Vinegaroon & Mop-N-Glo, Gotta Love It!

[CowboyDan]

So I got my first semi-auto hand gun, and wanted to make a holster & mag pouch for it.

Not having made a non-kit holster before, and never one for a semi-auto, I knew it would be interesting. In browsing around, I found two general designs that I liked; a tuckable/OWB pancake, and the weeping heart for the 1911.

The weeping heart was hard! I deviated from what it looks like on the 1911, and also tried out some other things on it at the same time. So it doesn't look good, but I learned a few things from it.

I forget exactly where it was on here I found out about the vinegaroon, but I have to say, I love it!

Cheap & easy black 'dye'. Dunk in the 'groon, dunk in baking soda water, rinse, & let dry.

Then some really grumpy old guy kept on about cleaning floors with his leather finish, so I tried that too (on the holster, though I do need to clean the floor). And I really like it! 50/50 with water in a spray bottle, spread it out with a piece of shearling, dry for a while, then buff with the same piece of shearling, and it looks REALLY nice. I don't think I'm going to bother with the neutral shoe polish for now.

I had tried the tan-kote, and I have to say I wasn't impressed. There seemed to be almost no shine to it where the mop-n-glo buffs out to a nice shine pretty easily.

The holster & pouch aren't pretty, but I think they'll be servicable. I'll try to get pictures up.

[CowboyDan]

OK, I finally got some pictures.

Hear-shaped holster.

I made this one first, the stitching lines were laid out after wet-forming.

Double mag pouch:

Yeah, I know the mags are backwards. For some reason when I was trying to decide which way to put them, I thought it worked well drawing them from that orientation.

Plus, the Hi-point has a really large base on the bottom of the mag, and I didn't want it poking me in the ribs in the normal orientation.

I'm going to try it at the range and see how I like it. I suspect I'll have to turn the mags around.

Combo holster:

I did have to make one change to this, the rear belt loop is too far back in the pic, letting (in OWB wearing) the pistol slide around on the belt and hang loose from my side. I moved the slot forward and trimmed off the excess, it works much better now. Just don't have a picture.

As a tuckable holster, it isn't bad. I tried putting spacers in at the bottom of the straps, but it didn't seem to need them. Maybe it's because how I was putting it on.

This holster I laid out the stitching lines, but they were too close, so when I stuck the gun in the first time, it actually tore the stitches out in two spots. Lesson learned there!

[Red Cent]

"...........mags are backwards......."

Not necessarily. Insert the mag with the rounds pointing forward. Or is that what you think is wrong?

The first holster looks to be made of a really soft and thick leather. From what I see, much too soft to carry such a handgun. The loop on the back is not thick enough to carry the handgun. Looking at the front side of the holster, I would cut a semicircle belt loop starting very close to the inlay stitching and going down and around.

".....the pistol slide around on the belt and hang loose from my side."

Again I would attribute the problem with the leather. If you use 8-9 ounce veg tanned leather and once you wet mold fan dry the leather and it will not sag.

May I ask what leather are you using?

[CowboyDan]

"...........mags are backwards......."

Not necessarily. Insert the mag with the rounds pointing forward. Or is that what you think is wrong?

The first holster looks to be made of a really soft and thick leather. From what I see, much too soft to carry such a handgun. The loop on the back is not thick enough to carry the handgun. Looking at the front side of the holster, I would cut a semicircle belt loop starting very close to the inlay stitching and going down and around.

".....the pistol slide around on the belt and hang loose from my side."

Again I would attribute the problem with the leather. If you use 8-9 ounce veg tanned leather and once you wet mold fan dry the leather and it will not sag.

May I ask what leather are you using?

I made the mag pouch with the rounds pointing rearward. I haven't tried to insert the mags with rounds forward, I don't think they will sit down as far because of the stitching around the one corner of the mag. I intentionally didn't make it to easily take the mag in either direction. That may have been a mistake.

The next pouch may keep the mags vertical, I haven't decided.

I think the soft look of the heart holster is from the oil. I got a little bit much on it. That's when I learned to trim the hair on the shearling shorter to help keep that from happening near as easily.

All parts of both holsters and mag pouch are from the same piece of leather. It's vegtan, I think it's 6 oz. Like I said, it's a first try, and I didn't expect it to turn out 'right' the first time, so I wasn't picky about the leather and used what I had.

The black one is double thickness except around the gun.

Edited March 13, 2015 by CowboyDan

[Red Cent]

Gotta start somewhere. The second holster looks good. The snaps puzzle me but I may be looking at them wrong. Good color texture. Stitches tight to the gun.
Improvement will come, especially if you hang around here and look at the details of construction from some of the really good leatherworkers.

[camano ridge]

Because he has the end of the strap fastened toward the bottom of the holster. I think he has it set up so the strap comes up over the waistband behind the belt then in front of the belt and snapping at the top. If if you fasten one end of the strap behind the male part of the snap you can use a shorter strap.

[CowboyDan]

Because he has the end of the strap fastened toward the bottom of the holster. I think he has it set up so the strap comes up over the waistband behind the belt then in front of the belt and snapping at the top. If if you fasten one end of the strap behind the male part of the snap you can use a shorter strap.

I fastened the strap down under the belt slot so it would be tuckable. Can't tuck a shirt in outside the gun with the strap mounted above the belt slot. I may add a hole above each slot and make a shorter set of straps when I want it IWB but not tucked in.