Tutorial Video - Avenger Style Holster Pattern

[particle]

Hello all - I just posted another video to my website showing how I make an avenger style holster pattern. I'm making it free to Leatherworker.net for a limited time. If you like the video, I'd appreciate it if you'd spread the word, though I'd like to keep the "Free" access to just the Leatherworker.net community please... As always, if you see something in the video you don't agree with, please let me know and I'll do what I can to correct anything that needs correct'n.

http://www.adamsleat.../how-s-it-made/

user: alwguest

pass: alwguest

Edited October 12, 2011 by particle

[Nooj]

Great tutorial, thanks so much for sharing! I began watching your first 3 videos before I made any holsters and they were a tremendous help to see how the whole process goes. You have a knack for making it look simple and easy- and that helps new guys like me feel more confident in what I'm doing when I make a pattern/holster.

Thanks again for putting in the time to make the vid and share with us :-)

Nooj

[particle]

Thanks for the kind words Nooj - I appreciate it, and am glad you found the videos helpful!

[Sanch]

tremendous work I love looking at the gallery on your wesite simply put clean beautiful work. Thank you for sharing the video my last holster for a taurus was similar in construction and so was the pattern.. except I use tracing paper and graphite paper to get my re enforcement part of the pattern also a stylus once again thank you!!! stealf..

[wizard of tragacanth]

Thanks very much for the video. I plan to make an Avenger fairly soon.

Nick

[Eaglestroker]

Got to thank you Adam. I have been hitting a brick wall lately with a few issues and it never occurred to me that the machine itself had enough tension I didn't need to groove for it. Just save me after a lot of heart ache!

[K-Man]

Unless I missed it, you forgot to mark where your stitching goes on the overlay piece itself (especially around the area that the belt will slide through). Or are you using the main body piece and placing that over the piece and marking the stitch lines the same as your glue lines? Might be a little bit easier to mark the stitch lines on the overlay piece itself IMO.

Edited October 13, 2011 by K-Man

[particle]

Good catch - thanks for pointing that out!! If you notice in the video, I hesitated a few times at random points - I was trying to think ahead and think of the best way to communicate things (but didn't want to edit the pauses out of the video if at all possible), which marks to transfer, etc. - I placed the overlay on top and was about to mark those two points but talked myself out of it. In my mind, I was thinking "I don't need to mark that any more, because I now bevel the entire front and back of the reinforcement (except for the top edge at the opening)" - I forgot to tell myself "hey dummy, you still need to mark it because that's your stitch start/stop points". I would have caught that the first time I actually made a holster from the pattern.

Now that I know I need to add that to the video, what I may do is go back and record myself adding those dots, then make a holster from the pattern and show the resulting holster on video and make any adjustments to the pattern on video. Probably a good idea to do that anyway on future videos.

Thanks again for pointing that out, and glad others are finding it helpful.

[mlapaglia]

Great stuff. Things for the chance to see it. I'm still learning and it helped a lot.

Michael

[particle]

Great stuff. Things for the chance to see it. I'm still learning and it helped a lot.

Michael

Thanks! FYI - because of the way I have the videos are setup with a 24 hour rental policy, the username automatically stopped working after 24 hours. If someone tried to view it within the last couple/few hours and it didn't show up for you, it should work now.

[particle]

FYI - I still have this video available for free viewing for a little while longer. I added a little more length to the end (it's now 44 minutes long) so I could add the missing parks on my reinforcement piece, and also did a mock-up holster to test the pattern, and close with a brief discussion of what adjustments I'd make to the pattern to perfect it moving forward. I had quite a few technical difficulties with this one, as the raw video footage was almost 31 gigs (I'm doing all this editing on my laptop)... and my microphone accidentally came unplugged towards the end as I was moving my camera around to film different steps so I had to do a voice-over at the very end. Oh well - I'll get the bugs worked out one of these days!!

[DaltonMasterson]

Particle,

I didnt get to see it all due to the wife and kid coming home in the middle of it, but I plan on watching it all again tomorrow. Great video. You should really think about putting them all together on a dvd and offering them that way.

Nice build design too.

DM

[VGJ]

Great work Adam, thanks for the tutorial. Question: how long are you casing the leather prior to the boning process? It seems to hold the definition nicely, and am curious as to your casing method. Thanks again!

[particle]

Thanks! Generally, I dunk about 5-7 seconds. The actual time might vary a little. Natural will take less, and something dyed completely black (inside and out) may take a little more. If you're boning the detail completely by hand, you might lean more towards a quicker dunk. If you use a vacuum press (like I do), you can get the leather a little more damp because the vacuum pump will help to remove the moisture from the leather. Note that there is a bit of a trade-off. Less damp will hold the detail better as you form it, but it will also be a little more difficult to initially shape the leather to your firearm. More damp will be easier to form, but it will 'bounce back' a bit - meaning you'll have to go back over your work several times (like I did in the video). If you're using a dummy, you might dunk it longer so it's easier to form, then once the dummy is inserted in the holster, set a fan next to your bench to help dry the leather as you work it. If you're using an actual firearm, it's probably best to not over-wet the leather. I have another video on my site that shows how I form an Avenger style holster to a 1911 if you're interested.

[DaltonMasterson]

Adam,

I did a build along last night using your methods and video. It worked very well, and I learned quite a bit from it. Thank you.

I just have to sew my main seam and then mold it and its done. Will try to post pics when I am done.

