I want to get into leather holster making

[Steve75]

17 hours ago, Mulesaw said:

@Steve75 I fully agree that we should continue to share knowledge and especially to someone who is new to the forum. Generally I think there is a very civilised and helpful tone in here which is just as it should be 🙂
It is just that I am genuinely puzzled: Did the OP expect another answer?, Should we have offered more help? Was the OP in reality looking for a turnkey operation business plan to make a fortune making holsters? 
 

I guess it is just that I always gets so astonished when people don't acknowledge that someone is trying to help them. A simple "thank you" would suffice. Just plain old fashioned regular courtesy.

Brgds Jonas

It is one of the great puzzlements.  I think all who posted here did a great job of giving a place to start.  It is what we do as good stewards of information.  I have learned a great deal from those willing to share their knowledge on this forum.  I will do what I can to pay it forward by providing any information I can.  I do understand your astonishment.  It is truly sad to see a person miss out on sharing in the wealth of knowledge available on this forum.  Courtesy can be hard to find these days.

 

 

[Mulesaw]

19 hours ago, dikman said:

 Good luck on doing that!

 Perhaps we ought to make a post with "get rich quick" business ideas (just kidding)

[Northmount]

On 7/5/2025 at 10:14 AM, AlZilla said:

You never know if the person is visiting w/o logging in. It always does seem like they should at least acknowledge the responses.

But, that's the world we live in now, I guess. Get off my lawn, too. 

Maybe we should kick them off if they can't be bothered to check for a response.  They certainly aren't contributing to the site!

@Johanna

[AlZilla]

32 minutes ago, Northmount said:

Maybe we should kick them off if they can't be bothered to check for a response.  They certainly aren't contributing to the site!

@Johanna

I wrestled a little with this post yesterday and decided not to respond further. To me, giving (whether a brand new car or answering a question like the OP presented) is done without expectation of any return or even a thank you. So, I wouldn't boot someone for not checking back in. An acknowledgment and thank you would certainly encourage more dialog, but people seem to be pretty self focused these days.

Maybe he forgot where he posted the question ...

It was really kind of a fragment of a question anyway, not really enough info to give a coherent, specific answer.  I think Chuck nailed it - pretty much any information a person needs is somewhere here.

[AEBL]

Nobody said this already, so here goes: Want to make a small fortune selling holsters? ... Start out with a large fortune first.

I've just made a terrible one for a friend, so, now I am going to re-make it ... 

Edited July 11 by AEBL

[Cumberland Highpower]

8 hours ago, AEBL said:

Nobody said this already, so here goes: Want to make a small fortune selling holsters? ... Start out with a large fortune first.

I've just made a terrible one for a friend, so, now I am going to re-make it ... 

I'd have to agree with that!

25 years ago I didn't have a choice, and didn't see it that way.  I made a living making holsters for over a decade, and looking back, was pretty good money.   I started with $200 and a 90 day loan against my 10 year old VW Golf (bought a stitcher).   I made ALLOT of holsters of all types, mainly on contract. 

I rarely make holsters now and keep looking for something that just requires pushing a big red button. CNC, etc! LOL.

Edited July 11 by Cumberland Highpower

[AEBL]

I have friends that make holsters, and I don't want to turn people off of making them, but it is a lot more work than someone might think. Watching the pros on YouTube gives the uninitiated the impression that it is "cut some stuff, glue it together, stitch it, sell it" ... but there is a steep learning curve, and customers don't want to pay for your mistakes.

I think a lot of us here got into the business because we wanted to save money on buying stuff, or nobody made what we wanted. I think I've heard stories like this here all over the forum: "Some guy was charging $$ for this thing I wanted. I thought I could make it cheaper/easier/better, so now, years into it, and $$$$ into it, I have a deeper respect for what that original person was doing and charging." Yet, I'm still happy I took the plunge and got into it, nice people here - and they're always glad to help!

[Cumberland Highpower]

23 hours ago, AEBL said:

I have friends that make holsters, and I don't want to turn people off of making them, but it is a lot more work than someone might think. Watching the pros on YouTube gives the uninitiated the impression that it is "cut some stuff, glue it together, stitch it, sell it" ... but there is a steep learning curve, and customers don't want to pay for your mistakes.

