Holster making for a hobby ??? show off your work... offer suggestions to a newbie...

[vostracker]

AAROND: Beautiful stuff. I really like the small smith rig. I need something like that for my Colt Hammerless BBQ gun. GO COWBOYS!!! I'm in Ponca.

[aarondhgraham]

Ponca City ain't that far from Stillwater,,,
We could meet at Joseppi's, my favorite watering hole,,,
Designing a BBQ rig over a beer (or three) is one of my favorite things.

[Magnum Wheel Man]

had this old Heiser holster sitting on my desk at work all week... & right now, I'm leaning towards not replcing the strap that goes across the tooling, & using the 3 existing rivet holes in the back, for 3 - 1/4" solid brass "chicago screws" ... which seems pretty easy to do... then I'd like to dye the "dotted" background sections of the tooling with a fine brush, & the black Feiblings prefessional die I have right now... there are several of these back ground sections ( like on the radius opposite of the lacing, as well as on the very bottom of the holster ), that have worn smooth... I can still see the cut outline of each section, but I think by dyeing those sections black, it'll help define the old tooling on the holster, & by not replacing "that" old cross strap, will allow more of the tooling to show... this is what the back side looks like...

I'd think that 3 screws in the existing rivet holes would be plenty strong & secure, & using the brass screws should protct the guns finish from wear ???

...that leaves the gun retention strap that will hold the old embossed Heiser snap... so I'm looking at 3/4" vegi tanned strips, & maybe trying to tool either a braided rope pattern, a vine with some leaves, or perhaps leave it plain, but put a grooved border similar to the scrap I have the snap on in the previous picture...

I have 3-4 tiny light spots in the tooling, that look like scrapes I thought if I stripped that area, & touched up the dye with brown, then refinished the top coat.. unfortunately, I'm not sure in this would be closer to medium or dark brown in it's antiquated state ???... I'm thinking dark brown

... I'm also wondering what to use to polish up that worn area at the bottom of the holster, to make it blend in better... I'm thinking using this...

http://www.zackwhite.com/product.php...cat=746&page=1

then buffing up the whole area after the spots are spot dyed ???

Thoughts ???

[aarondhgraham]

It's a top coat and will seal the leather.

Is it a rough spot because of friction wear?
If so you can try burnishing it smooth.

Try dampening the leather very lightly with tap water,,,
And then rubbing it vigorously with something smooth like a plastic spoon.

What you are trying to do is to burnish it smooth,,,
If you use the Resolene you will seal the leather and nothing can happen.

Tandy Super Sheen and Resolene are basically the same stuff,,,
It's a clear acrylic coat and is like varnishing wood.

It looks good on craftwork but actually hampers burnishing and conditioning.

[Magnum Wheel Man]

maybe it can be burnished ??? hard to take that kind of pic with my old camera, but here is the best I can do... I work in a dusty environment so the leather doesn't look freshly polished... ( spots in the circle ) worn area appears lighter & duller at the bottom of the pic

notice the highly worn spot at the bottom of the holster appears the same color, evn though it doesn't have the "shine" of the rest of the tooling, but that "scrape" seems like it scraped the dye off to a lighter color, even though they aren't really deep enough to feel them ???

[aarondhgraham]

At this point I think all I would do is lightly condition it and then wax it with either Carnuba Cream or Tandy's Leather Balm with Atom Wax.

Scratches and worn spots are part of old leather items,,,
They are like the wrinkles around our eyes,,,
They give us character.

At least that's what I keep telling the young ladies I flirt with.

If you have gotten the leather softened with Dr. Jacksons,,,
Now it's just a matter of a coat of Carnuba wax and some buffing,,,
Then the leather will glow a bit and show some depth to the old patina.

I almost forgot,,,
If you are going to dye the background for contrast,,,
Definitely do that before you apply any type of wax coating.

[Magnum Wheel Man]

thanks again for the tips... gotta run... I'll be out of town all day today

[Sixer]

Hey good to see an informative thread on Holster Making!

Eugene and Aarond, the quality of your work is amazing. Thanks for all of the great tips and links.

Dave, I'm seriously digging the artwork on your leather. I just recently bought a basic tooling set but haven't had time to figure it out yet. Your designs are very cool!

Keep up the good work fellas

[aarondhgraham]

It's available from tandy for 12.99,,,
It's called Inverted Leather Carving.

But the section you will like is on silhouette Carving.

I use silhouette carving a lot because it is fast,,,
It's the technique Dave Cole used on that skull and flame rig I like so much.

I find silhouette patterns by searching for tattoo patterns on the web,,,
That's where I got the dragon pattern I used on the Lara Croft rig.

Much more flexible than traditional floral carving,,,
And it really only requires a few sizes of two stamp tools,,,
You just need a swivel knife, a few sizes of Beveler, and a few sizes of Backgrounder.

The book explains the technique very thoroughly.

Keep on makin',,,
And post the Python Skin rig here,,,
It's a lovely design and you should show it off here.

[Dave Cole]

Thanks for all the kind words.Your doing a fine job on that holster MWM, listen to Aarond, I agree with what he has said.
Aarond,did you get my e-mail about the exotics I use?
Sixer, I was trained to use few tools and alot of imagination.And yes I like that kind of carving and yes its faster and more flexible.Tatoo flash is good for images but many logo's or other images can be done as well.The computer is your friend for this stuff.My wife usually takes the images and sizes them to fit whatever holster or sheath I need and then prints it out,instant pattern.I then dampen the leather and lay the pattern on top and trace the lines with a fine ball tip stylus or ballpoint pen.Cut your linnes in with a swivel knife, and then start beveling and backgrounding.Dave

These two pieces were done with an Emerson logo( with his permission of course) for and Emerson/Les Baer 1911 using different size patterns.



