First Pancake Holster....plus A Few Design Questions

[Haystacker]

Since it looks like you are going to do a bunch of holsters I'll chime in on how I do holster edges.

Once the holster is sewn, I hit the edges with 80 grit sand paper on a 4x36 inch belt sander that my son in law bought me from Harbor Freight. Once the edges are even, I wet the edges. Then I hit the edges again on the belt sander with 120 grit paper.

Next, I edge. Then I dampen the edges again and slick the edges with glycerin bar saddle soap.

Next step is to use denim or canvas rubbed briskly on the edges. For this, I set up my drill press chucked with a spool that I loosely wrapped with denim. I think I get a better burnish mechanically than by hand. I used to chuck a wooden drawer nob in the drill press and burnish more, but I really don't think it improves over the denim.

I usually dye the edges after forming. I use a 1 inch foam brush to dye the edges if I want a different color than the holster body.

I do not use any wax on the edges anymore. I could never really stop the edges from rubbing off or bleeding when I used wax or whatever.

Hope this helps,

Jeff

[nas]

thanks for the info, i am still trying to figure out what will work best for me. i purchased on of the coco-bola burnishers and also have tried with a felt polishing pad on my dremel which worked really well. check out my 1911 iwb thread, it still needs improvement but i believe it is 100% better than this xdm. we'll have to see how number five turns out. learning more and more about this art but much more togo.