First Attempts

[Mattbeck]

Here are some first attempts at some

carry rigs. Top is a pancake for an XD.

Middle is an easy on/off for an SR9C. Both

of these are for personal use. Bottom is

a hybrid for a 938 I built up for a neighbor.

Any feedback or advice would be greatly

appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[katsass]

From the grumpy old guy: A couple of things pop right out at me. On the pancake, first off I believe that that one will loosen up over time. Your stitch line around the trigger guard etc. is pretty good -- except that it has primarily square corners. The stitch line is a bit too far from the top of the slide, and in time will allow the gun to move around in the holster. As to square corners -- that's basically a no-no. Both in the shape of the leather -- and the stitching. The sharper the corner, the sooner it will fray and end up looking like a worn-out chunk of dead cow skin. You also need to work on your stitching --- a lot.. A good stitching groover and an overstitch should help a lot, but practice will do you a bunch of good also. Also remember that the only things holding the rig on your belt are the little, narrow strips of leather at the top and bottom of each of the belt loops, IMO) they could be a bit more hefty. . On the middle one, again, work on your stitching . The last one, beside the stitching, is that your stitch line is waaaay too far from the shooter. Something also happened to your dye job. Remember that to dye something black is one of the more difficult things to do. You will find that there will be black dye rubbing off on whatever the hell you are wearing.for some period of time. On all three you need to work on your edges. Now my standard advice to folks starting out is to purchase Al Stohlman's book "How to Make Holsters". After that -- read it, don't just look at the pictures. And finally -- TAKE YOUR TIME. Leather work is not for those looking for instant gratification. Good luck and don't think I'm picking on you. We all started out not knowing a damned thing about what we were doing; wanting our masterpiece done NOW; and finally, making a pot-load of mistakes. Good luck. Mike

Edited July 14, 2014 by katsass

[camano ridge]

Mike I think that last one is a Leather Kydex hybrid. Instead of riveting the kydex he stitched it. The gun will be held in place by the molded Kydex.

[Mattbeck]

Thanks for the advice mike. Camano's right, the last one's a hybrid. I was gonna ask about the stitching on that one.

It was also supposed to be brown, instead of black.

I think my stitching is getting better, but I'm not sure. That's the order they

We're built in. Pancake first and hybrid last. One

thing that's making the hybrid look worse is i glued

A micro suede fabric to the body side and you can see

a lot of little threads poking out. I couldn't figure

out how to fix that. Again, thanks for the pointers.

[katsass]

Sorry about that .... I didn't even pay attention to the description. Since I don't know beans about kydex (except that I was issued a kydex holster waaaay back and within a week stuck it in a drawer - never to be used again) disregard any comments re: that one. Mike

[mlapaglia]

Try a lighter to burn the threads that are sticking out.