hwhleather

I have been using Hermann Oak 7/8 oz shoulders from springfield for all my holsters. This has been working alright but I have been wanting to buy leather in larger quantities. I have heard some people say to use only the shoulder for holsters. I know the belly and neck is no good, I would like to buy it by the back but if the shoulder is the only good part anyway I might as well keep buying it by the shoulder. What do you think?

It helps distribute the weight over a larger area and hugs it closer to the body.

Thank you and I never would have thought about the muzzle sitting low being problematic, I will start paying more attention to that. Then my question is, what about all those people who like those slide holsters?

I haven't posted on here in a while so I wanted to show you guys my most recent holster. It is fully leather lined and the inlay is western diamondback rattlesnake. If you have any questions please ask and feel free to critique, just tell me honestly what you think about the holster. Thank you!

Not my style but it looks great!

In my experience with edge kote it has absolutely horrible rub off problems when it gets wet. I burnish my edges with saddle soap and dye with whatever color pro dye I am using. Yes if it is burnished it wont absorb the dye well so I use multiple coats.

I just made a new thread in this section with some of my recent work.

Here is some of my recent work, I have been doing some 1911 holsters. These are all hand stitched and all pieces are 7/8 HO veg tan except the throat stiffener on the mahogany colored one, that is elephant. Feel free to critique and tell me what you think. Thanks for looking! Also, in the last pic it looks like my makers marks are pretty much gone, that is just the lighting, it is clearly visible in person.

I order mine from knife kits, they 40 a piece plus shipping so if you only buy one it is still 50 but if you buy more it is cheaper. They have a wide variety, but they also tend to not hold much inventory so sometimes they are out of stock of the one I need.

I want to make some strops and I am wondering what the best leather to use is. Would Hermann oak 8/9 oz veg tan work? I have a lot of that on hand.

Thank you all for the replies, my name is Henry and I am a 16 yr old male. I am genuinely interested in improving my leatherwork and it has become central in my life, due to the fact that I am homeschooled I can put a ton of toward my leatherwork. Now, regarding that local mom and pop gun store, they currently sell my holsters, not a reliable way to check retention though because the owner is horrible at keeping inventory in stock. I have posted a thread with pics of my work in the show off section and would love for you guys to check it out.

I have been reading and commenting on here for a while but I have never posted my work on here and I figure it is about time. I mainly make holsters but I also make sheaths and I have recently made a few wallets. Feel free to critique my work, I love hearing honest opinions, thanks for looking!

It has absolutely NOTHING to do with criminal record, in my state you cannot purchase a handgun until you are 21 years old, which means I get to wait a little while... And if you look at the original post I stated it was because of age.

So everyone seems to agree that the right amount of retention is that you should be a to hold the holster upside down with a loaded handgun and it shouldn't fall out. I use molding props for my holsters and because of my age I cannot legally purchase a handgun and don't really have access to other people's, so how do I measure my retention to give my holsters a proper fit? I have just been hanging weight from the grip of the bluegun and holding it upside down, will that work?

Yes all my formed holsters are rigid with a lot of detail visible on the inside.

I was asking because some of my pancake holsters I make don't have snaps and are not wet formed but they still hold the gun in place with about as much retention as some of my wet formed ones and I was just wondering if they would hold up better over time and last longer if they were wet formed, I imagine it doesn't really matter a whole lot either way as long as it has proper retention but I don't know.

What if you don't wet form holsters, does it hurt anything?

Just out of curiousity, how tight do you guys make your holsters?

Well I just soaked one of my holsters, drew the gun in and out, and rubbed the soaked holster vigorously and had no rub off so my answer is no.

What do you use for your finish/sealant?

When I started using feibings pro dye I just bought the dye and started using it without much second thought or research. If I were to use straight prodye without any diluting, buffing or finish am I going to have rub off problems? what do I do to stop this?

Thanks guys, also, with that leather being so thin can you even groove your stitch line? Like I said I have only done holsters and sheaths so I don't know a whole lot about making wallets.

I haven't done any wallets, just holsters and sheaths with 7/8 oz and 8/9 oz leather but I got some 4/5 and 3/4 in for some inlay work and I am thinking that 4/5 would make a pretty nice wallet, what size do you use?

Right now I am trying it a different way, with this one I just sprayed with a spray bottle as needed and formed with my modeling spoon and now I am baking it. I like using hot water as described above because then Its unnecessary to bake it because it dries nice and hard, but this time I wasn't using a molding prop I was using a real handgun and its not mine so I didn't want it quite so wet and with the other method I noticed edge kote coming off and getting on the gun which I don't care about on my molding props but I am not gonna do that to a real handgun, but I did wrap it in saran wrap so it should have been fine anyway.

Yes I actually was thinking something like that galco, mine is fine functionally but I do like that look.