Building my first holster

[kiwican]

Hello all! well its finally happened. Someone has asked me to build a a pancake style holster for a Sig P226. I have watched plenty of builds and read what the experts here have to say. This will be built without a thumb break. I'm intending to use 7/8 or 8/9  cow shoulder, wet formed as tight to pistol as I can make it for good friction fit and canted to likely to a 15 degree angle. I think I'm looking for some guidance on weather I need a stiffener on the front and also ive read and seen many opinions on how close/far out the stich line needs to be from the molded part. 

Any advice welcome! 

[chuck123wapati]

Used to be a fellow here that had free patterns and instruction's for builds. JLS leather i believe. You might search the site.

[Dwight]

On a pancake with no suicide strap or thumb break . . . stiffener is a good idea.  Over time, the holster will tend to loosen up . . . the stiffener stretches that time out a bit.

When you go to do the wet mold . . . use water in the neighborhood of 135 deg F . . . and if you heat dry it (not over 140 deg F) it will also become harder.  I have a wooden box with light bulbs in the bottom . . . works as my oven . . . they get right real rigid that way.

Also . . . pull those stitches in tight to the gun.  Once molded, dyed, dried, and finished . . . wearing it a couple days will loosen up any "extra" tightness from the stitches . . . so get close.

Here are some pics of a typical one I make . . . owner wanted black wings on this one.

May God bless,

Dwight

[kiwican]

1 hour ago, chuck123wapati said:

Used to be a fellow here that had free patterns and instruction's for builds. JLS leather i believe. You might search the site.

Yup I remember him, he always had good intel on how to make these!

1 hour ago, Dwight said:

On a pancake with no suicide strap or thumb break . . . stiffener is a good idea.  Over time, the holster will tend to loosen up . . . the stiffener stretches that time out a bit.

When you go to do the wet mold . . . use water in the neighborhood of 135 deg F . . . and if you heat dry it (not over 140 deg F) it will also become harder.  I have a wooden box with light bulbs in the bottom . . . works as my oven . . . they get right real rigid that way.

Also . . . pull those stitches in tight to the gun.  Once molded, dyed, dried, and finished . . . wearing it a couple days will loosen up any "extra" tightness from the stitches . . . so get close.

Here are some pics of a typical one I make . . . owner wanted black wings on this one.

May God bless,

Dwight

Thanks for the info ! I was hoping you would show up!. 

[Dwight]

You're welcome . . . make sure to show us what you came up with.

May God bless,

Dwight

[thawk8541]

Great info as always Dwight!  Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

[Joon1911]

16 hours ago, kiwican said:

Hello all! well its finally happened. Someone has asked me to build a a pancake style holster for a Sig P226. I have watched plenty of builds and read what the experts here have to say. This will be built without a thumb break. I'm intending to use 7/8 or 8/9  cow shoulder, wet formed as tight to pistol as I can make it for good friction fit and canted to likely to a 15 degree angle. I think I'm looking for some guidance on weather I need a stiffener on the front and also ive read and seen many opinions on how close/far out the stich line needs to be from the molded part. 

Any advice welcome! 

Welcome,  my experiences have generally lined up with Jason Ingle’s presentation done on learnleather.com website.  He does things a bit different from what I’ve figured out on my own, but I learned a lot of nuance from this video.  Jason puts it pretty succinctly.  As far as the reinforcement panel, I do feel the benefits outweigh any negatives.  The added layer of glue & leather combine with the wet moulding to give more definition to the mouth opening.

 

 

[kiwican]

Good video, thankyou!

[caressofsteel]

One thing I like to do with a pancake holster is to first design the holster with the two sides at even length, then shorten the body side by 5mm and lengthen the outer side by the same amount. 

This gives the holster more rigidity than a flat pancake but still has a natural sight track and pulls in tight to the body fore and aft of the holster. 

[kiwican]

27 minutes ago, caressofsteel said:

One thing I like to do with a pancake holster is to first design the holster with the two sides at even length, then shorten the body side by 5mm and lengthen the outer side by the same amount. 

This gives the holster more rigidity than a flat pancake but still has a natural sight track and pulls in tight to the body fore and aft of the holster. 

Sorry, i think I know what you're getting at but can you expand on that more?