brinyar

<br /><br /><br />Yep, similar problems. They have had an inconsistent density throughout the side, and an almost cork-like texture in places. I should have sent them back, but thought I would still get a reasonable amount of holsters from them. It is a shame, too, because the last two sides were among the best I had seen on the skin side. They had a very little amount of blemishes and stretch marks and a good, tight grain to them. They were just not wet molding very well. I had four holsters mold like I expect them to, and maybe another 5-6 mold ok, out of the two sides. The rest of the leather is just going to be scrap. I'll try the Hermann Oak, then decide which I'll ultimately go with. The past leather has always been so good that I didn't see a need to change, but such inconsistency is frustrating, and expensive....

Nice holster. Good even color. Those are great pictures, too. It is nice to see good, close up pictures of peoples work. I think you have convinced me to try out Hermann Oak for my next side, also. I haven't been very happy with the last two sides of the leather I have been using.

The supplied air brush hose has a 1/4 fitting on the compressor side so it is easy to hook up to any air compressor. You will probably have to dip or brush the finish on the inside to get good coverage. I have not tried to just spray the inside, though.

Thanks for the ideas on spray booths. I have been reading up on homemade spray booths and will keep those plans in mind.

MDL- Thanks, and welcome to the forum. I have been using a 6hp, 30 gallon Craftsman air compressor to power the air brush. It is a little overkill to use it, but I had it beforehand and didn't want to spend too much to get started.... I have also filled a 12 gallon portable air tank and had enough air/air pressure to do the finish on 4 holsters. The H series has worked great for both dye and finish applications. kevinhopkins- It was definitely easier to use than I thought, I thought the acrylic finish would gum it up occasionally but it hasn't been a problem. It is also very easy to clean. Some sort of spray booth would be nice to have, though.

Thanks Jeff. I'm starting to do more double stitching, especially on pancakes. Alot of people just seem to expect it on holsters and I also think it adds a certain finished look to a holster. I have not tried a slot punch yet. I have a 1 1/2" one I bought way back for belt slots that I don't use, but I thought it was a little big for this application. I need to get something smaller.

Looks good. I like the style of the reinforcement piece wrapped around the cylinder. Nice, clean design.

Thanks for the comments. -WaG35 -- It is the Angelus 600 acrylic.

Thanks. After the finish has been applied I don't touch them for a good 15-24 hours. They seem to be nice a dry by then. I punched a hole in a rough draft holster made of belly hide awhile back as a joke, but I kind of liked the results.... I'm curious what the general opinion would be of the looks of it. You won't be able to run a rag through to clean it, but it would provide some ventilation and drainage.

I got an airbrush over a month ago and have been playing around with applying the acrylic finish. Somebody slap me for not buying one sooner.... These things are great! It really helps to consistently apply a nice even, matte finish. It seemed like it would be easier to maintain a single action one so I got a Passche H series. Here are two holsters I have recently completed, one pancake for a 1911 commander and another iwb for a Glock subcompact. As usual any comments/criticism welcome. Scott

Beautiful work. I really like that 23 degrees of cant in a holster. You suggested that in an old thread and it has really worked out well in my own holsters I've made. My only very minor suggestion would be to use a strap or belt not stitched yet to mold with on the backside of the holster. That way the stitches won't be molded into the holster.

I have not noticed any difference in stiffness between Feibings or Angelus, but also think they make the molding and boning process different than using plain leather. I dye all the pieces of a holster before assembly and think the added stiffness is good. If you experiment with wetting the holster before you mold I think you will find that certain point of saturation that will allow you to mold it well and get crisp boning lines. I use W&C leather, though, so I don't know if there would be much difference with HO.

I always like to see your work. Great craftsmanship and beautiful use of exotic hides.

Very nice. I like the color. That is the medium brown?

Ian-the light brown was undiluted. I would like to try the airbrush just to maintain consistency of the color from holster to holster. I am happy with the even color of the light brown holster pictured, but have had a previous holster turn out slightly blotchy. That one ended up black.... I really appreciate the comments on the stitching. I had never touched a stitching or sewing machine until I got mine. I still struggle to keep everything even, particularly when when overlapping the starting stitches with the final stitches. After thinking about it, I'm not sure I will bother with using a reducer to get different shades of color. I might just stick with factory colors to keep it quick and easy without having to mix up a unique color every time I buy dye. That could change, though, if it would be possible to save a significant amount of money by cutting the dye with a cheaper reducer.

Good point!!!

I've thought about punching a hole near the muzzle...but, I have to admit I don't like how it looks on some holsters. I might be bowing down to aesthetics more than I should on that.... I understand perfectly the logic of punching the slot to allow dirt and lent out easier. I will probably try it sometime.

This probably won't apply to your problem, since your process is consistent, but when I first set up my press system I had some holsters that turned out with a similar texture. I think I was over pressing the holsters because when I backed off on the pressure on later holsters they turned out better. I find the variability of leather sometimes frustrating. A couple of months ago I had problems with some of my IWB straps wrinkling after very little use, it did not seem to matter where they were cut from the hide or what they were treated with. I moved on to a different hide and haven't had any more trouble.

I used Wickett & Craig 6/7 oz leather for both. I'll probably always dip dye as a first step, but would like to try the air brush to even out and keep the color consistent. Mainly for browns. All my patterns are different for every gun. I do try to maintain the same basic style for everything, though. I do a lot of experimenting just to see how different designs work out. The Kahr holster is the second time I've tried a closed muzzle design for the K40. I know some people don't like them, but so far I like the stability the extra length provides. Thanks for all the comments.

I haven't mixed any different colors yet, but will throw some black into the light brown to see what I get. I do use the Angelus 600 acrylic finish. I usually dip everything, from dye to finish. Some of the posts about using an air brush have me interested in trying that method out, it will probably be awhile before I do that, though. Thanks for the tip on the Spice color, Boomstick, I'll order some sometime to try out.

I purchased it from Springfield Leather. I have also read that other people have got it at Turtlefeathers.net, or purchased direct from Angelus.

The best thing about Angelus dye...is that there seems to be little to no buffing required to remove the excess dye. When I use Fiebings it seems to take forever to buff it enough to prevent any rub-off. On the downside, the light brown is a little too reddish for my tastes.... Anyway, here are a couple of holsters I have done with Angelus light brown and jet black. Any comments are welcome. Scott

Thanks for the info everyone, and thanks for that link, Denise. It is very helpful. I think my shop vac would be considered a dust pump, according to that information. The $165-$300 dust collection systems at Grizzly were what I was looking at, but after reading a bit I think I'll have to save more money for a better system. I need to get busy and form a business to pay for all this stuff....

What do you guys do to control leather dust? I'm slowly getting over a sinus infection that leather dust may have caused. I usually use a shop vac to collect the dust as I sand the edges of a holster, and have taken to lightly wetting the edges as I sand. I'm not sure there is much more I can do, but I have been looking at dust collection systems that woodworkers use. Does anybody use anything like that? I would like to do more than I am doing now because sinus infections really, really suck.

Yeah, most of the IWB holsters I have made so far have around 15 degrees of cant. When I made a new one like the first one pictured in this thread, though, I pulled the loops in tighter and canted it forward 20 degrees. I like it better with more cant.