Denster

They are not in Ring's current catalog. Might check with Duncans and see if they have a cast aluminum dummy for them. Only other option is the real steel.

We Buckeyes are just better at hiding them.

Welocomee to the addiction Jack. For a frontier double loop and being your first holster, I would suggest making a double layer holster which is essentially a lined holster. The two peices are glued flesh side to flesh side which then has the grain side exposed inside and out. They are then stitched around the perifery. I'd suggest a single shoulder from Tandy in 5/6OZ weight. That should give you more than enough leather for the holster.

Double 8/9 is too much of a good thing. Line the 8/9 with 5/6 or 6/7 and you are good to go. Personnaly I really like the 9/10oz bridle leather lined with 2/3 calf or 3/4 veg. Makes a beautiful belt heavy enough for any reasonable application.

Sale flyer from Weaver's good through July.

Lobo and I have different experiences with Weaver's veg tan blanks. I haven't had the first problem with any I have received. Cross my fingers now that I've said that since I just placed another order for those and the bridle leather blanks since they are on sale. That being said there is nothing wrong with the way Lobo does it even though it doubles the cost you do have a known quality and control as you can't go wrong with HO.

Eric Weaver's has the best belt blanks and best prices I've found. Their 8/9 veg tan and 9/10 bridle leather blanks are great. You can't save enough cutting them yourself to make it worthwhile. The bridle leather makes a nice heavy belt all by itself or I line it with either 2/3 calfskin or 3/4 vegtan for a 1/4 in belt. I also like the "Pauls Buckles, keepers and tips in brass and nickle (currently on sale) however you can't use the keeper and tip over 3/16" the buckle still works great at 1/4". For fasteners I keep 1/4 and 3/8 in heavy duty chicago screws in nickle and brass and black on hand.

The Boss is not best suited for that small a thread even 99 is iffy. You may have to shim the spacer behind the shuttle out a bit so the hook just brushes past the needle. Take you needle plate off and hold the needle foot up and cycle the machine until you can see the hook passing the needle and check the clearance with a feeler guage you only want a few thousandths of clearance to be able to pick up the thread.

Just a couple of suggestions. Skip the wetting the leather and slicking you are not accomplishing anything. If you are making a molded holster, dye your parts prior to glue up. The reason for this being that molded areas of the holster will have the fibers compressed and will take the dye differently if you do it later. After you are done molding the holster and it still has some moisture in it buff the entire holster briskly with sheepskin. This will burnish the surface and give you a nice sheen. The tips from Lou Alessi pretty much lay out the process.

Let it sit for a week or so and it should balance out. The fibers of the leather are more compressed in a tooled area and it takes the oil longer to migrate. I run into the same situation with formed holsters. The area that is boned is always darker than the unworked areas but after about a week the oil achieves a balance and it all even.

Vinagaroon does impede the absorbtion of moisture but you can form holsters after vg you just have to soak it longer. For example on a holster made of natural veg tan 7/8 OZ I submerge it for about 5 seconds. If it has been vinagarooned I needed to dunk it for around 45 seconds or so and then wait for the surface moisture to be absorbed. I found it was much easier to mold the holster force dry it at 120degrees for about twenty minutes so it is firm but still has moisture then dunk it in the vinegaroon for about twenty seconds and let air dry. YMMV but that worked for me when I was using VG. I went to Hermann Oak black strap sides and haven't looked back.

At that quantity go direct with the Tannery. Give Hermann Oak a call.

Luke One other trick I use. I use my aerostitch for belts and sewing in liners, particularly in western holsters, where the extra throat depth is handy. On this stuff I don't gouge a stitch groove but crease it in. Then if I loose my focus and get a bit out of the crease it just disappears when I case and tap my stitches and no one is he wiser. Most other holster work I do on the Boss and it almost impossible to miss the groove so I gouge those in.

