Denster

That was my post. I guess it was clear as mud. I use my square to make an L shape on a piece of posterboard and put the muzzle of the gun on the lower leg and draw a line following the profile of the gun going somewhat wide of the gun below the triggerguard. Then I cut along that line. Follow the other directions given and lay the posterboard on your holster lining up with the register marks and scribe along the outline.

I buy from Weaver's. Generally 5 sides at a time to get a discount. But I'm fortunate that I can either drive there or have a buddy of mine drop by and pick it up. They will let you sort through and pick your own sides and it's not hard to find ones with any defects that are present confined to the belly areas.

rojeleather has some really nice shark in black and brown at $17/SQFT 4-7 SQ/FT HIDES and elephant at $25/26ft sides and ears at $27.50/sqft. Check out their youtube videos to see the quality and description.

Trim a flat hard rubber eraser to size and place behind the trigger guard. Works for me.

Wow! That is one nice looking piece of shark skin. Be sure and post photos of the holster before you ship it out. Good Luck.

Pretty darn nice rig. I like the gun too:)

Particle is right. Viral marketing is an exceptional tool and in a short period can garner you a huge amount of exposure. It has it's downside too if you tick someone off they can crucify you. By the way Eric that was DefensiveCarry forum where you received very positive exposure.

I would strongly suggest keeping your day job and using holster making as a part time business at least for a couple of years. Plan how much time you can dedicate to it every week. Something like 2 hours a night weekdays and one full day on the weekend would equal 18 hours which equates to, depending on your working time, 10 to 16 holsters per week this should equal a net profit, depending on your selling venue, of $400 to $640/week. Get a sales tax ID number to establish yourself as a business. Now you can buy at wholesale and you are an established business and can take advantage of the tax deductions for a home based business, assuming you are working at home, and can deduct a percentage of your homes expenses ie: utilities, mortgage or rent, maintenance, vehicle expenses etc. Hire an accountant to do your taxes and to consult on various deductions. Mine costs me about $300/year and it is the best money I spend all year. As to selling venues. eBay with fixed price listings will sell everything you can make at a cost of about 15% of the gross for eBay and paypal fees and you can make what you feel like making not what someone else feels you should make. Keep it simple at first just a couple of styles for 4 or 5 popular guns. There are other selling venues such as blogging the gun sites and establishing your own website but these are likely to weigh you down with more orders than you can fill and people will keep after you to make things you might not yet feel comfortable with making. Resist the urge to offer lots of options and doing lots of custom work and taking advances for work to be completed this has sunk a lot of good holstermakers. Get a sewing machine, repeat get a sewing machine, it will pay for itself in a couple of months. A Boss is good and you may never need anything more a Cobra is also good but it will not gain you much speed it is more convenient on some holster types due to the throat depth but they can all be done on the Boss. After a couple of years you can decide if you have the skill and ability and attitude for a full time business. You will have gained exposure and have a substantial cllient list to advertise to if you wish. You will also have the opportunity to see if this phenomena of an increased market for custom holsters is growing or slacking off. Just a few thoughts for what they are worth.

Thanks BRL I look forward to seeing the pics.

Kind of a dumb question but I don't have much experience with shark and elephant. Does it come in different weights like veg tan? If not what is the average thickness of the elephant and shark and what is it's texture ie: firmness? I'd like to use some for trim on holsters but don't have a clue what to ask for. Thanks

Some areas of the edges appeared to have dips and hills work for an even flow. Maybe not wet it so much. I find with 5/6 OZ just a quick in and out of the water with 7/8 I give it a 3 count. Wait a ouple of minutes for the surface moisture to be absorbed and you are ready to go. When you are done forming and boning a brisk buffing with a piece of sheepskin puts a really nice sheen on the leather.

Pretty good overall. I echo what woolfe said. I also get the sense that you may have had the leather to wet when you were forming it. I note your edges could use a little work. Other than that good to go.

Really excellent tutorial on how this is done. Thanks for sharing.

Not too bad for a first attempt. Just a few suggestions. First you might want to use different leather than bellies. Not really firm enough for holsters. Get Al Stohlman's book on hand stitching. Read hidepounders post (sticky) on edge finishing. Look up some of the past posts by Lobo, Particle, Boomstick, DickF, and see some of the holsters they have posted it will give you an idea of what to shoot for.

Jade What you are looking for is vegtable tanned leather. If you are only looking to buy a few sqft and not a whole side give Kevin at Springfield Leather a call he will cut leather to the size you want without making you pay an arm and a leg. For belts you can buy them allready cut in various widths. In any case give Kevin a call or email. Sprinfield is one of the advertisers on this site. As to the horsehide. A good dip in neetsfoot oil will turn it a rich brown color that makes a really nice belt. Once it has had its dip and a good finish applied the hard jacked stuff makes a sturdy belt that would be hard to wear out.

