Leather Thickness For Pancake Style Holsters

[tardis86]

What thickness leather does everyone use for pancake style holsters? I plan to buy some soon and I want to get the right stuff.

I figure I will probably only be making pancake style at first, iwb and owb

thanks

[Red Cent]

I would guess most use 8-9 ounce for the pancake.

[glockanator]

I use 6-7 oz leather

[Troy I]

I use 9/10 oz leather.

Edited January 31, 2016 by Troy I

[katsass]

Well, I use two layers of 4/5oz shoulder bonded together on their flesh sides. I make two of these and then treat each as a single piece of 8/10 oz. This works out well in molding and produces a smoothly lined holster to boot. Mike

[JLSleather]

7/8 more often than not.

[chiefjason]

I use 8-9 oz. The stiffer sections near the spine I use for backs and cut the front out a little higher where the leather is a bit less stiff. Well, most of the time.

[Pounder]

I use 3/4 oz. glued together, flesh side out. Works good for me and is simple to mold. And a big shout out to JLS Leather for patterns.

[stu925]

I use either 8/9 or 9/10oz leather for just about everything I make. I usually buy when Tandy has it on sale and buy a couple of double shoulders. I find it easier for me to only stock one weight of leather since I am so limited on space. If I need lighter stuff for a project I order it but for most of the stuff I make the heavier stuff is perfect.

Stu

[YinTx]

JLS,

I'm a little confused. I think your downloadable instructions say

"For most holsters, we like a total of about 8 or 9 ounce leather thickness. Our patterns state the weight of leather used for the model shown. This is the total thickness desired, and can be single-ply piece that thick, or some combination of thinner pieces adding up to that thickness..."

Your comment says 7 or 8 oz, so is that total, or each ply? I ask only because I am contemplating a holster, and when I went to a gun show this past weekend, I picked up a number of them. The 7 oz total weight holsters seemed pretty flimsy to me, like they might not hold the gun for very long or very effectively. I can understand not wanting to haul around a thick holster IWB all day, and trying to avoid printing, but it still seemed inadequate. Photos I see on this site of holsters I've admired appear significantly thicker, like 8 oz per ply. I think I only saw one remotely close to that, and the gentleman was asking $140 for it, vs. the $65 for the others. Build quality warranted his price point, especially sitting on a table next to the other vendor's er... stuff.

I also must say the attention to details on even the most modest of holsters I have seen on this site blow away everything I saw for sale there. Including some NOS Bianchi holsters still in the package - I was frankly disappointed, considering the name and reputation, I had expected something on an entirely different level.

Thanks also for providing the templates gratis. I have other templates, but its nice to have choices! and instructions.

YinTx