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Don't get me wrong - not harping on the number of flowers at all. Your work looks fantastic. I was really just joking more than anything. Don't change a thing - the pattern looks great.

I like the lighter color achieved with an airbrush. But, I typically go over my pieces 3-4 times to apply the base color. Meaning, I go left to right, back and forth as I move down the piece, then I go back to the top and repeat until I've done this 3-4 times. I also use the Pro dyes since they have a little more chance to penetrate before drying (from my understanding of the Fiebing's Pro dyes). I've debated creating a batch of thinned dye to reduce the intensity, then dip dying my pieces to get the base color. This would give better penetration, while maintaining a lighter color, and also help to speed up the process of applying the first coat. Downside for me - I like leaving the natural flesh color on my holsters (except for the black ones).

Looks incredible! Did you ever find yourself saying "(sigh)....only 16 more flowers to go..."? Very nice.

You're correct BRL - but I thought you were supposed to put a resist on the tooling to make the antique only settle into the tooling, but allow it to easily wipe away from the rest of the project? I applied antique to a clean, undyed piece of leather, and it took almost all of the antique color - it got very dark. Thus the resist (Satin Sheen). You're right - this whole work-flow experimentation really eats into the productivity. Last night I put two coats of Satin Sheen on the pieces (after dying them first), then later I applied the antique. When I wiped off the antique, it streaked heavily. I hoped it would dry and disappear (hoping the streaking was simply from the moisture in the leather beneath the satin sheen), but the streaks never went away. So, I get to start over tonight. Doh!! I really have no fear that this can be done - but I think in the future applying antique to the tooling will be an up-charge of at least $10 simply for the additional steps of applying resist and the headache of altering the work-flow. So, my tweaked workflow for antiquing will look something like this.... Cut new pieces Transfer stitch lines, grooves and belt slot locations Tool the appropriate leather piece(s) Cut decorative grooves around edges Dye pieces Oil pieces (usually do this after baking, but can't since I'm about to apply satin sheen...) Apply satin sheen (2 coats) Antique Burnish edges of reinforcement piece Glue the reinforcement/tunnel piece on & stitch them together Sand edges flush Wet flesh side & fold & let dry Glue & stitch closed Sand edges flush Burnish edges with water Wet holster Stamp with maker's mark Form to gun Bake in oven Burnish edges with water again if necessary Dye edges Gum the interior Gum edges Two more coats of satin sheen Final coat of resolene Listen to my wife tell me I need to raise my prices

Thanks for the help everyone. I started the process tonight - here is what I have found thus far for those that are interested. I took a scrap pieces that was tooled with an early attempt at the pattern, and dyed it (actually dyed it last night) the same color my holster will be - Fiebing's Pro Light Brown. Then, I ran a stitch around the edge just like would be done with the holster. Then I applied two heavy coats of Satin Sheen to the tooled side - making sure to saturate the thread with each coat - and let it dry thoroughly in front of a fan. After it was dry, I wiped on the Antique I picked up from Tandy (Eco Flo stuff), then wiped it off and buffed it. The antique did slightly darken the leather - but it also darkened the thread and turned it a grayish color - it was Natural color to begin with. After the antique dried, I soaked it in a bowl of water until it was saturated with water - the antique held on very well... So, I moved on to the actual pieces - 2 coats of Satin Sheen, then I'll antique each of the pieces before assembly. I'll probably have to be more gentle with the boning process - but mainly to make sure I don't rub off the Satin Sheen. If this whole fiasco ends up crashing in a ball of fire, I'll just tell the customer I can do it, but I'll have to use black thread - unless he's okay with gray thread... - that way I can build the holster like normal, then apply the antique at the end before the final sealer. I'll post pics regardless of the outcome.

Hi there! Where are you buying the dye from? I think I paid about $20 for a quart - I believe my wife ordered my dyes from Springfield. When you're airbrushing the dye - it will go a long, long way and you'll get a ton of holsters out of it. If I were you, I'd pony up the extra cash for the Pro dyes, but I would also only buy one quart at a time - at least until you're comfortable with the colors you picked and the results you're getting.

