Basketweave Tooled Iwb For 1911, Rought Out

[woodandsteel]

I finished this holster for a customer this week, and was really pleased with how it turned out, so I wanted to show it off!

I did several things with this holster that I haven't done before, like hiding the T-nuts between the pieces of leather, adding a reinforcement piece on the back, and making a rough-side-out holster. I used my burnisher that I got from Spinner, and it's giving me better edges than i was getting by hand, and MUCH faster!

Other notes:

I used 6-7oz veg tan leather

The reinforcement panels and strap were dyed with Fiebings Light Brown oil dye, edges were dyed with Fiebings Dark Brown oil dye.

I saddle stitched it with some 4oz Nyltex thread. It looked dark brown on the spool, but looks black on the holster. It may just be old, but I found it almost impossible to separate the strands to thin it out at the ends to thread the needles. Other than that, I liked using it.

After stitching (but before molding), I sanded the edges, then used an edger and burnished with a rosewood burnisher on a drill press.

I wet-molded it and boned it by hand and with a bone folder. After that I baked it in a convection oven at about 140F for 30-40 minutes.

After molding, I applied dye with a Q-tip and let it dry, then wet the edge and rubbed it with Fiebings glycerin bar soap, then burnished with canvas wrapped around a dowel rod in a drill press, then rubbed the edges with parrafin wax, then burnished again with the canvas wrapped dowel rod.

I applied gum traganth to the outside and inside with a sponge paintbrush, and slicked the outside by hand with a plastic bag.

After it was nearly dried (I was rushed!) I coated the outside and straps with 50/50 Resolene and water.

I'd like to express thanks to Spinner for the burnisher, and to ABC3 for the leather, Gum traganth and Nyltex, which he graciously sold me and let me come by his shop and shoot the bull. I think he said the Leather was from Zack White.

[Sixer]

Very cool! I really like the contrast in color and grain. Tooling looks great... Nice work!

[Rhide]

Very nice! I like the color and texture contrast too, and the tooling is well done, but I wonder about that tooled piece on the sweat guard. Seems that may cause some discomfort during full time carry. Beautiful holster though. I like it.

[woodandsteel]

Very nice! I like the color and texture contrast too, and the tooling is well done, but I wonder about that tooled piece on the sweat guard. Seems that may cause some discomfort during full time carry. Beautiful holster though. I like it.

Yeah, I was concerned about that as well, but I knew the customer wears an undershirt next to his skin, so I figured it would be ok.

[rickybobby]

Very nice rig.