Some Will Ghormley Patterned 1911 Holsters

[Kansan]

I recently decided to try my hand at holsters, so I picked up Will Ghormley's 100th Anniversary 1911 Holster Pattern Pack a while back and have made two of the holster styles so far. I thought I'd post them for your viewing pleasure and see if anyone cared to give me feedback.

The bikini style holster is super easy to make & has been posted about before here:

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=37769

I made a few of them and modified them a little bit so they weren't heart-shaped. They work great!

I also made the US Army cavalry full flap holster, which also works really well. It's a fairly tight fit, but I'm going to put my 1911 in a bag and store it in the holster for a few days and I think that will loosen it up some. The "US" didn't come out as nicely as I would have liked, due entirely to my carelessness in tracing it on the leather. Maybe I'll try again someday. It was a really fun project.

Any critiques or suggestions? Anyone else make Will Ghormley's patterns? The pack comes with 7 patterns, but I'm not sure if I'll do any of the others. The Army holster is really why I got the pack. I may try to make wet-molded OWB pancake holster next. I've never wet molded anything before, but there's a first time for everything.

[Blackey Cole]

Weavers have a us plate for imprinting it on holsters and saddle bags. Iirc they also carry a CS one.

[camano ridge]

Holsters look pretty good. Bunkhouse tool company http://www.shop.bunkhousetools.com/searchquick-submit.sc?keywords=US also has US and CS in two different sizes.

[Kansan]

Thanks guys, I thought there was probably a stamp or something out there while I was doing this. I've been looking at your suggestions... do I need a 5 ton hydraulic press or something to use these embossing plates? Is there a way of using these that doesn't require a commercial machine? I'm not familiar with embossing plates and it looks like I'll need some kind of press. Maybe I can modify my drill press? Or my reloading press?

[camano ridge]

I use a simple 1 ton arbor press from harbor freight under $50.00 I have a plate of metal I lay across the base lay down a properly cased piece of leather, place the embosiing plate design side down on the leather place a piece of metal on top of the embosing. Press down with the arbor press and you will have a very nice well defined impression.

[Kansan]

Wow, thanks for the suggestion. That would save me hundreds of dollars and there is a Harbor Freight not far from here. For the frequency that I would use it, I don't think I need a professional sized one.

Here's another holster I made yesterday from Will Ghormley's pattern pack. The pack has 7 types of holsters for the 1911.

[Red Bear Haraldsson]

Weird, when I looked through bunkhouse's site, I never did find anything other than the dummy gun molds for holster making. Thanks also for the press info, Camano.

I really like the Bikini with the Indian motif, I just don't think I could do a bikini without a retention screw. Maybe when I pick up that pack I'll change my mind. Will makes some beautiful patterns.

Love the way your mexican loop came out, color me green with envy!

[Kansan]

Thanks Red Bear. The bikini holsters retain the 1911 suprisingly well. I was dubious when making this one, but I was pleasantly surprised. If you make one yourself, I'll be interested in your thoughts. I've only worn it around the house, though, and would have to test it more thoroughly to really call it foolproof, though.

Thanks for the kind words on the mexican loop. It was pretty easy to make other than the toe plug. There has got to be a better way that what I was doing. I didn't have a good method for keeping it in place while I was sewing it in. I had some near misses with my awl almost taking out my other hand. Fortunately, I escaped unscathed

Edited September 23, 2014 by Kansan

[Red Bear Haraldsson]

Go to Will's website. He's got a few pages on the Hand of God rig. He shows how to do the end plug on the second page. I do not think I will be doing an end plug anytime soon, but he makes it look (fairly) easy.

www.willghormley-maker.com/index.html I love his site, lots of good information there. Like here, I love that people are willing to share what they know.

Edited September 24, 2014 by Red Bear Haraldsson

[TexasJack]

Love Will's patterns! They look great and he did a great job laying them out. He's gone out of his way to help people make the kind of holsters and stuff that he does. Definitely one of the good guys! The Hand Of God tutorial is fund to look through, even if you're not into making holsters. Lots of great pictures of how it's done.

I did one of the Weeping Heart holsters and was surprised at what a practical, yet extremely simple holster it really is.

[Kansan]

Thanks Red Bear for the suggestion - I did actually look at his tutorial before I did the plug and like you said, it did look fairly easy. The biggest pain was the fact that the plug would not stay where it was supposed to. Anytime I pushed an awl through it or tried to thread the needle through the hole, the whole plug would go catywompus on me. He says he didn't glue it in first, and I didn't either. I'm not sure that would have helped, but it might have helped me at the stage I'm at. It came out looking ok anyway, and I dyed the bottom black so that the not-so-even stitches are not really noticeable. I guess that's what separates the experts from the amateurs like me

I agree TexasJack, the weeping heart holsters are surprisingly practical.