The Thumb Break School

[cleanview]

I have done a few thumb breaks and would like some advice before I do my next one.

Things I have learned, feel free to correct or give opinions...

Thin does not work....seems like the base needs to be thicker and taper down , and this gives better rigidity. How thick across the top of the slide, seems to be different with each gun. Those with a hammer seem to necessitate a thinner portion here.

my main question is the placement of the snap. I have had to redo holsters as a result of lack of experience. My assumption is that snap placement just over the top of the slide allowing the leather to make a complete 180 degree turn

I always make the original piece to long and then trim to fit. seems hard to get a measurement that I have confidence in.

enclosed is a picture or my most recent. Seems the correction would be placement, a little more rearward?

Feel free to offer any instructions, opinions and critique

[dakotawolf]

This is how I do mine, and I haven't had any complaints. I started out doing the half of the thumb break on the backside (side closest to the body) as just one piece of leather. I used to attach the snap and stiffener in the same fashion you did. I found over time that having one piece of leather got floppy. I use 7/8 oz leather. I then decided I would try to make the body side of the thumb break two layers of leather thick. I got this idea off an old Don Hume duty holster I had laying around. What I do now is I extend the reinforcement piece (or the belt loop piece if the holster doesn't have a wrap around reinforcement) up to the top of the thumb break on the body side. On the inside half of the leather I punch a 9/16 inch hole. This size hole fits a line 24 snap perfectly. Before I bought the actual punch, I used to use a 1/2 inch copper pipe cap that I sharpened. It worked okay for about six holsters. I attach the thumb break stiffener to the outside half of the leather with the snap and rivet(s). The thumb break is then sandwiched between two layers of leather. Heck, I may not even need a stiffener in there, but I really like the solid feel it has. The advantages are the snap protrudes into the holster about 1/16 inch beyond the surface of the leather. This reduces snap bulk in the holster, and I think leads to a little less pressure of the snap on the slide of the holstered gun. Also, I don't have snaps with posts long enough to hold in two layers of 7/8oz leather, so only going through one layer is advantageous. I've tried the plastic snap protectors and just don't like the bulk they add. The other thing I do different is I don't use the reinforcement piece as the only part that makes up my thumb break. I can use my main holster pattern to make a thumb break holster with or without a wrap around reinforcement piece.

I see the body side of your thumb break extends upward past the slide a ways, but I assume that is to act as shield between the hammer/beaver tail and the body. When possible, I like to have the body side of the thumb break stick up above the slide only slightly. The reason is it minimizes printing on the cover garment. However, I don't like the snap to be too far down from the top of the slide either. I have ordered stiffeners from High Desert Leather (HDL) and recently The Blue Gun Store (BGS). Both companies were good to work with. The HDL stiffeners were longer than my personal preference, so I drilled a hole in the center. I used the new center hole for the snap and the existing holes for the rivets. This allowed the snap to be my preferred distance from the top of the slide. The BGS stiffeners are slightly shorter than HDL's and very stiff (HDL's are a little flexible). I will be adding a drilled hole to BGS's stiffeners as well. For now, I don't buy in sufficient quantities to order from some of the other thumb break suppliers, so I modify the ones I can get.

I like the body side of the thumb break to be trimmed back so that the thumb (and meaty part of the hand next to the thumb) doesn't go over the holster. The idea here is that a full grip can be obtained on the holstered gun and not have leather stuck under your hand. This can make it difficult to smoothly draw.

As far as determining the length of the strap piece that comes over the gun, it sounds like you got the right idea: leave it long until you are to the point in construction where it can go over the holstered gun. I then use the snap on the body side to make an impression. If the strap is not going to be stitched, I subtract about an 1/8 from where the snap impression is. I then stretch the strap during wet molding, and leave something thin (like a 3/4oz leather piece) under the strap but on top of the rear of the slide. This seems to make it snap shut perfectly when all dried (at least on Glocks). If the strap is going to be stitched, I tend to go where the snap indicated the hole should be on the strap, or maybe add a smidge. Stitched straps tend to not stretch, and seems like they can shorten just a little too.

And yes, the placement does need to be a little more rearward. I have a holster with the same issue that will forever hang over my bench as a reminder to myself. As my leather works specialty to the left reads, "Learning from my mistakes".

Hope this made sense. It's just how I do it, for right now...

Edited November 30, 2015 by dakotawolf

[JLSleather]

You decided to make the strap part of the loop/panel on the front, but not on the back. It likely would work better the other way around. But your loop design leaves the portion over the belt quite thin -- you may want to alter that anyway.

On straps which are a single layer thick, and NOT tooled, leave teh strap long as you want and trim it. Doing it this way will eliminate headaches from leather being a bit thicker or thinner than "last time".

But what if the holster is lined? Or tooled? In those cases, the length of the strap needs to be pretty close to begin with. In the picture (which is a 686) the entire holster is lined, meaning the top edge had to be sewn completely. The thumb break is placed slightly higher than I normally might, because it's a revolver with a considerable hammer. I want to clear the hammer, have enough "room" above to easily catch with a thumb (high in back ONLY) and I don't want the cylinder clipping the snap.

But the issue becomes, how do you line the holster, but have folds in the holster, the belt loop, and the thumb strap -- all without wrinkles in the holster or the lining.

[chiefjason]

When you figured in the length of the pattern to wrap the pistol- Did you do it with cardboard and not figure on the added width of leather? Did you do it without the sight channel in place? Ask me how I know that shortens the leather you are working with. Might not be placement, might be construction. Or a combination.

FWIW, I hate thumb breaks. lol Got a guy asking for an IWB hybrid with thumb break. Pert near impossible without compromising things I just don't compromise on. And a suicide strap IWB creates more problems than it solves IMO.

[cleanview]

dakota wolf.....I have to read that a few time just to soak it all in.....outstanding, and thanks for your time to explain that so well........I have seen the hidden hardware with two layers, and I thought it just added more to the mystery for me. I think your write up gets me to fully understand it now

[cleanview]

Re read things again this morning with more patience and I do think it makes more sense to build the loop over on the main piece instead of the re enforcement piece. and jls I did "re work" my 1911 pattern since this holster and got a little more meat on the gunside belt loop.

sitting here for several miniute s thinking about the whole double sided thumb break and honestly it seems like a better way to do it, but extra intimidating, in that it has to be assemble as the 2nd piece is sewn on and then there is no room for error .....jut dont know............I have "tanked" several holsters in the learning process, and I hinestly think I have ruined more over thumb breaks than ant thing else.....chiefm I am with you that I hate doing them, at one time I was going to say I dont do thumb breaks but then I cooled of and re did the holster and .....well....learning as we go