Holster Firmness

[Rick Pen]

What processes do you use to get the most ridged or hardness to hold the form of your holsters?

Thank

Rick P.

[Big O]

Heat.

Folks here have recommended constructing drying ovens, which heat the newly wet-molded holster to 120 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

I'm way too lazy/cheap for that at this point, but what I've done is to run a hair dryer (blow dryer) over the holster, back and forth, all sides and angles, for about half an hour. It does make the leather significantly stiffer. (unless you've used neatsfoot oil in the process, and overdone it, in which case you're pretty much stuck with a well-formed but buttery soft holster. ask me how I know that. LoL)

I'm using the hair dryer on every holster at this point. It works well for me. Mind you, I make one holster at a time, no more than two a week. If I was doing mass production, I'd think that a drying oven would be the way to go.

[Thomas]

Heat.

Folks here have recommended constructing drying ovens, which heat the newly wet-molded holster to 120 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

I'm way too lazy/cheap for that at this point, but what I've done is to run a hair dryer (blow dryer) over the holster, back and forth, all sides and angles, for about half an hour. It does make the leather significantly stiffer. (unless you've used neatsfoot oil in the process, and overdone it, in which case you're pretty much stuck with a well-formed but buttery soft holster. ask me how I know that. LoL)

I'm using the hair dryer on every holster at this point. It works well for me. Mind you, I make one holster at a time, no more than two a week. If I was doing mass production, I'd think that a drying oven would be the way to go.

That is a good suggestion. The way i do it is just stick it on a normal oven on about 150 for an hour or til completely dry. It will be perfect for you. You might want to experiment with your oven first to see how well it will work at a lower temp. because all ovens are different. If you get oven to hot it will cause little lines in the holster.

[Denster]

A cheap convection oven from Wal-Mart works great. Make sure to put a cooking thermometer inside and keep the heat between 120 and 130. More than that is not good.

[Randy Cornelius]

I use Herman Oak leather exclusively for holster work, I find the stiffness of HO works great for holster and I have no need to use some method of stiffning the leather.

[Denster]

Hermann Oak is as good as it gets for holster making. I use it almost exclusively. That said heating to 130deg F for 20 to 30 minutes after molding greatly improves it's ability to hold it's form in the long term.

[Rick Pen]

Thanks for the responses, getting the correct temperature and holding I feel has been where I'm lacking.

This is some good idea; I'll give them a try.

Rick