Carved Loop Holster for SAA

[Josh Ashman]

This is assembled a little different than what I normally do but seems to have worked out pretty well. My customer wanted a carved loop holster for a Single Action Army with a Morgan dollar on the loop. He wanted it to sit fairly high on the belt and for it to fit a 1-1/2" belt. I decided to use stainless T nuts to put it all together. It's built out of doubled 7 oz HO. It got 1 fairly heavy coat of NF oil then was dyed with Fiebings liquid antique in medium brown before stitching. Top coat is Mop & Glo cut 50/50 with water. 

Thanks for looking.

Josh 

[usmc0341]

WOW!!! That is awesome!

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks Devil Dog!

[Red Bear Haraldsson]

I have a friend that paints miniatures for tabletop wargames. He is a phenomenal painter. He ranks his paint jobs on how much I cuss when he shows his latest work to me.

Josh, what you have there is a Yosemite Sam nuclear diatribe of foul language that I am hollering. I'm making sailors blush over here.

That is mighty fine work, just gorgeous. There isn't any part of that thing that I do not like. I'm already stealing design elements (the T-nuts forming the bottom of the belt loop). I think that would fix the problem in my head with my crossdraw design.

Really, just a phenomenal beauty of a holster. Well done, well done, indeed!

Edited September 7, 2016 by Red Bear Haraldsson
Wasn't finished

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks Red Bear, I'm glad you like it!

I was happy with the T nut idea. I'm not sure if I imagined it, or if I saw it somewhere else and conveniently "remembered" it. I will say that the holster was fit pretty tight which angled the T nuts "out" when I force stuffed the pistol in there. This in turn made it a little tough to get everything fit up and put together. I'd mocked it all up and wrapped the pistol in 2 ziploc freezer bags and let it sit overnight before putting on the top coat and doing the final assembly. It went together pretty easy the 2nd go around. I mention this in case you do use the idea you might want to set yourself up for easy success by punching the T nut holes in the skirt after the main holster is sewn up and "formed". If  I had done that I'd have saved myself a few cuss words when I put it together!

All the best, Josh

[plinkercases]

Very very nice, classy

[Red Bear Haraldsson]

Whoops, forgot to ask...

Anything other than friction holding your hammer strap? I see the holes, but none of the pictures show that side of the holster once it is all assembled.

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks Plinkercases!

Just friction Red Bear. Although the size of the thong and the size of the hole it's a pretty tight fit. To adjust the length through the holes takes a lot of effort. It's easy enough to hook and unhook the hammer as the oil tan thong has a little stretch to it. 

Here's a picture of that side.

[Dwight]

Awesome.............

May God bless,

Dwight

[plinkercases]

What is the finish by the way?

[dikman]

I'm not a great fan of leather carving (personal thing) but that is beautifully executed! The definition of the carving is superb.

Which brings me to a question - do you wet form the holster to the gun? The reason I ask is that in my limited experience with stamping I've found it's very easy to lose definition by wet molding after the stamping, but yours doesn't appear to have lost anything.

[Red Cent]

That is a solid looking holster. That would excite some of the speed demons in SASS. While I am always impressed with the tooling and other workmanship, I sure like those edges. Good to see someone else doing nice edges without using Edge Kote or dye. Did you do the burnishing slow and by hand?

Gettin' pretty good with that new fangled machine.

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks Dwight!

Plinker, I gave it a good heavy coat of neatsfoot oil and let that "soak" in overnight. After that I used Fiebings liquid acrylic antique in medium brown. I use a scrap of shearling to apply it and put it on heavy making sure to get it into all of the tooling. After I apply it to all of the pieces I go back and "wash" the top off with a damp paper towel. I let that dry for a good 24 hours then wipe it down with an old t shirt misted with liquid glycerin saddle soap (basically Leather New, but I buy a generic brand from Weaver by the gallon as it's cheaper and the same thing). After that I stitched it up, gave it a quick dunk in a tub of water and stuffed the pistol in. It's not quite right to say I did any "molding" but I did have to form it as the holster was quite tight. The liquid antique is pretty bad about wanting to rub, and or run, off so I try to be pretty careful with it, no rubbing with your thumbs or anything like that just stuff the pistol in give it a little twist back and forth and try to wipe anywhere the dye is trying to run. From there I let it dry overnight then wiped on my standard top coat of Mop & Glo cut 50/50 (or so) with water. Let that dry overnight then wiped the whole thing down with the liquid saddle soap again. That's everything I had done when I took the pictures. Since then I rubbed a little neutral Kiwi shoe polish on with my finger tips, let it sit for an hour or so and buffed it out with an old t shirt. that has it ready to ship out to the customer and it should hold up nicely. Based on previous holsters I can tell you that at this point the antique is all set and doesn't try to run anymore if it happens to get wet. 

