NoahL

I certainly do not recommend buying from them online--call them if you are going to make an order. Every time I try to place my order online it seems to go through okay but then tries to charge my PayPal over $700.

Their shipping has always been around $15 for me--I suspect that they probably averaged out the shipping costs and charge everyone the average as a base rate and add from there. That said, they are nice folks and have a good selection. It all depends on what you're willing to spend to get what they have--if you can find it cheaper somewhere else you can always buy it from there instead.

A retention strap on a holster is more for preventing someone from taking your gun from you in a struggle than keeping the gun holstered, in my opinion, but I understand what you're saying. This is a hobby more than it is a business. Yes a make a bit off money from it, but it's something that I enjoy doing that allows me to be creative and make something useful in the process. I generally try to do what the customer wants but I find retention straps tricky to make and generally unnecessary, so I'll try to steer people away from them if at all possible.

Conveniently I don't do this for a living and don't plan to, so losing a few orders isn't the end of the world. Besides, I think I've only made four sheaths out of everything I've done that have retention straps, so I'm not exactly being asked to make them all the time as it is.

I've thought about this very thing, myself, but those strands are so slippery I figured they would not hold well. Give it a shot and report back!

Exactly! Not to mention the fact that they are impossible to make fit properly because you have to leave slack for the snaps to fit over each other or the hole to fit over the stud, so you end up with LESS retention than if you had gotten a pouch sheath. That said, I did what the customer requested this time, but I think I'm going to start saying "no" to retention straps. They are a pain and altogether unneeded in my opinion.

I shipped this one off to Canada yesterday--a sheath for a JK Handmade Knives "Lobo" and matching firesteel set up for carry on the belt or on a shoulder strap. I have to admit right now that this sheath is a bit unbalanced on the shoulder strap because he wanted a retention strap around the handle instead of just letting me mold the leather over it, so the anchor points for the baldric are a bit too low. I hate retention straps

Guns tend to get smaller as you go from back to front, that's why you are seeing the stitch line creep away from the gun as you go down the holster. If you use the same distance all down the gun for your stitching this will happen because there is less gun for the leather to stretch over. Unfortunately, I don't really have a fix for you other than to try to find the difference in size between the trigger guard-area of the gun and the muzzle end and make a mark that much closer to the gun and draw a slanted line connecting the two points. I'm sure more experienced holster makers will have a better way of doing it--I just sort of wing it on that slant

Well the clips are easy enough to find, here. For the hooks I would probably just buy some heavy gauge brass or copper wire and bend it into shape. Those metals work-harden so bending it should make it stiff enough to keep the hook shape, I would think

You can't go wrong with Owen, and you can also check Mad Dwarf Workshop or Ben Potter

Sounds like a plaque belt--they were metal plates linked together, as far as I know, but it's possible that there were leather ones, I guess

I use a Sharpie, a plastic bone folder from Tandy, and the round end of my edge beveler handle. Between the three I get as much definition as I need but then again I don't do detailed boning.

I don't think it's possible for it to really be closer--they both pull the gun tight to your side, just in different ways. This style pulls the gun to you by applying tension over the top of the holster from back to front, and the pancake pulls the gun to you by applying tension center-out. Really, I think that it's just a stylistic/aesthetic difference more than a question of effectiveness.

Do you mean like these? I'm rather fond of the style, personally--it certainly does keep the holster in tight to the body

The minimum order, in addition to the fact that it was priced so much higher than other leather, prevented me from ordering any even though I truly did want to. It's kind of difficult to increase your profit margin with slaughter-free leather when that margin is eaten up by having to order six hides that each cost $75 more than non-slaughter-free ones

Hi Don, welcome! Where are you in the valley, approximately? I happen to do a little forging when I get invited over to the houses of people with forges (I live in an apartment ) so if you ever wanted to get together to hit some steel maybe we could do that.

Add me to the vote for Sno-Seal! It works very, very well and my dog's harness is none the worse for wear despite having rolled through wet grass and getting slobbered on (and it didn't stain the white splotch on his chest, either)

You mean the dye that got on the stitching? Honestly I might just dye all of the stitching on the back and make it look like I did it on purpose--then again, my specialty is making leather look all kinds of messed up

Very nice! Where did you buy your horsehide that you got some with rawhide in the middle? I'd LOVE some half-tanned horsehide, but mine doesn't come like that--or did you get a piece that was half-tanned by accident?

Make your product better than them. Problem solved.

Give Marianne at JRM Clips a call: http://www.jrmclips.com/ Don't use the e-mail form, it doesn't seem to work properly, just give them a call. I know the site has a minimum order listed but they let me get 10 thumb break stiffeners and 10 belt clips, so you should be fine

Thanks! I'm afraid that the process for that isn't something I'm willing to share in detail, but I certainly won't try to stop anyone from figuring it out--I used basic concepts of tooling and distressing to get the look, you just have to be creative in how you go about applying those concepts. I actually really like to see what other people come up with in an attempt to recreate what I've done, because it will usually be an entirely different process and the effect is unique for everyone. If you decide to give it a go, definitely share because I'd love to see what you come up with

Thanks, and yes it is! Can I expect to see some bent horseleather from you in the near future, I take it?

I don't have any experience with it, but it looks like that strap going over the back of the neck would rub uncomfortably, and I would think that there should be elastic to attach the bottom of the holster to the belt so that it flexes with the wearer and keeps the gun in place better than just a leather thong would. Just my thoughts on it at first glance.