have no issues.. Dwight's suggestion of coating the inside of the loops is sound and makes the most sense to me. Stu

I like it, it's an interesting design for sure. I'm sure it'll be a big hit. Stu