woolfe

I've been thinking about doing that with the T-nuts. The only reason I haven't is people seem very happy this way and its easier. I'm sure at some point I'll get bored and do it. I've never seen a vm2 in person I always thought they put kydex in side the throat. I had a pretty good idea of how to put kydex in there but steel would be a different animal, unless like you say they bend it through the leather. Some customers do demand it and yes I do feel it adds utility to the holster. Its not something you use all the time its just nice to be able to control the tension of the draw and not leave it up to how well the holster is broke in or over broke in. I don't know for sure. But, if that's what I had to work with I would find a way. I used a Toro 3000, I'm not sure how much clearance the Boss has. You could always roll the leather up a little to help it go through if that's an issue.

I thought this might help some people. This is the easiest way I have found to make this type of holster. I'm sure there are other ways to do it. This is what works for me. Please feel free to give me any pointers or ideas that may help. Thanks Some of the basic steps were skipped. I focused mainly on assembling this pattern type. On a side note, I don't reinforce the entire throat. I find its not needed and I like to keep the holster as thin as possible. The same process should work if you wish to reinforce the entire throat. Materials used: Herman Oak 6/7 oz for the main body, 4/5 oz for the loops and throat reinforcement piece, Sharkskin from ostrichmarket.com, Fiebing black dye, and Fiebing Cordovan. 1. Cut your pattern out and dye it. I submerge mine and even them out with an airbrush if needed. 2. Glue the shark skin to the 4/5 oz leather. While the glue is drying I like to bevel and burnish the areas of the pattern that will remain a single layer of leather. Also, mark your stitch and glue lines at this time on the main holster body. 3. Cut off the excess sharkskin. 4. Trim the loops to size. Sand the edges of the loops and sand the edge of the reinforcement piece that will remain 2 layers. 5. Bevel and burnish the sanded edges of the shark trimmed pieces. I find that the dye I use to touch up the beveled edge is enough moisture to make a nice edge. Sometimes I'll also use just plain water. 6. Line up the reinforcement strap to the holster body and mark your glue lines. I like to use pencil, just don't push hard enough to leave an indent on the leather. Then apply your glue do not go all the way to the line. 7. Carefully line up your pieces and stick them together. Make sure to push the together firmly. Then sand the outer edge like so. 8. Now that the edge is even mark your stitch line and stitch the reinforcement strap on. Be careful not to sew through the loop attachment point on the rear of the holster body. See how I have it folded up on the sewing machine in the picture. Sewing this part may actually be easier by hand for some people. 9. Once the reinflrcement strap is sewn on bevel and burnish the edge before preceding to the next step. (I was thinking about taking pictures and forgot to do this. Its just allot easier to do it before you fold the holster over. Wet the holster on both sides of the throat reinforcement, you don't need allot of water just dab it on with a sponge. 10. Bend the rear holster body loop attachment point so it starts to slide around like shown in the picture. You want fleshy side on fleshy side. 11. This is what you end up with. 12. The leading edge of the holster gets glued first. I like to use half a razor blade to prop open the two pieces being glued. I also use a piece of whatever I can find to keep glue off the sharkskin. 13. After the glue dries carefully align the two halves and push them together. Now glue the other side. (Notice I forget to burnish and bevel the throat. I won't do that again. LOL) 14. This is what you get. 15. Sand your edges. I use a dremel on the tight area by the throat. 16. Mark your stitch lines. Stitch it, Bevel, and Burnish and you should be here. (my picture shows it half way burnished.) 17. Dunk it in water 10-15 sec and wet form it. 18. Here it is after wet molding. 19. Once it dries I wax the edges, stamp it, buff it, and punch the loop holes. Here is one after the finish is applied/cured and fully assembled. (This is a different holster as you can tell it also has a draw retention device.)

Yes, it will come off inside the first 2-3 holsters you make with it. They put a blue paint top coat on the guns. I imagine you could use some kind of thinner to clean the worst of it off. FYI, you can order the guns directly from Rings w/o the paint.

I use resolene/water 50/50. I just submerge them in a 5 gal bucket and lightly blow off the excess with an air compressor. When I was in the air force, I used Mop and Glow on leather boots to shine the heal and toe. It would crack if you got to far from the toe where the leather flexed. I'm tempted to try diluting it and to see how it works. Thanks for the info!