Dikman, some folks like tooling and some don't. For me it depends on the type of holster and what I have been doing a lot of. If I build very many tooled holsters I really like the looks of a smooth one and if I've been building a lot of smooth ones I really like a tooled one. I guess for me it's about doing and seeing something different. See above in my response to Plinkercases about the "wet forming". I tend to carve pretty deep and the antique really helps to set it off, so the amount of definition lost when you stretch and form the holster to the gun is fairly minimal. If this had been basket stamped it would have probably lost a little more, but again, if you start with deep clear impressions they usually hold up OK to any forming for me. It is a bit of a guessing game though and sometimes things don't quite play out like I had hoped for. 

Thanks Red! going from hand stitching everything to using the Cobra has been a learning curve. I will say that now that I'm more comfortable with the machine I rarely, if ever hand stitch! I appreciate your compliment on my edges! Coming from you that is really something, as your edges are extremely nice and I know you put a ton of effort into them. My process on the mainseam is to cement it all together then sand the seam square with a dremel and the little sanding drum. I wet the edge to help cut down on dust plus I think it helps get it nice and smooth. Once I think it's all nice and even I'll gouge the stitch line (sometimes I don't gouge, like on a pancake, but if the stitch line is parallel to the edge I usually do) then I'll stitch it. From there I'll wet it with a sponge, not too much, just a little, and I'll round out the edges with a beveler, my latest favorite is the no name bissonette ones from Weaver. They work well for me and they're cheap enough that I just replace them when they get dull as opposed to trying to sharpen them. From there hit it with a sponge again and go after it with a scrap of cordura, I used to use canvas but the cordura seems to get the edge glossed up quicker. I run in one direction until it's nice and smooth then go back and forth pretty aggressively, friction and heat with some moisture seems to be what gets the job done. From there sometimes I wet it again and hit it with a wooden burnisher I picked up from Weaver, sometimes I use a bar of glycerin soap and sometimes it's already good enough to not mess with anymore. My process on all of the other edges is basically the same, the items that only apply to a glued and stitched edge just get skipped. 

Thanks again folks and have a great day!

Josh

[JLSleather]

Lookin' good (still!).  I usually don't care for that antstreak stuff on a carving, but this looks good - especially with those grips.

 

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks JLS!

[Lizardo]

That is one awesome rig!

[dikman]

Josh, thanks for the detailed response, most informative. And yes, I did notice the edges before, very nice indeed. Much like I'm sort of doing (but I've got a little way to go yet). I prefer trying to get good edges with a "natural" finish as I don't want to use edge coats/colours - while they look "sharp" they still look somewhat artificial to me, my aim is to try and get my holsters/belts so that they will age gracefully as they get used (and probably abused!).

[plinkercases]

I am dying to try the 50/50 mop-n-glow finish... perhaps for my own CAs rig I am planning out.

[Steve75]

Truly a work of art. 

[Dwight]

If I felt confident enough to use a SAA for my CCW, . . . I'd borrow the design and all, . . . and do one for me.  The only thing I would change, . . . is I would make my belt tunnel between the two sets of Tee nuts, . . . 

As it is, . . . I barely feel confident with my 1911, . . . so I don't think I'll rock this boat for now, . . . 

But I am gonna think on it.  I'm thinking shades of McCloud's, . . . cloud, . . . are wisping over me right about now 

May God bless,

Dwight

[neilyeag]

"It's built out of doubled 7 oz HO"   

Could you expand on this?  Does this mean you take two sections of leather and glue them together before fabricating?  

Neil 

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks again folks! I appreciate the positive feedback. I'll happily take negative feedback as well as that's how you get better.

Dwight, I'm right there with you. I often carry a single action around the farm, although it tends to be my old .357 Blackhawk as opposed to my Colt SAA clone. But anytime I use it for my actual carry gun I find myself wishing I had a 1911. 

Neilyeag, correct, it's 2 layers of 7 oz leather cemented back to back. I cut the "front" piece from a pattern and do any tooling to it first. Then I use it as pattern to "rough out" the shape of the liner. I'll cement both pieces and put them together then cut the liner, or back piece to match. Sometimes I'll cut the back piece before gluing them but it makes it pretty important that you get all the edges lined up when you stick them together. It's easier for me to glue then trim.

Have a great Friday and weekend folks!

Josh

[Craig44]

Beautiful work, very well done!

[Boriqua]

That is stunning!!

I want to make sure I read correctly .. you are applying the antique before you dunk? I used to do that with the Fiebings acrylic antique with fair results but then tried it with tandy antique and contributed an almost finished holster to the Arizona landfill.

[BHPshooter]

On ‎9‎/‎7‎/‎2016 at 11:35 AM, Red Bear Haraldsson said:

I have a friend that paints miniatures for tabletop wargames. He is a phenomenal painter. He ranks his paint jobs on how much I cuss when he shows his latest work to me.

Josh, what you have there is a Yosemite Sam nuclear diatribe of foul language that I am hollering. I'm making sailors blush over here.

Exactly right -- I'm struggling to find a family-friendly term to express my admiration.

I suppose I'll just have to say that it's breathtaking, and leave it at that.