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I know nothing about making shoulder holsters, but that's a fantastic looking rig!

Yeah, my wife keeps telling me that too......

George - good point about accidents and insurance... Didn't think about that. I wonder if a basic liability waiver is in order...

Thank you Eaglestroker - I appreciate the compliment. Hopefully I can make some more videos as soon as I get my queue cleared out. Finally got a new computer, now I need to make it pay for itself!!

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I really appreciate it. I'm sure I'll probably end up charging too little for this first class, but you all have given me a lot to think about should I ever decide to start teaching classes regularly. At a minimum, I'll probably charge full price for whatever holster he's wanting to make, but that's probably not nearly enough once you consider all the additional instructional time.

I had a customer contact me saying they wanted me to teach them a one on one holster making class - start to finish including the design process. Just curious if any of you out there could offer any suggestions for what to charge. I'm thinking it should be an hourly rate plus supplies? Any ideas of what the hourly rate should be or other suggestions? Thanks, Eric

Sorry, if left natural, I doubt they will go away because the surface has essentially been burnished - probably from someone raking their fingernail or something like that across the surface while handling it. But, you could try using those areas on your interior pieces if you have internal pockets. Make the scuffed areas your pocket pieces that are covered, and for the final layer of pocket, use a clean piece of the hide. Someone may have more input, but you might try dampening the leather, then rubbing over it with a glass slicker to help remove the wrinkles and possibly help a bit with the scuff marks.

2-3 oz is pretty thin - the wrinkles aren't a big surprise to me - the leather tends to get wrinkled up on the end(s) during shipping because it gets slammed around so much. Depending on what you do with it, they may not be noticeable at all once the leather gets wet and smoothed out. Speaking of, what are you planning on doing with it? I'm assuming bags since that's what you mention in your profile. Perhaps you could plan your piece layout so the scuffs are used in your pocket areas? The scuffs (dark streaks) usually go away after dying and forming - at least on my holsters. Again, not sure what you're using it for, but I've personally never had a problem with the streaks in my finished product. The pink tint you mention - Herman Oak has a russet coloring from the tannery - it's part of what makes it look so great when it's simply oiled and left its natural color. I'm not sure if that's what you're seeing? Now, all that being said, I've not been overly happy with the H.O. leather I've received from anyone other than H.O. directly. So, I started using Wickett & Craig (which is very pale colored in comparison and I don't really like that) and bought their best quality hides, which they split for free to any thickness. I used probably a dozen W&C hides, happy with all of them (aside from the pale coloring), and decided to order a Single Bend from Springfield Leather (because I love the russet tint). I gotta say - this Single Bend from Springfield is beautiful. It's more expensive, but I really like what they sent me.

You'll need to tool your pieces when they're flat (not assembled into the final holster). Your leather will have to dry after tooling so you can glue & sew it together after it's dry. Then you'll need to re-wet the leather for forming. The tooling depth may soften a bit (won't be as deep) when you re-wet it, but if you make sure and get nice, deep tooling when you first tool the piece, it should hold the detail pretty well when you re-wet for forming.

Steven - thanks for sharing! Nice looking setup you have there. Man, I can't imagine forming 15 holsters at a time. It takes me, on average, about 15 minutes per holster to form it. But, that includes punching the belt slots (easier to punch when the leather is wet so the slots don't tear out on the grain side), and beveling and burnishing the slots. I usually only have about 3, maybe 4 items in the oven at a time - guess I need to pick up the pace!! I don't remember off-hand what my oven's lowest setting is, but mine has a Warm setting. I just have to remember visually about how far the knob is rotated, but I can get mine to hold around 135-140 fairly easily, though I have to keep an eye on it since sometimes the heat will spike randomly.

I wish the dummy makers would start selling EMP dummies. I've sold dozens of holsters for it. But, like I said previously, I always warn the customer the 3" 1911 isn't an exact fit, but I've also had multiple customers order my 3" holster only to reveal after the order was complete that it fit their EMP perfectly (I had no idea at the time it was for an EMP when I was building the holster). All that to say, don't be afraid to try it - just know it's not an exact match. If you study the picture closely (and imagine the barrels being flush on the tips), you'll see the majority of the difference is actually the dimension from the top of the slide to the bottom of the pistol.

Great looking holster! Love the colors.

Hi Steven - yes, it's possible. I tool my holsters all the time. Just beware that when you form the holster, you will damage the tooling if you start pressing on it too firmly with your boning tool, assuming you want detailed molding. But, you can always do detail molding on the back (assuming you only tool the front). If you're adding a retention strap, detail molding isn't really necessary anyway.

