... er I hope not "wrecked"
my stuff hasn't gotten here yet to re-lace that Heiser, but I guess I was feeling either brave or stupid or a little of both... the straps on that Heiser have some condition issues... the one that contains "that" embossed snap is cracked pretty badly, if I was going to use it, it would only be a matter of a short time before before it broke off, without some major ( & probably ugly ) type of repair... also the strap that goes around the body of the holster looks to have had some initials scratched into it at some time in the past...
I had been thinking, that with a little luck, I could remove & re-use that embossed Heiser snap... I swallowed hard, & with a small screwdriver & a fine point needle nosed pliers, I was able to remove the snap from the damaged strap... I think if I make a new strap, & put the right size hole in it, I can re-install the embossed snap onto the new strap... I think I'm going to have one of my machinist buddys make me a snap seater to fit these old snaps that will go into my vice, so after I unfold the brass petals of the snap, I can apply some leather glue, & press the petals flat onto the strap in the vice, & let the glue dry... I think this will work to give me a servicable strap with the old embossed Heiser snap on it..
replacing the riveted on strap that goes around the body should be easier, & I'm still leaning towards using black straps & black lacing on this brown tooled holster ( pictured earlier )... I think the combo of black & brown will look good...
has anyone ever tried to re-use / replace one of these embossed snaps ??? any suggestions... other than don't do it ???
on to the next (2) projects...
I went through my "box" of cheap holsters, ( I've reciently bought several boxes of 6-8 holsters for like $20.00 for the whole box ) & found one that fits my Dan Wesson 44 mag snubbie ( with the comp nut... acts / looks like a 3" barrel with the compnut ) like a glove... what that means, is an old Hunter brand holster I'd modified 10-15 years ago for that gun, can now be altered to fit my 454 Alaskan... I'm looking at removing the folded flap & wrap- around body strap for the belt loop, & adding an "FBI cant", as well as raising the belt position an inch or so, to both holsters, & spreading the weight out, since these are bolth very heavy guns, by adding a band of leather that will be as wide as the flap jack / pancake style holsters belt loops, but will be more like 2 of the normal fold over belt loops, but with a pants belt loop slot in the middle... ( don't know if I explained that well or not
) I'm thinking of lacing over the top to join the new piece with the old holster, then about 1/2" below the lacing, sewing across at the new canted angle & again at the bottom, for the slot for the belt to pass through...
I had just bought an old police belt flap holster that looks to fit my 32 S&W 4" barrel top break, the old leather is not in too bad a shape, but the stitching was rotted out... this is a very interesting 100+ year old piece, & after ripping out all the stitching, it lays flat... I think I want to trace that one out to use for a pattern... I figured since I have way more 3" barrels than 4", but love the design & fit, I could use the basic tracing to make shorter barreled 32 holsters, & or look at cutting a 1/4" or so outside the line, & have a nice pattern, that would fit my 38 top breaks ???