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Beautiful work all the way around - holsters and dagger - fantastic!

I had some family members suggest this - make up 5 or 10 extra holsters and sell them on the website. Or if I make a particular holster for a customer, go ahead and make 2 instead of just 1. My thoughts? I'm already "X" weeks behind - if I did that, I'd be "X" x 2 in the hole, just making my customers wait even longer. I guess the difference with this and what what you may be considering is that it sounds like you'd stop taking orders all together, and just sell in-stock items on your website. Thus, no actual wait times for customers. The downside I'd see here is forecasting what customers will want - what will sell, and what won't. You can sell 1911 holsters all day long, so would you even mess with anything else? I'm sure you've made more than enough holsters to know what you can sell reliably. Another thing I could see is the perception of decreased value for an 'off-the-shelf' product. People may be willing to pay your current prices for in-stock holsters, but if there is nothing custom about it any more (can't select the color & thread combination, etc.), they may think "wow, I can buy a holster 'just like that' for half that price at _____'s." I have a few in-stock holsters on my site. My wife wanted to charge full-price for them, but as I suspected, they're not moving as quickly as we'd like. The right buyer might be out there that wants a holster just like you have already in stock, but there are a whole lot more out there that want a variation of it to suit their tastes. I say it's worth a shot - but there is something comforting about knowing I have "X" weeks worth of holster orders in case anything major happens (job loss, car breaks down and I have to make major repairs, etc.).

What are you making? I found when making holsters, it's better to oil after forming. Reason being - I wet, then form, then dry the holster in an oven for ~40 minutes at 140 degrees. When I pull the holster out of the oven, it needs to be oiled (skin side only for me - and only after it's sat in front of a fan and completely dried overnight). Because I have multiple colors of threads that I offer, I do all of my dying before I do any sewing and/or assembly. I also didn't like the way it felt when I formed it and boned the holster to the firearm - it just felt "greasy". So, dye first for me.

I recently decided to buy the stirrup plate accessory for my Tippmann Boss. I won't get into the "why", aside from saying it's to make sewing an "Avenger" style holster a little easier. So, I pulled the attachment out of the bag, fondled it a bit, noticed it had quite a few sharp edges on it, then went ahead and installed it. I figured those sharp edges must not be a problem, or Tippmann would have already addressed it in quality control. First time stitching with the new stirrup plate installed, I noticed the thread was fraying. Wondered if maybe the added height tweaked the tension or something, but soon found out it was those darn sharp edges on the bottom side of the plate that was fraying the thread as it was pulled up from the bobbin. Yanked it off, polished it up with my dremel, then back to work. Fraying was gone. On to my first holster with it installed... More sharp edges are causing problems now!! Turns out pretty much the entire black part of the accessory needs to be sanded down and buffed up - those stupid sharp edges are scraping the crap out of my work! Darn you Tippmann - at least run them through a sand blaster with some aggressive media or something before sending them off for final paint!!

Thanks Ray - I forgot to mention, I got a lot of inspiration from Kate's beautiful seat covers and such she has listed on her Etsy. I don't have a lot of tools (just a basic stamp set from Tandy), but I was pretty happy with the way they came out.

I add a drop of dish soap to a pan, then fill it with water (not hot - just room temp). Then I soak the holster for 5-10 seconds, depending on how quickly it is absorbing the water. I probably favor 10 seconds, as I want to make sure the double-layer portions are plenty flexible so I can form the ejection port area first (after spending a minute or two actually forcing the gun into the freshly wet holster. But, I to answer your question - I dip then go straight to molding - I don't wait, and that's mainly because I want it as damp as possible when I attack the ejection port. The Avenger style is the worst as you're working against the stretched/compressed leather - it doesn't manipulate very easily.

Wow - that's beautiful! If I owned a case like that, I'd probably start playing pool!

You most definitely don't need a holster press of any kind to produce a well defined holster. They help to "find" the gun, but you'll still need to cut in the details by hand. Get yourself a bone folder. You can probably find one at your local arts & craft store. Do your initial forming while the holster is fresh out of the pan of water - it's easiest to manipulate and stretch the leather at this point with minimal risk of burnishing the leather. As the leather begins to dry a bit, you can start adding detail to the lines. Trying to add detail before this point in the drying stage will just be frustrating to you, as the leather will be too moist to hold any sharp detail. Begin with the round edge of the boning tool and push the leather down into the nooks and crannies - then slowly begin to turn the boning tool on edge and use it more like a knife - this will 'cut' in the detail and add definition to your holster. Depending on how thick the leather is, and what quality of leather you're buying, .... well, regardless, it takes a lot of effort to conform the leather to the details of a firearm. I took Denster's advise and built a vacuum press since it's portable and I don't have a lot of floor space in my garage/shop. But I'm doing enough "volume" (5-10 a week) that I wanted to cut down on the initial forming effort. All of the holsters on my site were formed entirely by hand.

Here is some coasters I made a while back. Just made another 50+ for gifts from the belly portions of my hides.

Hey, those look great!! Can I ask where you bought the studs? I've been wanting to try something like that (not on a belt), but wasn't sure what to buy or where to get them.