I don't know anything about this stuff. I was just curious so I found a place you can buy it. http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=19462&source=googleps&cookietest=1

I've bought from these guys before. http://ostrichmarket.com/id76.html

I like to dye mine before wet molding for this reason.

Mine are basically the same. Except I use 6-32 and I will trim the t-nut down clean the edges and put it in a counter sunk washer.

I order mine directly from rings with out the paint on them. When I first started to use blueguns I had a little bit of blue show up inside one of my holsters. I was able to just put dye on it and it was gone. If its as bad as you say I would try a little acetone to remove the blue paint and then touch it up with dye afterward. Try a small spot first to make sure its not going to just smear the blue paint all over. Good luck with it.

This is not a simple question to answer for me. I burnish twice and at different times depending on whether I am using vinagaroon or dye. From my experience leather is much easier to burnish before or just after dye is applied. So I will dye and burnish my edges prior to dip dying. I also dip dye before I glue and stitch the two halves together. If I'm making a black holster, I dye the edes, then I burnish the areas of the holster that will be single layers of leather before I stitch them together. Then I glue/stitch, dye the edges, and burnish the rest of it. After all the edeges are burnished I wet mold/bone and then apply vinagaroon/neutralizing solution. After all that I come back and apply beeswax for a final burnishing. This proccess is quick and produces a nice professional edge. Also, I only use water and beeswax.

I'm sure there are many ways to do this. I cut out the shapes I need from leather then I cut out pieces of shark slightly bigger. I then glue them together and trim the shark to fit. Then I burnish it like regular leather.

That would work and it would be pretty easy to do. I originally wanted to do something similar, maybe the same thing you are talking about. Make a "U" shape out of a Kydex strip and just attach your belt loop to one end of it. You can get Kydex 12" x 12" squares from http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/index.php?cPath=41_54_136 for less than 10 bucks and all you would need is a way to cut off 2 strips, drill holes, and a Bic lighter to heat the kydex where you want to bend it. I use a table saw to cut mine and a drill press to drill the holes, you could do both with a dremel tool.

I briefly played around with a propane torch. I gave up rather quickly. It seemed to deliver heat to fast. I imagine if I took the time to find just the right distance away from the flame it would work. Also, I just don't feel comfortable working with a flame that hot on something small that I'm holding in my hands. I know with out a doubt I would end up getting burnt.

The easiest way to explain is with a picture. So here you go, hope this helps.

Thank you! Its a customers order, I'm shipping it tomorrow. I don't think he would mind it was in a little photo shoot before it went out. :D

Here is my final product. Thanks for the help!!!

http://www.dotfastenersdirect.com/

Thats a great idea. I'm going to give that a shot, I happen to have some oxy-aceteletine. Thanks!

I've been experimenting with different things. Right now I use a belt sander to bevel the edges. Then a grooved wooden dowel wrapped with denim on a dremel tool. The same kind of thing you might use on leather edges. Then I run a buffing wheel over it. The whole process is actually pretty quick and it makes the edges look nice. You can make nice edges by hand with just sand paper and a piece of denim, its just slower.

I think i'm going to make them with a little less tuck, a little shorter. That should take care of the problem. They seemed to stick out a little since they were so long. I'll report back.

Thought I might share this link about presses. Enjoy, holster press

Being needed depends on the customer. I opt for no linings simply because linings=more surface area in contact with the firearm. Organic materials such as leather love moisture and this causes more rust. I think this topic is well argued and covered through out the forum. It comes down to what the customer wants.

I haven't had that asked. Anything that would help to break the holster in also threatens to challenge the integrity of the holster. Retension is the primary concern and if they break it in to fast then it will be worn out. I would stress normal use is recommended to assure the long life of the holster. The customer should attempt to break the holster in by wearing/drawing from it around the house before wearing it in public. Other holster manufactureres have suggestested other things such as using plastic bags around the gun to speed this process up. I do not recomend this simply because their is no way to know the exact outcome.

I've also ordered directly from Rings. I ordered a couple with out the blue paint top coat. I had them in hand in less than 2 weeks. I'm ordering directly through them for now on. I did it because of a bad experience waiting for guns from an online copstore. I had even called them in advance to verify stock before placing the order.

I use Resolene too, I let the finish cure 3-5 days before I ship it. I've played around with Tan kote and Bag kote they seem to cure quicker, I just prefer the look of Resolene I guess.