Jade The problem is penetration. Horse hide is dense by it's nature. The horse butts that are available are generally either soft jacked which will feel about like firm cowhide and hard jacked which is very stiff. Jacking is rolling the leather between plates which compresses it and makes it even denser ie: hard for liquid to penetrate. You might try conditioning the surface with alcohol and dip dying it for an extended period but if you are looking for the same results you can get with cowhide I fear you will be dissapointed.

In my experience you will not have much luck with dyeing horse hide. One of the reasons that holster makers that use it only offer it in brown, black or sometimes burgundy. I've had my best luck with vinegaroon for black followed by neetsfoot oil. For brown neetsfoot by itself will give a deep rich brown with burgundy I've never personaly had any luck. If you figure out some way to do it I would sure like to know.

Horse hide does not take dye well with the exception of black and then with difficulty. From your description of the hide it sounds like it is hard jacked which makes it even more difficult.

I use real guns for 90% of my holsters making. This is the way I do it. I give the gun a coat of Johnson's paste wax. The stuff in the yellow and red can from the household section at Kroger's. Wait for it to dry then buff out. It does a great job of protecting the gun from the wet holster and the wet holster from reacting with the steel of the gun. I have several blued guns that have been used to mold several hundred holsters and still look like new. As an aside all of my personal firearms have the metal waxed for regular use. I have a highly acidic system and can almost rust metal by looking at it. Haven't had a problem with rust in thirty years since I started doing this. Trick I learned from the State Troopers after I asked how they kept their blued revolvers looking so good when they were out in all kinds of inclement weather.

I use 5/6 for IWB bodies, 6/7 and 7/8 for OWB envelopes with mouth reinforcements depending on gun size and 7/8 and 8/9 for OWB pancakes without reinforcements. I try to get away from lining holsters because it is more work and accomplishes nothing however if the customer insists I've got a couple of sides of 2/3 that I got on sale from Tandy that is pretty nice and I don't feel bad as long as Hermann is on the outside.

Eric Nicely done. Good job on the stitched in sight rails. You might want to consider 5/6 for the holster body but all in all really good.

Because a close stitchline is paramount to the long term retention ability of the holster. Some might find that important.

Here is how I do it and it is generally on the money right out of the chute. I take a piece of posterboard and lay out a square L with my square. About four inches in from the upright I lay the gun with the muzzle on the horizontal line and draw a profile line from the triggerguard where it will be at the top of the holster down following the outline of the gun when I go around the bottom of the triggerguard into the horizontal plane or around the frame cylinder portion of a revolver I go wide of the profile of the gun by 1/2 the thickness of that part plus one thickness of leather till I get back to the vertile plane which is right on the profile of the gun to the muzzle. At the muzzle I go out a couple of inches to the right on the horizontal and leave a tab. I then cut this out with a utility knife and have the stitchline with a four inch handle on the back and a two inch tab extending to the front. On pancake holsters I insert the gun into the glued up holster that has allready been stitched on the front wing and pull the leather down around the gun and clamp it as close as I can with a spring clip behind the triggerguard and make a dot with my stylus on the leather then do the same at the muzzle. Take the gun out lay the holster flat and lay my stitch pattern against the dots top and bottom and scribe the stitchline with my stylus. I also at this point mark the horizontal tab where it meets the forward stitchllne. I also measure from the forward stitchline to triggerguard mark at the top of the holster and write this on the pattern. Then on future holsters all I have to do is measure from the forward stitchline at the top and make a mark. Put the top of my stitchline pattern on that mark and the mark on the horizontal tab at the muzzle on the forward stitchline and scribe it out. On envelope style holsters the mark on the horizontal tab at the muzzle lines on the outside edge of the holster. I haven't found a good way to measure over to the top at the triggerguard so I still insert the gun and clamp to get my mark there. Otherwise the process is the same. Since the same pattern can be used for several different similar guns I make stitchline patterns for each and mark them accordingly. Hope this helps.

Jeff Did you ever check your thread take up arm for movement as I suggested in an earlier response on another post of yours. Hold the stitching lever all the way forward firmly and try pushing down on your thread take up arm. It should not move even a little bit.. The only other thing I can think of would be an unevenly wound bobbin ie: one that looks like an egg narrow on the ends and big in the middle puts extra tension on the bobbin thread as it goes over the hump.

Jeff Did you purchase the large spools in Poly? Tippmann sends Nylon with the machines. The poly requirs less tension. Also are the thread sizes the same?