Hildebrand

I built the holster pictured below for a Ruger Redhawk with a 4" barrel. Gun fit is great, first holster to actually get a click when the gun is inserted. I wore it for an extended period over the 3 day weekend and I like the fit with the exception that it rides to high to comfortably draw the gun. Would it help to have a forward cant for the gun, I don't think there is much room to move the belt slot and tunnel up much to lower the gun. All suggestions welcome. Please ignore the stitch line over the reinforcement piece on the back, I forgot to transfer my stitch line to that side of the pattern and drew up the reinforcement piece and didn't catch the mistake until I had sewn that piece on and was about to sew the holster shut. Todd

I have a well used Tippmann Boss that I sew holsters and belts with. I have not convinced the finance committee(wife) that I really need a Cowboy 4500 for my hobby but I am still trying.

Apologies, I did not see which section it was posted in, it was just in the current thread feed on the right of my monitor. I will pay closer attention to which sub forum it is from.

ComputerDoc, There is a wealth on information on holster making on this site. If you open your mind up and listen to what others have to say about your design and execution. If you don't want advice then I would state that in your initial post. You have been given some great advice but seem to just react negatively to anything that does not agree with you. You have a great foundation to build from, I like the tooling and finish on your holster. Todd

JKHelms, That is exactly what I did for mine, then I bought a cheap grinder stand and its self contained. Todd

Keep up the good work and thank you many times over for your sharing here. I am a relative newby to the holster world. This forum and your posts in particular have helped me more than I can relate. I am still on my journey of reading all of pages in this sub forum( I have about 50 pages left) and the information I have found is priceless. Todd

Thanks guys thats pretty much the concussion I came to I just wondered if I had missed something. Todd

How do you guys do a belt slide for rifle shells? I tried one I drew up and it is way to deep for my taste, 30-06 shells are right at 3.25” so with enough height to protect the full length it ends up being very large. Thanks Todd

As a current Boss users I definitely would not recommend spending what it would cost to get a new one, look for an older cast iron model. I bought mine well used for $700 bucks and after 2+ years of tinkering and reading I finally have it dialed in and sewing decent on a consistent basis. If I had known I could get a Cowboy 4500 with all the trimmings for less than $3000 I would have waited. I am getting by with the Boss at the hobby level but if I decide to take it up any further production wise I will be investing in a Cowboy 4500. If you definitely want to save the money then I would look at the new Cowboy hand machine, it has a deeper throat than the Boss and that really is a pain on some things getting them bent up so it will clear.

I read the patent has expired that’s why Cowboy pursued bringing this to market.

How much do you want for the tools then shipping would be on top of that?

Do you by chance have a rough weight and what is your zip code so shipping could be calculated. Is that 4 sets of 3/4" letters or just 4 3/4" letters? Thanks, Todd

Thanks Dwight. I think I am going to give this a go for my next project.

It will be interesting to see when this gets out into the hands of some users. If they have fixed the tension issues that plague the Boss then they will definitely have a winner esp at a price point at least a couple hundred lower than the Boss. For a hobby guy like me these hand stitchers are great, no guilt if your not using it on a frequent basis and when you need it, it is so much faster than hand sewing. Right now my Boss is point on, but I have only had this good of luck with white thread, both the black and brown that I tried did not function nearly as well. I have a couple holsters to finish then I am going to make another stab at the black and brown and see if I can make it work.

How do you guys lay out the 2 layers to apply the contact cement and then put them together? I am afraid the instant bond of contact cement will make my 2 pieces off if I am not perfect when I touch them together the first time. Thanks, Todd

I am far from a proficient as some of the folks who post here but I will take a stab at helping you. For the purple marks it looks like your pear shader is working fine and the leather is good, you just need to work on the placement and varying your striking intensity, you can kind of "walk" the shader around varying how hard you hit it to create the inside of the petals. The leather dragging on the cuts looks to me to be a water content of the leather issue, seems like when I try to carve with the leather to wet I get those marks. Also on your beveling I would slow down and be more precise with the placement of the tool, I tend to try to overlap some and that takes out the "chatter" look you are getting. Again I am no expert just passing on what I have learned, mostly the hard way. Todd

Just curious, did you use different thread to sew the holster, the thread looks different color and size from side to side? Todd

Dwight, This is off topic for this thread but do you have any hints for using colored thread in the Boss? I have tried black and brown and just don't get the nice stitches like the white does. I made sure it was the same size and type as the white but so far no luck. Honestly I am slightly afraid to experiment since right now everything is working well. I am currently using nylon thread I purchased from Weaver, the brown also came from them I think the black was from Sheridan Leather when they were still around. I am using 277 thread top and bottom. Thanks, Todd

The panel is a different piece of leather but the color difference has more to do with the dye job. It was supposed to be a 2 tone with the holster being fieblings saddle tan and the panel dark brown. But after the first coat of saddle tan the color was right but a little blotchy so I gave it a second coat and it darkened up a bunch. It is lined, 2 4-5 oz pieces glued together. The missed stitching on the top is just an oversight. I was concentrating on both bottoms and got them sewn up and jumped right to gluing together and then sewing the rest, I didn't notice the missing top stitches until I was wet molding it. The grip on the 1911 is probably a special edition, that is the NRA gun of the year and it comes as a package with a knife that has matching handle scales. Also the contrasting thread color is a little because I like the look but also I have not had good luck with black or brown in my Boss and neither color seems to have the body like the white does when you use it. This was sewn with possibly the oldest Tippman Boss still going, it is serial #130.

For some reason the front picture did not show up so here it is.

Here are some pictures of my first attempt at a pancake holster. Thank you Jeff at JLS for the patterns. I learn something new on every holster, on this one I learned not to finish the front piece before test fitting and making sure the top of it and the mouth of the holster are exactly even. I ended up with some stitches actually in the edge of the mouth of the holster. Comments and critique appreciated. Todd

Thanks for the replies. I figured I would sew all edges. I have been reading all of the holster threads, I am back to page 114. I have read a bunch of Katsass’s posts. There is a ton of great info in the forum.

For the first time I am using 2 4-5oz pieces glued together for a pancake holster. Do you sew the areas that are just the 2 layers to keep them from separating or is the contact cement sufficient for that? Thanks Todd

I have a very old one that I bought used, serial number 130. You will love it or hate it. When it works it is great and much faster than sewing by hand. I have spent countless hours getting mine tuned in, I think part of the problem is I knew so little about leather sewing machines I didn't ask the previous owner what size thread he was using and now I realize it was probably a size smaller than what I bought. All that said now that it is tuned in it has been sewing very consistently. I was even able to sew a cartridge holder without missing a stitch. Todd

This was about 35 years ago and thankfully no photo evidence exists from that time in my youth. One of the problems with the device is the instructions tell you to start in the middle of a piece of leather and essentially cut a spiral out. This leaves all the lace naturally laying in a circle.