DM

[VGJ]

Thanks! Generally, I dunk about 5-7 seconds. The actual time might vary a little. Natural will take less, and something dyed completely black (inside and out) may take a little more. If you're boning the detail completely by hand, you might lean more towards a quicker dunk. If you use a vacuum press (like I do), you can get the leather a little more damp because the vacuum pump will help to remove the moisture from the leather. Note that there is a bit of a trade-off. Less damp will hold the detail better as you form it, but it will also be a little more difficult to initially shape the leather to your firearm. More damp will be easier to form, but it will 'bounce back' a bit - meaning you'll have to go back over your work several times (like I did in the video). If you're using a dummy, you might dunk it longer so it's easier to form, then once the dummy is inserted in the holster, set a fan next to your bench to help dry the leather as you work it. If you're using an actual firearm, it's probably best to not over-wet the leather. I have another video on my site that shows how I form an Avenger style holster to a 1911 if you're interested.

Thanks for the reply! I think we're kinda on the same page here, as I made a vac press also. 6hp ShopVac with homemade box. I found I could get unreal detail in vacuum forming kydex (much more so than my kydex "press") , and decent detail in a single piece of leather (for pancake style where I only needed top detail). Then it hit me, I combined my vac press with my "typical" kydex press, and compress everything under the foam press while applying vacuum. I just can't seem to get that "perfect" casing that I can repeat everytime! This might be due to the slight variations in leather don't you think? I can repeat the exact same time, temperature, water faucet, etc. and still get different results! Arrggghh. As a beginner, I thank you guys that are willing to help us newbies, and I'm sure MOST of my problem is getting TOO anxious to see the final product and hurrying along too fast. But I'm sure I'm the ONLY one here that has ever done that, right! Quick story, hard lesson--I messed up the top piece on a pancake style hybrid I was trying, leather was WAYYYY to wet, so I thought I could lessen the drying time by putting it in the oven on low for a while...well, it shrunk up like an apple head doll, and was hard as armor! I soaked it for 4 DAYS in water, it didn't change shape at all!!! That's why the experience and knowledge of guys like yourself is so beneficial to us newbies. Thank you again.

[particle]

I think each cow hide, how it tanned, where the piece was cut from the hide, the density of the grain, thickness, age of the tanned hide, how it was stored, etc. all affect the way it reacts to the various things we subject it to. That's an interesting idea to combine the two presses. I'd be curious to see a kydex comparison between only the kydex press, only the vacuum press, and the combined method to see the difference in detail you can obtain. It seems like sticking the kydex in the vacuum bag, clamping it closed, then inserting it into the kydex press would give the kydex too much time to cool, making it more difficult to form? I haven't worked with Kydex yet, so I'm not sure how difficult it is to regulate that ideal working temperature.

[DaltonMasterson]

Particle,

What weight of leather are you using? 7-8oz?

Thanks,

DM

[particle]

Since I pulled that from my scrap bin, I can't say for sure. But, it was on the top of the pieces and my most recent hides have all come from Wicket & Craig. Their hides are 8-10 oz. It was a thicker piece than normal, so I'm going to say it leaned more towards the 10 oz thickness.

[husker]

Great video as usual Eric...

[VGJ]

I think each cow hide, how it tanned, where the piece was cut from the hide, the density of the grain, thickness, age of the tanned hide, how it was stored, etc. all affect the way it reacts to the various things we subject it to. That's an interesting idea to combine the two presses. I'd be curious to see a kydex comparison between only the kydex press, only the vacuum press, and the combined method to see the difference in detail you can obtain. It seems like sticking the kydex in the vacuum bag, clamping it closed, then inserting it into the kydex press would give the kydex too much time to cool, making it more difficult to form? I haven't worked with Kydex yet, so I'm not sure how difficult it is to regulate that ideal working temperature.

Ahhhh, there's the difference. You're using a vacuum bag, I built a vacuum press with pegboard as the top...I heat the kydex while it's clamped between the frame (picture a small screen window with kydex in place of the screen), then place the firearm/replica/object on the pegboard. The frame is slightly larger than the weather strip around the top of the pegboard. When kydex is soft and "droopy", I turn on the vacuum, and place the whole frame over the object. As it seals around the weather stripping, thwwaacckkk, sucks down tightly over whatever object is within the boundaries of the weatherstripping-be it firearms, knives, Hot Wheels cars, whatever you want to get a great mold of! I get great results from .06 up to .125 thickness on the kydex. This latest attempt, as it does gets sucked down, I continue the pressure from above with the foam and backing board...completely overlooked the vacuum bag! That would explain why you get good initial definition 360 degrees, and I'm just getting it on the "public" side of the holster...hmmmmm might have to try the vacuum bag route...but dang, it's a blast creating molds of the most trivial, stupid household stuff just to get practice! I really appreciate your help, and will try to get some pics up soon of some projects!

[Big O]

There are SOOOOOO many things in this video that I had to learn through trial and error (mostly error), but still a few more that I just learned from watching it.

Thank you so very much for sharing this video.

[MaStA]

Is this video working anymore? When I login it looks like it is only available for purchase now. Thank you.

[DaltonMasterson]

Just got home from a local gunshow, where I set up with holsters. The Avengers I made using your methods were a hit! I have quite a few orders for them. Thanks again!

I even whipped out a couple of patterns from other guns while I was there, which made the customers understand a little bit about the time and thought that goes into a holster.

DM