Belts To Be Used W/holsters Or Without

[KAYAK45]

I want to make a new gun belt. Question on good total leather weight and lining material for a 1-1/2", pretty stiff belt.. Will hand stitch, stain and finish. Two layers of same material? Or one heavy and one light.? When done hope to have natural to tan color w/near white thread. oh yeh. what thread weight/type.

[RobDude30]

I've made a total of two of what I would call gun belts, so I'm no expert. However, with that being said, one of these belts I have been wearing daily for probably close to a year with some sort of a pancake or avenger style holster on it and it has served me very well. I made it with two layers of 7/8 oz, 1 1/2" wide, cemented flesh-side to flesh-side, and hand sewn with natural-color Tandy waxed linen thread (I like the look of the larger thread on heavy belts). The belt is dyed a dark mahogany on the outside and the natural thread makes a nice contrast. I kept the inside of the belt as clean as I could and left it natural. Both sides are sealed with Resolene.

There are many ways to skin a cat and you will likely get some different answers. Some folks like to use different weights of leathers - heavy weight on the outside and lighter weight for the lining on the inside. I just used two straps of the same weight because that's what I had at the time. From my research on this site and others, somewhere around a 1/4" thick is what you are after for a relatively heavy gun.