Luke I'm guessing you are using bonded nylon thread. That is one of the reasons I switched to poly in both the Aero and the Boss is it runs through the machine so much smoother. There are a few tricks you can use with nylon. First in any case make sure your tensioner shafts are lubed. You can lube your thread either with one of the lube pots Weaver or Tippmann sells or you can just spritz your thread spool with silicon periodically. Also on your secondary tensioner don't loop the thread around the shaft but just bring it in the back side then loop around the primary. Tippmann used to show this in some of their threading illustrations in the manual and it is usefull with the heavier threads particularly nylon. Or you can just switch to poly, I get mine from weaver and it is generally pre lubed. I use 346 top and 277 bottom and stitch at 4&1/2 to 5 spi. I llike a plump stitch and this looks nice front and back. Your stitching is looking pretty good just keep practicing and you will get the feel for it locked in.

Luke That is exactly what I meant by overstitch. As to making the lockstitch stronger with 277 or 346 thread there really is no point. The thread is all ready stronger than the leather and the likelyhood of it wearing through in anyplace in the life of the holster is virtually nill. I've never understood the point in double stitch lining holsters other than for looks as there is no practical purpose to it. Anyone that disagrees feel free to chime in.

Luke Weaver's has the Smetz 230S needles. On the stitching it's looking pretty good except for the start and stop points and the open holes. Couple of tricks. First do you have the needle positioning switch on your machine? I don't recall if you said or not. Anyway I rarely backstitch. I plan my stitch runs so that I oversew about four stitches on the periphery of the holster. When I absolutely have to I start two stitches in the opposite direction I want to go then raise the presser foot and turn the holster around position the needle in the first hole and off we go at the end I raise the presser foot and back up one stitch lower it put the machine in reverse and sew a couple. Comes out cleaner that way. Once I'm done stitching I lightly case both sides of the stitchline and put the front side on my marble slab and tap the back with my cobbler's hammer. This closes the stitch holes and gets rid of any marks. John Bianchi uses a smooth metal roller to do the same either works.

First. Really nice belt. On the holster a couple of things jump out. You might want to redesign the sweat shield so as not to interfere with the draw and get some clearance between the lower part of the grip and the holster so you can get a firing grip on the gun. To my eye the termination at the bottom rear of the holster seems a bit abrupt. Other than that not bad at all.

Noah Are you getting butts or sides? Thanks

Hi! Yes they will cut leather for you.

I spent over 30 years as a law enforcement officer and I, like you, was sued a number of times. Like you none of the cases made it past summary judgement and like you I was represented by my employer's attorneys. In my case the County Prosecutor's Office. With one exception. That time the Prosecuting Attorney was named in the suit also. The County had to hire outside counsel and the bill came to nearly $24K just to get to summary judgement where the case was throwen out. If you are conducting any kind of business. Liability insurance just makes sense. If shelling out a couple of hundred a year makes me a wussie, well OK I'm a wussie.

Thanks. I look forward to seeing them.

Topcat. I agree vacuum forming is a viable alternative to press forming and it does have some advantages. I've been using it for a couple of years now. I use the poly bags used for veneering and bone details right through the bag. I'm not quite clear on the use of the tabs left on the pattern. Do you use these for position and glue and sew the holster after forming? I sew up the entire holster prior to forming. Could you post some pics of your setup and maybe some of the finished product?

It all gets back to what boomstick said earlier. You can be sued at any time for anything. There are a lot of attorneys who make the majority of their living off of "going away money". That is they file cases that they know without a doubt are without merit and they could not prevail if it went to court. They know that you or the bean counters with your insurance carrier, when the amount they will settle for is less than the cost of defending, will give them money to "go away" generally called a setlement without admitting fault. That is one of the reasons this Country desparately needs tort reform. However with most politicians being lawyers that's not likely to happen.

Jeff is spot on. I have to agree with him and K-Man. Liability insurance is like having a gun. Much better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

W&C is good leather but I know what you mean with Hermann Oak that's all I use for holsters anymore. Speaking of holsters I see you over on the concealed carry forum a lot also checked out your site. You make some pretty nice holsters.