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That looks fantastic!

What type of leather are you using? Herman Oak gets a beautiful reddish color just by oiling it with neetsfoot oil. Here's a holster I recently did with nothing but a liberal coat of neetsfoot oil applied and sealed with an acrylic finish. It was 5-6oz. Truthfully, I probably applied too much oil, but I wasn't really going for a stiff holster this time. Here is another holster with 8-9oz Herman Oak. You can't always get the same coloring as this photo shows. But, I didn't put nearly as much oil on this one as I did the one above. If you have access to an airbrush, you might try spraying your dyes. I can achieve pretty much the same color (or lighter) by spraying Fiebing's Saddle Tan with an airbrush. Here is a set that I airbrushed with Saddle Tan, lightly oiled, and antiqued the tooling after sealing. You can also just trying neetsfoot oil and placing it in the sun for a while before applying your final finish coat. When applying antique - make sure you don't let it sit on the surface too long. Do small sections if necessary. Lately I've been using 50/50 water and Angelus 600 for my finish coats. I brush it on liberally so it penetrates the leather very well, but I'm careful not to put so much finish on my sponge brush that I have pools of the finish everywhere. I do two coats like this. I don't really notice any darkening from the antique, aside from in the cracks and crevices where I want it darker.

Get yourself an adjustable creaser and you're good to go. You don't even need to dampen the leather - just lightly trace around the edges to make a noticeable mark on the surface. http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/8072-00.aspx

A little time has passed but I wanted to post a follow up to the thread snagging issue I was having. Thanks to Wizcrafts, I placed a plastic funnel over the thread cone and this 100% fixed the snagging issue I was having. Before adding the cone, I took a plastic curvy straw from my kid's collection, cut a section from it and placed it in the thread guide. This might have helped a little, but I still got the thread snags because the thread was still flipping up and looping over the metal stand. I can't say the funnel by itself cured the problem due to the design flaw in the metal stand's thread guide loop, where it can easily snag the thread if it slips into the opening (which mine has done on rare occasion). You might find it worthwhile to modify your metal loop on the stand to eliminate the possibility of snagging. You could smear a little JB Weld or epoxy in there (try not to make a mess), or even look for an appropriate size rubber grommet - though the rubber grommet could add additional friction, resulting in inconsistent top tension. Personally, I'm happy with the plastic straw method, though I may see if there is a rubber grommet that fits the metal stand and has a small enough hole to securely hold the plastic straw. Otherwise, you could hold the straw in place by filling the opening with a little modeling clay.

Gum tragacanth - its a plant extract gooey liquid stuff you sponge on and rub into the leather to help glue the fibers down for a smooth surface. It can be used on edges too for burnishing.

Here is what I suggest... Cut all your pieces Do your tooling Let dry completely Apply your dye Let it completely dry Assemble and sew the holster Dunk the holster in a pan full of room temperature water with one drop of dish soap for about 7-10 seconds, then sling the holster to remove the excess water Form the holster with your fingers and bone folder - avoid using the bone folder over the tooling unless it's absolutely necessary. There is some argument about this, but I place mine in an oven at about 135 degrees for 45 minutes Remove from oven and place in front of a fan to dry overnight Burnish and dye your edges according to Hidepounder's tutorial Gum the interior to smooth it out (unless you lined it) Apply your finish

Give Springfield a call as well. They didn't have it listed on their site, but they told me about it when I was on the phone with them asking what they had in stock. I bought one skin for a holster a while back - I think I paid about $15 if memory serves.

Oh yeah - Wiki - I don't know what any of them are, by my host has 5 different Wiki installs... MediaWiki, TikiWiki, WikkaWiki, DokuWiki and PmWiki.

Have you seen http://gundata.org/ before? I haven't spent a whole lot of time on their site, but it appears to be a WordPress site. Their goal is to have users sign up, and I guess after some sort of approval process, you become an editor on the site where you can add new gun models, specifications, descriptions, photos, etc. If you put up bad information, other users can log in and edit the content to correct misinformation. That's at least my understanding of the site. You might consider doing something similar yourself - just a thought.

Awesome tutorial! Thanks for sharing! When you trim the excess binding away - how do you trim it? Are you sliding something thin (like a credit card) under the material and cutting it with a knife? Or just scissors?

I'm not a FCP user (since I'm on PC), and I wouldn't necessarily say I'm a Premiere user either - I've used it at work a few times to compile animation stills into final presentation videos with basic transitions and title slides, etc. I was happy to see Adobe start offering subscriptions for their programs - great for the occasional user. Would you say FCP-X is any better/worse than Adobe Premiere? It was my understanding (at least from watching the promotional videos on the apple site) that FCP-X was a pro-level video editor. Since I consider myself more of an "enthusiast", I need more than "Windows Movie Maker", but I can do without the top-tier functions (whatever those may be - I'm not a pro, so I don't know what they are). Have you used the 27" iMac? Or one of their cinema displays? I'm sure I can build a faster PC cheaper and buy a nice 27" HD screen, but it'd still be running lower resolution than the iMac and I'm sure won't have the same picture quality.