I think a lot of us here got into the business because we wanted to save money on buying stuff, or nobody made what we wanted. I think I've heard stories like this here all over the forum: "Some guy was charging $$ for this thing I wanted. I thought I could make it cheaper/easier/better, so now, years into it, and $$$$ into it, I have a deeper respect for what that original person was doing and charging." Yet, I'm still happy I took the plunge and got into it, nice people here - and they're always glad to help!

Most of those are pretty valid and on the money points.    I got into leatherworking mainly as you said I felt like it was an easy money maker and I wanted a few things.  There was a learning curve, but a holster isn't the RD-180.   I'd say the learning curve for myself was about a week of full time experimenting and some fine tune skill honing over a year or so.

I think the big mistake that newcomers make is that they want to make "Custom" holsters, one customer at a time.    There's no money in that.  Maybe pocket money, but it's allot of frustration and annoyance and it's almost impossible to read someone else's mind 100%. The customer ends up never being fully happy.  There are some pretty successful custom makers out there, but they're a rarity and a good few of them live on some kind of backup income like SS, Army Pension/VA Disability, Oil Royalties, etc.

My approach was to make a few lines of holsters that were inspired by big name makers or of my own design and look for retailers who would sell them under their name.  If they sold they sold, if not, not.  Cheap models always sold the best, about 10x better.  

 

Edited July 12 by Cumberland Highpower

[Trailblazer87]

On 7/12/2025 at 6:41 AM, Cumberland Highpower said:

Most of those are pretty valid and on the money points.    I got into leatherworking mainly as you said I felt like it was an easy money maker and I wanted a few things.  There was a learning curve, but a holster isn't the RD-180.   I'd say the learning curve for myself was about a week of full time experimenting and some fine tune skill honing over a year or so.

I think the big mistake that newcomers make is that they want to make "Custom" holsters, one customer at a time.    There's no money in that.  Maybe pocket money, but it's allot of frustration and annoyance and it's almost impossible to read someone else's mind 100%. The customer ends up never being fully happy.  There are some pretty successful custom makers out there, but they're a rarity and a good few of them live on some kind of backup income like SS, Army Pension/VA Disability, Oil Royalties, etc.

My approach was to make a few lines of holsters that were inspired by big name makers or of my own design and look for retailers who would sell them under their name.  If they sold they sold, if not, not.  Cheap models always sold the best, about 10x better.  

 

Well, then you have guys like me that just enjoy working with their hands. I picked up the hobby accidentally while I was on a forced 2 week vacation due to a certain virus. I was only sick for 24 hours and slept for most of it. After that I was bored so I fired up the forge and made knives for my nieces and nephews and needed to make sheath for them. A few youtube videos later and some Amazon stuff ordered and I am making things because I enjoy the hobby, not for profit, dog collars with the dogs name, address,  and phone numbers, a belt i wear daily, a few holsters, learning to carve and stamp and ended up making some craters with carved flowers for my mom's birthday. 

 

Yeah the OP could have checked back in but with each post the experienced people are adding to the knowledge base ys new guys rely on to learn from. 

[chuck123wapati]

On 7/12/2025 at 7:41 AM, Cumberland Highpower said:

 

I think the big mistake that newcomers make is that they want to make "Custom" holsters, one customer at a time.    

 

Good thoughts!!

I'm gonna throw you folks a bone, suppressor cases !!!!!  Be the first on your block and you're in....

there is a lot of good money in custom work and you can make a decent living but beginners arent gonna get it, plain and simple it takes much longer than a week to learn to make a decent "custom" holster for every gun out there in every style imaginable. A good many folks like to put thier multiple-thousand-dollar weapons in quality leather, but most of them that buy high-dollar guns know quality and they know leather holsters and they know beginners just cant cut it. I'll also add the best selling guns right now are really cheap and no one will pay 300 for a holster for a 250 dollar gun and why you sell 10 x more.  So like you have shown its a bit more complicated issue than just waking up one day and saying "ima be a holster maker".

Here in my town, the local gun store has a big box full of used leather they get on trade-ins for 5 bucks a pop. po folks buy them instead of anything new so another rock in the road to riches from holster making.