Hi Wattspd - I think it looks great! How does it carry? It looks like it rides a tad high to me, but if you're a really skinny guy, it's probably just fine. I'm impressed you incorporated a stitched sight channel on your first holster! The only real comment I have would be to work on smoothing (rounding) out the sharp corners to reduce snags, and for a more smooth, flowing design. Otherwise, I think you did a fantastic job on your first holster! It's 10x better than my first attempt.

I put mine on a sheet of wax paper, placed on my pizza stone and I try to keep the temp around 130-140 max, for about 45 minutes. Another option to an oven is to cut the end off one of your leather shipping boxes, fashion a small hanger from a large clothes hanger and hang your holster inside the box (really, any box will do), then place a small space heater at one end of the box and allow the heated air to funnel through the box. Works great, provided you keep the heater on its lowest setting and keep an eye on the box to make sure it's not getting too hot. Stick the probe of an oven thermometer through the cardboard to monitor the temp inside the box, and regulate the box by moving the heater closer or further away from the opening. Glockanator - that's a great idea to actually hang it, instead of sitting it on something else. As I'm typing this, I see Steven Kelley replied - his is a great option too! Steven, I'd love to see a photo of your box if you'd care to share.

I would suggest using dense hard wood, as opposed to white pine and/or plywood. I have a 4'x8' plywood workbench that I modeled off one of Norm Abram's plans and love it, but it's pretty loud and obviously larger than you want. But, you could study the design and incorporate the castor system. http://follw.it/e/110643/The_New_Yankee_Workshop/14/7/Work_Table_and_Clamp_Cart I also built a 2x4 pine table so I'd have something more sturdy for tooling which is much more quite, but not as quite as I'd hoped for. For the top, I glued a whole stack of 2x4s about 30" long until I had a nice, large work surface (3.5" thick, and about 24" deep). I have a granite slab from a countertop sink cutout that I placed on top to do my tooling on. I've also seen people simply use a section of a tree trunk, cut flat on both ends.

Technically, no, since the EMP and 3" .45 ACP 1911 are physically different sizes. However, while I let the customer know I don't suggest it and I always warn the customer I can't guarantee the fit, I also let them know I've had numerous customers go ahead and order it and they were perfectly happy with it. Here's a comparison image I found a while back.

I do, but I haven't been able to update it and/or add to it in a while. When I first started, my goal was to show customers how much work goes into making a holster to help justify the price. Then I started using it try and generate revenue via YouTube's monitization feature. This type of video doesn't draw a huge viewership, so unless you have a ton of videos, that won't really bring in much money but it will help lead people to your site. Just be sure to put your URL actually in the video, as well as by using YouTube's overlay features. Since the overlays don't seem to shop up on smartphones, having the URL embedded in the video will make sure the viewer sees the URL on their smartphone.

This has worked for me several times in the past.... Clean off your work surface really well, then flip your hide over and pull out your orbital sander with 220 grit sandpaper and sand it really well. I've never gone any higher, but you probably could if you really wanted/needed to. Yes, it will make it "more" fuzzy, but it'll be more like suede, with much less of the longer stringy stuff. As you get closer to the belly, it's a little more difficult to get that suede look, but you should be able to get pretty close. This throws off a ton of leather dust, so you may want to keep a shop vac in your spare hand to suck up the airborne dust particles. When done sanding, brush gum trag on in small areas, rub in with your fingers, then smooth with a slicker.

I agree - looks great!

There's a gal on YouTube that has a great collection of videos revolving around making journals. Her username is SeaLemonDIY. http://www.youtube.com/user/SeaLemonDIY http://www.youtube.com/user/SeaLemonDIY/videos For the torn-edge paper, you basically have to start out with really large sheets, then tear the paper to the size you'll need to make your "signatures". Here's another page that you might find useful. http://tmcphoto-peanutbutterpie.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-make-signature-for-hand-bound.html These don't really show you how to attach the leather cover like you've shown, but it should help you with the inserts.

I've debated building a large wooden box approximately 2'd x 2'h x 3'w, with a 24" opening on the front and one end (left or right), then sliding a 24" box fan in one end and stacking a few 1" thick AC filters in front of it. The fan would pull the air through the filters, catching most of the overspray. Cut a circular opening in the top and mount a cheap aluminum shop light to the top, and it should make a decent spray booth. May even be a good spot to apply contact cement, though I'm not sure how well it'd filter out the smells. I don't really have a good spot to place something like this, or I'd have built it long ago.

There's so much dye on the interior of my bag, I can barely see through it. But, like Dwight said - it doesn't transfer. I've done a couple of natural holsters lately and didn't get any transfer at all.

I don't know anything about sheaths, but this fellow has a lot of great YouTube videos showing how he makes various sheaths. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLkCG-505-1t0rYlgBTSnpQ

I agree - your stuff looks great! That fishing bag looks like a big project - I hope you share your progress along the way!