Bolt Vanderhuge

Any idea what the prices would be like? I don't want to sign up for something that is more expensive then the $120 a hide I pay now.

This particular Buffalo (American Buffalo) with the thickness it was at and the tanning process was very very soft and spongy. It did not want to hold any tooling shapes or marks. In fact I even had to go over the natural lines that you see in the pics as they almost disappeared during the forming process. The thickness of it that you can see in the pics is after skiving a bit. My blade went dull and I did not want to wait till I could run over to Tandy's for more. It started out at close to 9oz and I took it down to around 7oz. I took the straps down to 4oz or so and it became a bit less spongy. I was able to add firmness to it by applying Fiebing's USMC black dye to it and then it held tooling lines better. I had to use edge cote on the edges to be able to burnish the buffalo portion of the edges. I must say the buffalo presented some challenges for sure. But I can also say that I learned quite a bit from this holster to help me with future holsters and exotic hides.

I do the same. The ones that came in my set are to short most of the time.

continued This is after it was sealed but only the pic of the back seemed to show well Before molding These pics hopefully will show how it's molded in the front only and how I got it that way. . .

This is my newest holster creation. I am just a hobbyist making my own personal holsters. This one is only my 5th so far and I still have lots to learn. This holster is a snap on OWB buffalo holster. With this holster I tried something a bit different than the previous holsters and that was to make it all formed on the front piece of leather. The back is contoured to my hip only and hugs my hip very well. It worked out as I hoped. I have used kangaroo lining in two of my previous holsters and no lining in the other two. In this holster I decided to see how I liked a smooth side in leather lining. While I think it is ok, I like the kangaroo lining the best making the roo worth the extra work. These first few are before sealing.

You can see one of the loops here. Here are pics showing the retention in action of each of these holsters.

The brown thing behind the pink holster is a mock up double layer 1.5" belt strap that is actually running thru the belt loops of the pink holster in that pick. The loops are on the back side and are held on via the chicago screws you see from the front. It basically wears like a hiden belt loop pancake holster. It however can be converted to IWB or to a snap in holster by changing the loops out.

I will keep that in mind moving forward. Thank you. Yes the pink one is dyed. The dye is Eco Professional Fuschia.

I am not sure which one you are referring to since neither are brown. I am thinking you must be referring to the pink one. But I am unsure what you mean by they will roll. Could you describe what you mean by roll and what it is that would cause this to happen?

Thank you all for the kind words.

Very cool.

Very nice work on both of those.

I recently tried my hand at making leather holsters. This is a pic of my second holster That I thought I would share. I am now working on my third and hopefully will continue to improve with each one moving forward. I certainly have a great appreciation for the custom holster builders that are making a living doing this. The accent piece is Hippo and this holster is lined with Kangaroo. It is a hidden belt loop pancake style holster. The gun ride height is lo-pro and it has a 20* or so cant. It was hand stitched. When my gf saw the Sig P238 Rainbow Titanium she had to have it because it was pretty. When I got into building my own holsters she asked if she could have a holster in, what I call, girly colors. Well being the nice guy that I am she now has a pink holster with blue stitching.

I get the leather wet then use my stamp handle and my poly mallet to compress the leather. The end you normally hit with the mallet is the perfect size for line 24 snaps.

Sounds like you may be trying to put the belt loops on after you have built the pouch. Is this the case? If it is then I would suggest you plan out where the loops will go and put them in place before you stitch up the pouch.