How do you guys cut your belt slots in on a pancake type holster?

[usmc0341]

Haaaaaaaaa, thanks Mike, and my bride would probably agree. As far as the cutting with a knife, I have made the mistake of cutting all the way down too. It never even crossed my mind to flip it over, I learn something new everyday.

[LuisPaulo]

I'm in process to make my first pancacke holster too.

So. How to burnish inside the slots ???

Tks.

Regards from Brazil.

[pete]

Got to thinking about your situation. I have always punched holes too and cut the slits from each side twoards the center. Most of the time my holes are not evenly centered so when I cut the slits it becomes even more obvious.

Then I got a brainstorm and it worked really well.

Take your dividers and set them the width of the hole that you are punching (#2, #3, etc.) Find the center of the strap and straddle the line in the center of the leather with your dividers and scribe the length that you want.

Now you can see if it is centered before you punch and cut, and you already have:

1-guide lines for the holes and

2- guides for the cuts to be made.

[Brandon]

To prevent 'over-cutting', I would scribe the parallel lines between the two holes then use a bag chisel to cut out the slot.

A bone folder or a strip of canvas/denim works well for burnishing the inside?

[gtwister09]

Here's a quick tip if you don't want to use a knife to cut between punched holes you and you have a bag or oblong punch. Use the bag punch to cut/punch out the straight edges and then you don't have to worry about overcuts with the knife if that worries you.

Regards,

Ben

[Srigs]

I use a half moon wood chisel about 1/4 of an inch. Then cut with a straight edge to make the slot. I also cut the top and bottom edges for edge relief and edge slicking.