Treadhead's Stab At A Tss Styled Holster

[treadhead1952]

Hi All,

Having gotten a hold of a Belly cut from the local Tandy store to start off my leather crafting and figuring out what I wanted to start with, a new holster to carry my little 3" barreled 5 shot .38 Rossi came rising to the top. I had a belt slide that sort of worked as long as I didn't start jogging and with a renewal of the permit, I figured it was time. I had purchased a Kirkpatrick TSS holster for my full sized .45 Auto when I got it long ago and it has served me well. It carries the big hog leg in the right spot, I can cover it with a light shirt or jacket and I can truck around all day without any problems. Naturally making up a home brew imitation of this tried and true design wasn't a great leap of intuition but seemed like a good idea.

Making the pattern was a matter of tracing the outline of the little revolver on a sheet of card, leaving enough space around it to stitch some and then cutting it out and folding it over to get the opposite side. I like this design as it uses the leather of the holster itself immediately behind the holster body to make a space for one belt slot and then adds a leather strap around the top of the holster to stiffen it to keep it open as well as provide the second belt strap on the rear of the holster shell. With a double row of stitching on the reinforcement it is plenty stiff without an insert of any sort. I will admit my stitching leaves a lot to be desired, I ran out of thread on the needles a couple of times, had to let one row of stitches go as they were under the back belt slot and, well, it is my first holster after a long pause in my leather crafting career.

Before I folded it over to be sewn up I used some Eco Flo Dark Chocolate Dye to coat the insides, not wanting to have any light colors showing up should it get flashed. I gave it two coats of Fiebings USMC Black spirit dye, rubbing it down after each once it was stitched up and had been wet formed to the little revolver. I looked it over carefully but couldn't find any light spots, the leather seemed to suck the dye up like a starving puppy. For a finish, I actually found a partial can of Neat Lac that I had left from my last foray into the world of leather crafting. These photos are from the first coat. I will let it all set up over night and rub it down before adding a second coat overall.