Thanks fellas! Sixer is correct - he actually wanted the gun to ride below the belt, but I convinced him he probably wouldn't be able to draw the gun since it would snag on the bottom of his belt. We landed on mid-way up the width of the belt. The notch in the leather is so he can push up on the tip of the barrel to raise the gun above the top of the belt so he can grab it. He won't be able to get a combat grip on it - probably just enough to pull it out with his thumb. But, it's what he wanted and he was very happy with the prototype. He hasn't see this one yet, as I won't see him till tomorrow, but I think he'll be very happy with it.

This is a pretty old thread, but since it popped back up... I'm about to buy a new computer. I priced out a pretty powerful PC build that I could use to edit videos, and it was considerably cheaper than a MAC with comparable features. That being said, I think MAC software is generally better designed and geared towards creative people. Right now I'm using Sony Vegas to edit my videos. I'd love to buy Adobe Premiere, but the price is just too expensive. With MAC releasing Final Cut Pro X for $299, I think that may have sealed the deal. And that 27" iMac display runs higher resolution than a typical monitor which is great for creative pros that need a lot of screen space for tool bars, palettes, etc. I'm still on the fence, but definitely leaning towards a MAC.

I made this for a friend at work to carry his Walther TPH .22 LR. He had an idea what he wanted, so I helped him put it on paper. I made a mock-up first, and this is the final product with a few tweaks (the first one was too loose). Made from 5-6 oz Herman Oak, oiled, then sealed.

Not to criticize your wooden mag dummies, but I'm curious about the wooden substitutes. Have you double-checked the final formed mag carriers with actual magazines to see how they fit? Where are you getting the dimensions and radius for the magazines? How are you forming your mag carriers - one at a time, but in batches? If so, that's not really any different than what I do, and I get by perfectly fine with two magazines for any given gun model. I form the mag carrier, remove the magazines, then place the leather in the oven to warm/dry and move on to the next piece. It's not really necessary to leave the dummy in the mag pouch while it dries - in fact, I'd suggest removing it so the leather is allowed to shrink slightly, resulting in a tighter fit of the magazine. Since there is nothing to grab on to, the tighter the mag pouch, the better (within reason, of course). For what it's worth, I was buying Rings mag dummies at first, then bought a Duncan's mag dummy. I was annoyed that Rings formed theirs without a round in the magazine, which I guess makes sense for training, but I prefer to have a round poking out of the magazine when I form it for holsters. Duncan's had a round in it, but the quality/accuracy of their dummies is quite low in my opinion. Any time I need a magazine, I prefer to simply buy a pair of real magazines from the cheapest place I can find.

If you don't want it to darken, use Lexol. It won't darken the leather.

Looks great! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks DM - yes, it's still working for me. Sorta... I'm definitely not getting rich off it - the expense to create the videos FAR outweighs the money the videos generate. I'm planning on making more videos, but I have to upgrade my computer & storage space first.

Colt Hammerless is right - you can pour a little denatured alcohol in a bowl/dish/pan/pot, etc., then (while wearing gloves, respirator and eye protection), scrub the finish with a tooth brush. It will come off quite easily. When you order your next dummy, tell them you'll be using it for holsters and to please leave off the final finish coat. I've heard you can also request a different color resin - I think the other option is a dark gray/black. Personally, I stick with the blue version so people driving by don't see a bunch of "guns" hanging on my wall in my garage.

That holster looks like it came out great! It's unfortunate you got the black smudge on it, but you could dye the front piece black if you wanted to "fix" it. Another thing you could do is damped the back, then hammer the stitches flat on the backside. Both of those suggestions, of course, are assuming you haven't already sealed the holster. Otherwise, it's a nice looking holster.

Thanks - I don't have any pics of the inside. I dyed the inside black, smoothed it by dampening it with a sponge then rubbed a glycerin bar over it, then sealed it. Ideally I'd like to line it, but I didn't have thin enough material at the time I made these.

That's pretty cool! Would help cut down the western sun that bakes my garage in the evenings.

Same here... My wife keeps threatening me because in the winter I keep my garage door closed. She says when I'm old and dumb she's not going to take care of me because I was too stupid to ventilate my work space. Of course, sometimes I keep the door closed in the summer because all the little bugs fly into my garage and land in the wet adhesive. Can't win. LOL

Kevin - have you ever posted a workflow showing snippets of your process? I'm really curious how you work with those tiny slivers of leather. Do you tack them down with glue so they stay in place while sewing? And you use so many different kinds of leather - do you buy scrap bags? Or full hides? Actual Exotics - or embossed veg tan? Your recent wallets on your Facebook page are simply incredible. These bags are as well! Your work never fails to inspire!

Kevin - I also lost my right foot in a car accident (1996). Several years ago I was making custom rifle rests with a Consew 206rb with a clutch motor. That thing would run like a scalded dog - WAY faster than I was comfortable with and my stitch lines were max 6" long with several 1-2" runs. However, I was able to get used to it (mostly) and did a lot of sewing with it. A low-speed servo motor would be a walk in the park! I lifted the presser foot with my left hand as was previously suggested and it worked just fine. I do agree with what everyone else said about a powered machine vs. the manual machine. There are lots of times when I have to take a few deep breaths because I simply can't sew something one-handed. I've even had the frame of the Boss scratch my leather a few times because I had the leather rolled up to slide through the narrow neck. The Boss is a great machine, but it certainly has its disadvantages - price being one of them.