Hags

I built this chest rig for a young man who is a timber cruiser on the Olympic peninsula in Washington state. He spends most of his life in the woods of the Pacific northwest. Lions, tigers and bears oh my. But really, we do have cougar and bear up here and they can be a threat. He spends most of his time busting brush estimating board feet of lumber in a given area deep in the forest. He tells me he wears this holster for his 6in S&W 686 44 mag 6 to 10 hours a day 5 to 6 days a week since last May, 2021. He came back for a pancake for his girlfriend's Glock 19 and a belt for each of them. This holster has held up very well with minimal maintenance. He says he puts a little mink oil on it occasionally but that's it. The straps are like butter and molded to him, the holster is still very tight and still very firm. Very nice feeling to see your work used as intended. The photo of him wearing it is when new.

Welcome from the other corner of the US! You'll find plenty of inspiration and help here.

Hat patches?

Nice job!

Welcome! To build holsters, I would look on you tube at Adam's leather works, EDC, and Andrew's leather work to start. That's where I began and have done pretty well. It all boils down to tracing the gun, measuring, then determining a stitch line. I do mainly pancake holsters, and use a pretty basic formula, width of slide + thickness of leather divided by 2 gives me how far to draw my stitch line from the tracing. Its It's easier after you watch a video or 3. I also started off hand sewing all of mine, and wet molding without a vac pump. You can do very well with minimal tools. Just get started. Have fun!

Yep, a lot of stitching! When I started doi g more holsters I decided to pull the trigger on a Cobra. Arthritis. There was a learning curve, but pretty easy now.

I have about half of a sail. Very heavy duty. The stuff is a pain to sew because it is not canvas, and very slick.

Very nice!

Yep, pretty darn nice!

I have bought from most of the suppliers listed here. Maverick and Rocky Mountain both having great news letters and great deals from time to time. Springfield also has great deals on cheap hides from time to time. However, the bulk of my work is holsters. And for that I use Hermann Oak veg tan in 7/8 and 5/6 oz. I know when I order H. O. it will be as advertised. I buy sides, so there will always be belly's and the various mark's etc. The last few have been from Goliger leather, and I have been very happy with them. I would still like to try Wickett and Craig though. I have been tempted to try the premium belt bend from Springfield leather as well.

I think it looks great. Good job!

Thanks guys, these were a challenge. The open top more than the other. It ended up being almost 3/4 of an inch after the sides were put on. Fortunately, my cobra class 3 went through it, but I used a new needle and took my time. He loves them both.

My favorite as well. I built up a 1/2 inch welt on the bottom to support the structure of the holster and made all the attachment points on a sewn in piece on the back.

My wife tells me I can see my mistakes because I look at things from 6 inches. It looks a lot different from a couple of feet. You will always see something that you could do better. Nice job!

Wife, daughter in law, 2 grand daughters, 3 little girls down the street, and very nice young lady and her fiance across the street. Yep, I get it. And happy to be able to do it. The smiles are worth more to me than I can say.

Very cool. I'm in the process of making a holster, double mag pouch, and belt with suspenders for my XDm for practical pistol matches. I'm liking the basket weave, I use it on most of my holster reinforcing pieces. Nice job!

Welcome! I make a few holsters and knife sheaths myself.

Good point about the metal clip. He wears it in the front so shouldn't be a problem though. I'll have to look at alternatives. Thanks about the barettes too.

These are for a golf buddy. He just bought the Bersa and was torn between IWB and KWB carry. I built both and he was very happy.

I'm getting more of the larger handguns. This is a Ruger 44mag with a Leopold scope. I made the first one to cover the scope.it turned out nice, but he wanted an open top that left the scope uncovered. Well, now we're talking a lot of cow, but he said he'd take both so,,, here we are. I didn't feel that a regular pancake type holster would be stiff enough with an open top. So I went with about a 1/2 in welt on bottom to provide the stiffness I felt was needed. I had to change the attachment points to the rear andi think it came out pretty well. I hope to take more pics tomorrow, but we'll see.

Very nice job!

I like it, and yes a bit long. I leave mine at 4" past the first hole. Better than being short like my first one was!

Very sweet! Is that lasered?

Very nice! I might have to look at one of those. We have cougar and bear around here.

Just finished this one for a fishing buddy. S&W M&P Shield 9mm Tech stuff; HO 7/8 oz Fiebings pro dye light and dark brown Fiebings Resolene 50/50 with water Sewn on a cobra class 3, Superior 277 bonded nylon top and bottom I use a vacuum bag for the initial set, then hand tool till I'm satisfied. Tooling is a simple basket weave. And that is a very old asbestos cast iron iron holding it up.