First Holster

[Cattle Hide]

The holster below is my first holster and my first leather project.

I must first thank all of the many posters here on Leatherworker as this would not have been possible without the literally hundreds of posts I read regarding holsters, finishing, edging, sewing, etc.

This is my own design IWB holster with Kydex clips. I used Weaver V-Notched shoulder in 6/7 oz. weight. Finish is Feibing's Pro Dye light brown with Bee Natural RTC top coat. Hand sewn with waxed polyester (De-waxed before use).

Some homemade tools used to create this holster are posted in the leather tool section.

Edited August 1, 2011 by Cattle Hide

[DuaneS]

Nice Work, especially for a First Time!

[dbusarow]

Really nice job. Hard to believe it's your first. Work on your edges. Tighten up the stitch lines a little. And you really should sandwich the T nuts between the two layers of leather. That's about it.

Dan

Edited August 1, 2011 by dbusarow

[Wareagle50]

Way better than my first one

[Haystacker]

Well done!

[BigRiverLeather]

That looks pretty good. I'm curious what the reasoning is for the leather strip to continue across the front wing of the holster. In theory (at least in my small mind) I like to have the front wing of the holster as flexible as possible. If anything the rear wing should be stiffer. The reason I go with this line of thinking is the front wing should wrap around the hip and the rear wing, under the belt, is better off being a bit stiffer than the front so that it can help pull the grip of the gun in tight to the body.

I would echo what dbusaro said and sandwich the T Nuts.

Nice work though for a first.

[Cattle Hide]

Thanks for all of the comments!

To: BigRiverLeather

The Leather strip is designed as a cover for a steel reinforcement (Not included in this first holster). I felt if the steel ended at the stitch line it would not hold the mouth open as well as a longer strip that extended onto the wing. I was trying to get most of the functionality of the Versa Max II and clones without the difficult wrap around construction. I did not think of the loss of flexibility of the wing! Good catch.

To: dbusarow & BigRiverLeather

I hurried the edges and used only saddle soap on a home made power slicker. Will embed the T-nuts on the next holster. I was so excited to bond the two halves I forgot! Also, the hook on the trigger guard looked much larger when I traced the Glock. I will reexamine the stitch line offset and see what happened. Actually the Blue Gun went in very tight and stretched a lot of leather except at the tip of the trigger guard.

Other Comments: No one was more surprised than I was about how good this turned out. I again have to credit all of the posters on Leatherworker.net as the many tips and critiques helped me avoid multiple mistakes in advance.

[nas]

quick tip i just learned the hardway about the t-nuts. (i have started to put them between the two pieces on my last three holsters.)

make sure that nothing is wrong with the t-nut threads before you put them in and sew it up. test the screw. last night i was installing the belt loops on a holster i had just finished and found out then that the threads in the t-nut were stripped which was causing the screw to not "catch" in th threads. i had to use pliers to squeeze in the opening of the t-nut for the screw to catch. luckily that, along with some red loc-tite, did the job this time.

[Cattle Hide]

Thanks for The comment on the threads. I have number of arguments for both the outside tee nut design and the internal tee nut design. While I did not specifically think of the threads, the through design allows easy replacement. Inside looks the best. Outside is easier. Inside limits screw length. Outside....... Etc.

You could add a sewn on circular pad to retain the tee nut that would be part of the spacer for the tuckable feature, but that is more sewing..... <Insert scream here>

Edited August 11, 2011 by Cattle Hide

[Reaper]

Very nice indeed.

I laminate the t-nuts also and use a leather circular shim I cut between the holster and strap. I'll use grommets from the elc area of the Auto parts store if using top down metal or kydex belt loops.