Stitching with the Boss - and was told you can't wax the thread because it'll gum up the system.

The problem I foresee is this... after I attach the reinforcement/tunnel piece of leather, I wet the holster to allow it to fold easily - then let it dry. Then I glue and stitch it closed. Then I wet it again and form it. The guy at Tandy said wetting the holster would wash off the antique... I would be wetting it twice. And I need to seal the leather before I apply the antique, which will affect the ability to fold/form the holster.

A customer requested that I antique the tooling on a holster I'm building him (similar to the following photo). The one I'm building for the customer will be light brown with natural thread color. I typically dye the pieces first, then assemble. I'm trying to figure out the best way to apply the antique, while hopefully preserving the thread's natural/white appearance. I'll need to apply satin sheen to the dyed pieces, then antique, then satin sheen again. Obviously this will make it hard to absorb water... Should I just build the holster like normal, then antique the whole thing (thread and all) before the final sealers and finish coats? I suppose I could build the thing, antique it, then rip the stitching out and hand stitch it, but I don't really consider this an option....

I really like my Boss - But...... I really hate the screw that sticks out of the needle plate. It dings up the back side of my holsters. Perhaps it's time I upgrade to the Holster Plate - it will work better with my holsters anyway. Or I guess I could file the top of the screw off, but in my opinion that really should not be the responsibility of the buyer - it's a design flaw in my opinion. Not really looking forward to stitching belts with it. Wish the throat was a little wider - some of my holsters don't really fit unless I curl the holster up a bit (yes, I've tried stitching from the opposite direction too). It's hard to manually cycle the stitching handle, while curling the holster with your left hand - it's pretty awkward. Wish it was easier to lube - suppose I need to get an oil can with a flexible tube on it because the little metal cans of machine oil don't really work very well. I have it bolted to a counter, and I don't have easy access to the back without leaning over the counter. All that being said - it was the best I could afford at the time, and I didn't want to go into a lot of debt to get my little holster hobby/business up and running. Overall I'm happy with the Boss, but I'm looking forward to the day when I can pull the trigger on a powered machine.

From my personal sales, Light Brown with Black airbrushed edge accents is the most popular - but I think that's because that's what I demonstrated in my "how's it made" video. I think some people feel like that combination allows it to wear well with either a brown or black belt... My personal favorite is light brown with dark brown accents. Natural is the least popular, dark brown being second to last. Almost everyone that orders from me wants airbrushed edge accents. Probably 1-2 out of 10 wants a black holster.

Thanks Lobo - I didn't assume you did it all in one sitting and assumed it was over the course of time. I appreciate the insight into your workflow - that's something I really need to work on. I'm a "one thing at a time" guy. The Avenger style holsters have to have their reinforcement piece sewn on, then wet and folded and allowed to dry overnight. The Pancakes don't need that extra day of drying time, and I could certainly proceed with their production, but I usually just wait until the Avengers are ready to proceed. Not very efficient. Perhaps I should, like you do with colors, do one style of holster at a time so the workflow is the same for all the holsters in a given batch. Anyway, thanks for the clarification and insight into your production routine. It's much appreciated and something I could certainly learn from.

Looks great! Man, one hour? I need to pick up the pace!!

I agree with the burnished comments. It looks like the leather was burnished during the forming process. I usually work my holsters when they are very wet - too wet to hold detail lines. This allows the leather to stretch much more easily, without burnishing the surface so quickly. If you don't want to dye the individual pieces prior to assembly, next time try forming the holster while the leather is fresh out of the pan of water (I usually dunk mine 10-15 seconds to allow the water to penetrate the double-thickness pieces). Once the holster has lost some of its moisture, you can come back and add the detail to your lines.

Good point - I see that now. Suppose it depends on how wide the lobe is and how thick the trigger guard is as to whether or not the belt is able to push on it. Can you tell I haven't made many IWB holsters yet? LOL Thanks for the clarification Boomstick.

