Cowboy Holster Tutorial

[Poncho]

Jim,

That tutorial was great. I've made four holsters so far and as a Cowboy Action Shooter, I compare mine to the "store bought" ones and have found several short comings. It seems like all the things I couldn't figure out, you answered. You just saved me a lot of disappointment and a lot of money. Thank you for taking all that time.

[Jarhead44706]

Thank You Very Much For This Tutorial

[Denny4kids]

I shoot IDPA and 3gun. The last gun show had a Super Blackhawk 44-mag. Now I need a holster. LOL

Thanks Jim! I've collected all the tools and leather...no more excuses. I'm going to get started!   Denny

[SLP]

Thank you Jim.

I enjoyed making this one quite a bit. I admit that it was a bit of a challenge, but well worth it in my opinion. It's my fifth holster so far. I built it for the client's Ruger Super Blackhawk 44 mag. 5.5". He was very pleased, but probably not as much as I was. I think this is my favorite holster to date, although It's not my most extravagantly tooled.

Some of the details:

• 6/7oz. lined with 4/5oz.
• Fiebing's Leather Dye British Tan
• Border was Fiebing's  Professional Oil Dye 2:1 (Light Brown:Chocolate)
• Thumb Break from Will Ghormely's Hand of God Rig (boy that blood knot was a pain)
• Designed the pattern and built the holster using the Bunkhouse Tools mold, then borrowed the actual gun for some photos. (The Bunkhouse Tools mold was the 7.5"; you have no idea how nervous I was the first time I slipped the actual gun into the holster for the first time...in front of the client.) It fit perfectly, almost like it was made for it...
• Hand stitched with #415 Bonded Nylon (Coyote) from The Thread Exchange (Thanks to Nigel Armitage and Ian Atkinson on YouTube for the stitching tips) I'm not elated with the stitching, but it's the best I've managed to date, so I'll take it.

Anyway, I had a blast. I think I've got a couple more Super Blackhawk orders to work on. Both of them are the 7.5" and one guy wants all kinds of elaborate tooling. Should be fun if not a little nerve wracking.

[24VOLTS]

Jim's patterns are the BEST!  Great instructions and Jim is great for help and advice.

I cant wait till he sells his cd with all the patterns again.

[arrudad]

I am still very new to leather work, especially when it comes to using dye and tooling.  I have a question on Jim's use of dye around the edges. Does anyone know how he is able to get the dark color to extend to the tooling and then it seems to fade out.  Is the fading due to the natural coloration you get from using the camouflage tool and then he maybe colors the part next to the edge using a brush? Thanks for any help and I apologize if this question should have been asked elsewhere.

And thank you Jim for the tutorial! I am making my first holster as I type.

SLP... Nice job on your holster! I guess I could ask you the same question as your holster looks very similar to Jim's.

 

Edited December 21, 2016 by arrudad

[SLP]

On 12/20/2016 at 5:30 PM, arrudad said:

I am still very new to leather work, especially when it comes to using dye and tooling.  I have a question on Jim's use of dye around the edges. Does anyone know how he is able to get the dark color to extend to the tooling and then it seems to fade out.  Is the fading due to the natural coloration you get from using the camouflage tool and then he maybe colors the part next to 

SLP... Nice job on your holster! I guess I could ask you the same question as your holster looks very similar to Jim's.

 

I've attached a link to a more detailed explanation of my process. Generally,  I dyed the whole holster british tan, then hand painted the camouflage tooled edges with a mixture of brown dyes.

[Dragonfly42]

Thank you so much for this! Walked me right through my first one!

[arrudad]

On 12/29/2016 at 11:23 PM, SLP said:

I've attached a link to a more detailed explanation of my process. Generally,  I dyed the whole holster british tan, then hand painted the camouflage tooled edges with a mixture of brown dyes.

SLP, sorry for the very delayed response to your post.  I appreciate the link that you posted concerning my question. I ended up using a Q-tip, of all things, to color in my tooling. I just loaded up the Q-tip and placed it at the edge of the tooling and the dye just wicked down into the areas that I needed dyed, crazy.  Thanks again for taking the time to answer my question; additionally, please accept my apologies for the delayed response.

[Mark3031]

is this tutorial still available?  I keep getting an error