I'm assuming it wasn't a simple style like this one... You can try getting an orbital sander after it on the flesh side. Sand it until you get the whole surface looking consistently "suede-ish". Then just build the holster and leave it natural! If you have some really thin leather, you could line it... Only the thin stuff would be on the outside. Otherwise, I might agree with the previous post - make it a cross-draw. Depending on how much leather you have on hand, it may be cheaper just to set the pieces aside and cut another set. At ~$7/sf, you only wasted ~$14 in leather at the most. Throw in the time and other materials to finish the holster - you wasted a whole lot more trying to salvage it. For what it's worth, I always draw my pattern and any reference lines and text on one side of the pattern - the "Right" side. And I write "RIGHT" on it really bold so I don't usually miss it. Do this for any relating pieces for the pattern. If someone wants flesh side out, I simply cut out the pieces for a left-handed holster, then assemble it for a right-handed holster.

Have you already sealed it? If not, wet it again and deepen the indention inside the trigger guard. You could also hand-stitch along the bottom of the trigger guard to tighten that area up. While you're at it, bone along the edge of the firearm (bottom of slide and trigger guard) to tighten those areas up as well.

I had a holster that had a bit more retention than I preferred. It wasn't because the holster was too tight, but because the Resolene was a bit tacky. Even after drying for a full 24 hours in the heat of my Texas garage with a fan blowing on it constantly, it was still tacky (those that use Resolene will probably know exactly what I'm referring to - that plastic'y feeling). I had a can of Remington Dri-Lube sitting on my gun-cleaning shelf, and thought I might give it a try. Following the directions on the can, I shook it well then gave it a few quick bursts of spray inside the holster. The first time I inserted the gun it was like night & day! The friction was gone, and the gun snapped into place inside the holster! What do you think? Do you see any harm in applying a light coat of teflon dri-lube spray before a holster leaves the shop?

Great looking stuff!

You're on the right track, but you don't need to offset on the slide-side, unless you're doing a pancake. Otherwise, if it's a wrap-around / envelope / Avenger style, you don't need the additional offset on the top of the slide. Once you've traced your pattern on 1/2 of the file folder, cut out that side of the pattern. Close the file folder, and cut along the edge of the pattern to cut away the other half of the pattern. If you are including a sweat shield, draw that onto the appropriate side of the pattern before you do any cutting.

Okay - that was pretty much my fear - that the roon would react a little different depending on application amount, the leather, etc. and it would be hard to get even/smooth application. I'll give it a try just for grins once the batch finishes in a week or two.

I finally decided to give vinegaroon a try. My question is this - can you airbrush the vinegaroon on the leather (assuming it's properly filtered so it doesn't clog the airbrush)? I would like to fade from a lighter color to black (like the attached photo). It's probably easier to just spray with black dye, but I can't apply the black very thick. Sealers will help to protect it, but I figure vinegaroon will give a little more durable coloring.

You are on the right track, but you can't just add 3/4" on the slide side of the pattern. If you do, you won't be able to slide your gun down into the holster far enough. Draw a line down the center of the paper, lay the gun on the sights, roll it on its side, then trace the outline of the pistol as close as you can. No, offset the outline of the trigger guard and dust cover 3/4" as Kevin suggested - don't just offset to the right (which is essentially what you would do if you offset 3/4" from the centerline....). You need to offset perpendicularly away from the firearm. If you are doing a 1911-type firearm, this will work just fine. If you are doing a Glock or similar polymer framed gun with a really blocky/thick trigger guard, you may need to add a little more than 3/4".

WOW!! That's "cuttin' it close"!!! Thanks for sharing - that gives me confidence to move it over quite a bit. Leaves more room for tooling anyway!

Excellent - thank you both for the info. Sounds like something I'm not interested in pursuing at the current time (gotta build my vacuum press, air condition & insulate my shop/garage). Thanks again!

I had a customer request a holster in Cordovan. Okay - stupid question time. Is Cordovan a color, or is it horse hide?

This is probably a dumb question, but what are the bobbins made out of? Disposable wood? I'm not interested in buying them, but just curious as I've never heard of buying pre-wound bobbins.

Thank you Shorts for taking the time to markup the images. I really like the looks of your reinforcement piece going up close to the adjacent stitch line. I guess I didn't think about straddling the edge of the reinforcement piece with the presser foot to stitch the top of the slide. That looks much better than the way I cut my reinforcement piece so far away.

Thanks guys. Dmr, I'm not sure how long the sight track dowel is off the top of my head - I usually take it to about the front of the trigger guard, as by the time the muzzle clears the holster to that point, it can move front to back a bit more. Being that the floral carving was there, I couldn't mold very aggressively on the tooling, thus I made the indention like I did. I wish I could remember where I had seen that done before. Well, I've been needing to order the stirrup attachment from Tippman - guess I'll order a couple presser feet while I'm there.

Hello all - I'm currently working on a couple tooled holsters and need your opinion on this one. The customer originally ordered natural leather with natural colored thread. He later requested black leather, but did not specify black thread so we rolled forward with natural thread. Honestly, this is my favorite of all the holsters I've built thus far... I have a couple questions. 1) Will the natural thread accept black dye? It's the thread I bought from Tippmann to use with my Boss. I don't think I'll have any problems dying it black, aside from rub-off, but I think with enough buffing and plenty of sealer, it should be fine and should take the color fine. 2) The customer wasn't sure what he thought of the recess for the ejection port. I have seen other holsters boned deeply like I have done, but wanted to get your opinion to see if you thought it looked bad. The customer wasn't crazy about it. I suppose I could re-wet the leather in that area and pull it out some, but that wouldn't leave much retention in that area. Anyway, I'd appreciate your thoughts on this holster, and would like to hear if you see any room for improvement. I'm not done with it - the edges still need to be burnished, and final sealers need to be applied. Thanks, Eric