It should be mentioned that only allowing for half of the thickness of the gun does not allow for things like molded or stitched sight channels. It also assumes you can make almost perfect folds in the leather. Leaving too much around the gun can lead to a sloppy fit or a holster that wears out too quickly. But leaving the stitch line too close to the gun will also produce a holster that is very difficult to draw the gun from. Failure to allow for a sight channel will result in leather fuzz all over the front sight and eventually could lead to a weakening of the leather where the front sight begins to scrape it in two. If I were to follow the 1/2 thickness method, I'd probably add 1/8" on the bottom of the gun, and 1/4" on the slide for the sight channel - at least in front of the ejection port - then drop back down to 1/8" if I was feeling motivated.

Kinda hard to tell with the tiny picture, but it looks like a great start! Now that you have the first holster made, the second should come even better. I usually have to build a mock-up out of scrap portions of the hide just to tweak the stitch line, cut lines, etc. Now that you can see what you didn't like with the first one, you can address it on the second one. 1/4" offset around the gun is too little. It varies depending on the thickness of the gun, but try 3/4" offset around the gun. If you want the bottom open, offset the bottom about 1/4" beyond the barrel of the gun to protect the muzzle. If you curve the muzzle area inward, this will also help to stiffen the leather at the muzzle to help reinforce the opening at the muzzle-end of the holster.

I couldn't figure it out either, and noticed the same thing you did. The solution for me? Use Google's powerful "site:" search tool. From Google, search with the following method: "hat patterns" site:leatherworker.net "search string" site:domain.com This works with pretty much ANY website.

You know - I'm not really sure. I've seen a lot of holsters from various makers that are built like that, but aside from perhaps being a point of leverage to push against with the middle, ring and pinky fingers, I think it's mostly for aesthetics. It's not wide enough to be of any effect on stabilization, and I don't think it helps to obscure the "gun" outline if it happened to print through the pants. In the end - on future IWB holsters I make, I'll trim that piece off the pattern, leaving only the double stitch line. I was going to with this one, but the customer requested I leave it on - he was standing there as I drew the pattern. He had a certain design in mind, so that's what this is the result of.

Definitely is a neat little gun! Yes, stitched the sight rail. Been doing it on the IWB holsters so far.

It's been a while since I posted anything, so I figured I'd post the latest holster off the bench. This was for a co-worker. Constructed of 6-7 oz Herman Oak with a spring clip from Tandy.

Tandy does sell a premium line of leather - I believe it's Royal Meadow. The guy at the Tandy by my office said it comes from England (if I remember correctly?), and they don't have barbed wire so there are usually no scars on the hides. This is a holster I did with Herman Oak. I probably am guilty of tooling with the leather way too wet, but it still burnished pretty well I think. After it was dry, I applied a light coat of neatsfoot oil, then a couple coats of Satin Sheen and then a light coat of Resolene. I work in my garage, so the leather tends to dry out pretty quickly. You can see how the leather burnished around the belt slot, simply from forming it for a belt tunnel.

Very nice! Thanks for sharing.

I have not tried making it yet, but this thread gave me hope... http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=24345

Who said you were being stupid? K-Man - I tend to agree with you. Compared to a horse, the forces a human body is capable of expelling are minuscule, at best. Depending on the stitches per inch, I feel like there is very little chance of the belt tearing under normal use. That being said, I've heard a prosthetist talk about children and how hard they can be on their prosthetic limbs. Titanium, carbon fiber, stainless steel - they build them supposedly strong enough to support a pickup truck, but children still break them all the time. I'm an amputee myself from a motorcycle wreck in my college days. I have a fairly large build, am a bit overweight - yet I've carried loads my prosthetist would cringe if she knew, hauled thousands of pounds of stones and lumber (took a few trips...), skied, snowboarded, etc. All that, and I still managed to shatter one of my legs when I simply lunged forward to grab a shopping cart that was about to broadside a lady's car - and I have very little strength in my amputated leg...