Bolt Vanderhuge

No suggestions guys/gals?????

Hi all, I would like some help from you all in choosing the edge color for this holster. One thought is to just burnish as is and let the burnishing make it a bit darker. I am not sure if this will be a good idea as the edges of the hippo piece has some lighter coloring where I have beveled it. Also, there is a little bit of ink showing from where I marked my glue lines on the inside. Yo can see both of these in the second pic. So if I do dye the edges I can do a light/medium brown, show brown, chocolate brown or black. I have other colors too but I think colors outside the brown family will not look right. I also have saddle brown and british tan but those are so light I wonder if they would even cover the ink spot. Here is the holster. The leather is being left natural with just Neetsfoot oil for darkening and the Hippo is actually the same chocolate brown that the background is in the pic. This pic was taken before the Hippo fully dried from being oiled. Although I suspect that the Hippo is going to look this color after I seal the holster anyways. You can see the ink and the Hippo edge in question in this pic. The ink is on the right side of the muzzle opening. Thanks in advance for your suggestions/help.

Very nice work.

How about one more item? Email address to send you confirmation . I do not remember being asked anything else.

Btw Knifekits is a good company to buy from.

That index place may be $45 but they are the most expensive of the group when you add in shipping. At least for me anyways. Business type addresses may be cheaper as well as closer locations. For 1 gun Bluegunstore is the cheapest. After that Knifekits and holstersmith, same place, are the cheapest of the bunch. This is when using their cheapest shipping option and for my location though. This held true for quantities of 2, 6, and 11.

Thank you.

Here is another trio of 3.5" 1911 holsters. I tried some new ideas with these 3. For one I did a full exotic front but used 2 different exotics, Cape Buffalo above Shark. The other 2 are cut from the same Ostrich leg. One full coverage front and the other with the upper left pattern from the cape shark holster. I also have not left one natural in color before. I like the look of that one and am repeating it for a 4.25" holster but with Hippo hide. The Cape Shark. Cape Buffalo on top and Shark below. Brown stitching, black back and smooth lined natural color inside. The full Ostrich. Full faced brown Ostrich leg. Chocolate brown back, black edges, black stitching and natural color smooth lined inside. The natural Ostrich. Natural leather, brown Ostrich accent panel, black edges, and black stitching.

I have worked with Shark, Kangaroo, Elephant, Hippo, Cape Buffalo, Water Buffalo, and Ostrich legs. The Shark and Kangaroo are the easiest to work with overall. I only use the roo for lining though. The shark actually looks burnish as you cut it with your edging tool. All of them can be burnished to a really nice edge though but some take more work than others. Like the two Buffalos for example. It helps to use Gum Trag with them. Elephant is relatively easy and Hippo is not too bad. Nor is the Ostrich leg. As far as durability is concerned the Shark and Elephant are highly regarded here.

There was a thread started shortly after this one that said they got a bad side from WC. So it can happen from any of the suppliers.

In the search on ebay I just did only the P320 was above $60. Most were $54-$57 shipped. But isn't shipping free at Blue Gun Store? I am trying to find the P938 cocked and locked but can't find it anywhere. It is not even listed at the Blue Gun Store. But it is on the 2017 Catalog PDF. I guess I am just going to have to call Rings.

That bag looks very nice. I like that color a lot. It reminds me of Fiebing's Show Brown.

This doesn't really help but all the B grade Hermann Oak I have gotten from Springfield has been really good. Very few marks at all. Perhaps you might contact them and see if they will fix this issue for you.

Nice looking holster.

The guy in the video on this page talks about thread shelf life. https://www.superiorthreads.com/videos/what-is-the-shelf-life-of-thread/

They all look great.

Payment sent for "2.5'sq gray elephant. Asking $65" and "2.5'sq. plus 1'sq. sand elephant. $75"

Payment sent for "Brown hippo. 2.5'. Asking $75"

Nice work. I really like the lacing around the edges.

I will take the brown hippo. I also posted that I would take some of your elephant from another thread of yours.

I will take both of the 2.5sq (grey and sand) elephants an the brown hippo from the hippo thread. Do you take paypal? Either way I will take these.

To what level of wet forming have you been doing? Are you just inserting the gun and getting a basic shape of the gun or are you actually molding and shaping the leather to a well defined exact fit copy of the gun inside? The former will have very little rigidity while the latter will become very rigid and will retain it's shape and hold the gun better for longer. Also are you molding in any retention points like in the ejection port or the front portion of the trigger guard area? These two will provide retention the longest. The gun will snap into holsters that are very detail molded and have the extra retention in these two areas.

YES! Order Hermann Oak hides.

I am using 8/9 oz. I use a spray bottle and spray just spray the surface enough that I get water on all of it with a little bit more on the gun pocket than on the wings. Then after a few seconds I use my fingers to open the holster a bit and spray the inside. After that I will put my makers stamp on it and then make the detail lines at the muzzle and the sweat guard. These things only take a few minutes so I usually hav to wait a bit longer for the leather to return to a lighter color before doing the actual molding.

Those look cool. I really like the weathered look of the flag.