This sheath was carved using a customer supplied logo of his and coverted to a pattern.( not one of my knives, it was made by Angus Trim, I just did the sheath).

[aarondhgraham]

I replied and thanked ya whole-heartedly,,,
Many makers are stingy with their leather sources

I haven't contacted the people as yet but I am definitely going to,,,
I really want to get more frog skins for my small projects.

Yes, the computer is your friend when making tooling patterns,,,
I use PowerPoint a lot to layout drawings and images,,,
It's very easy to scan, insert, and resize images.

Then I print it out on transparency film,,,
It's thick but still transfers with a ball point stylus,,,
That eliminates one intermediate tracing step from the process.

[Dave Cole]

Anytime my friend,stingy is not how I was brought up.Dave

[aarondhgraham]

I made a holster for Mina,,,
I really like the pseudo old-west style.

I deviated on one thing,,,
I usually make my holsters with medium leather lined with light leather,,,
This time I decided to use up a nice scrap of saddle weight leather with no lining.

The stitching around the top of the holster body is purely for decoration,,,
I might replace the body strap with one using a small buckle,,,
That way I can use it with a minimal buscadero rig.

[Magnum Wheel Man]

very nice work... & being able to put something like that together in such short order really shows off your expirience

[aarondhgraham]

A while back I promised MagnumWheelMan a free holster,,,
Then he mentioned his Lady, Mrs Magnum,,,
So I decided he needed two holsters.

Here are the two Manta Skin holsters I made for them,,,
They are called: The Key-Slingers.


I use one for my Motorcycle and one for my gun cabinet,,,
Mine are many years old and are made of Frog Skin.


P.S. As much as I would like to take credit for the design of these patterns,,,
They are from an old Tandy Leather pattern book.

[vostracker]

Now that was cool!!!

[aarondhgraham]

I would do it today but I didn't think to bring the pattern book,,,
Someone else might want to make some of these little guys.

[Magnum Wheel Man]

"Gummed back leather" vrs "Ironed" shoulders for holster use ???

I'm looking for a "heavier" leather for my belt loop sections on the holsters I'm modifying for my heavy weight 44 mag snubbie & my Ruger Alaskan...

I'm not seeing a more practical way to buy this leather ( anyone sell it by the SQFT ??? a shoulder aught to keep me busy for a long time... one or two sqft would be more what I need right now )

I'm looking at these

any advantages to either of these for my purpose, or should I be looking at something different ???

http://www.zackwhite.com/product.php...at=1231&page=1

http://www.zackwhite.com/product.php...at=1231&page=1

[aarondhgraham]

If this is the leather you will make loops from I think I would still go for the 8/9 ounce weight,,,
It's heavy enough to make holsters from so the rest of it won't be wasted.

Places do sell leather in square foot sections,,,
But they also charge a ton of money for that convenience.

Like where a 4' by 8" sheet of plywood is $30.00,,,
But if you only want half they charge you $20.00 instead of $15.00.

Like I said before,,,
You can always sand the leather thinner.

[Magnum Wheel Man]

my bigger concern was the "gummed back" vrs "regular"

... I'm already buying some strap leather for the loop & snap strap...

[aarondhgraham]

Ironed means the shoulder has been rolled between "iron rollers" to flatten the area where the neck was,,,
Kind of like the wringers on the old washing machines.

I honestly have no idea (so I can only guess at) what gummed back means,,,
Unless it means the flesh side has been rubbed with gum tragacanth to smooth it out a bit.

Maybe Dave Cole has heard the term used before.

The flesh side of some leather is very rough,,,
On some leather it is very smooth as if it's been polished,,,
Honestly, I think they are using buzz-words just to hype the product.

It's not something I would worry too awful much about,,,
Almost all leather gets "rolled" to flatten it out,,,
And if the flesh is too rough for me to use,,,
I just touch it a bit to the belt sander.

[Sixer]

Aarond, awesome work man!

Magnum, give the good people at Springfield Leather a call. The option is not available on their website, but they will cut the leather to whatever size you need.

[Magnum Wheel Man]

Thanks for the suggestions... I already ordered the heaviest rolled shoulders, along with some strapping, a couple lacing punches, & a hole punch ( for the Heiser snap re-install ) I need to find my stitcher... I think I put it in a back pack last time I went Elk Hunting ( several years ago )

Aarond... the tool that looks like a spur on a handle is a punch space marker for stiching ??? I still haven't gotten any books yet ( hopefully next paycheck... gotta take this stuff a little at a time ) but I've pretty much completed collecting the top breaks, so that will leave more weekly money for leather stuff over the next several weeks

[aarondhgraham]

Or a spacing wheel, or a "spur-on-a-stick."

But yes, roll it in the groove you make for the stitching line and it makes marks to space your stitches.

They come in several sizes of 5, 6, or 7 stitches per inch,,,
I almost always use the 5 per inch unless it's very thin leather on a small project using fine thread.

Some people like to use 6 per inch all the time,,,
That works well until you are sewing through a thickness of about 3/8" or more.

[Magnum Wheel Man]

has anyone ever used heavy wool felt as a holster liner ??? I pulled apart an old junky holster that seemed to have some sort of red fabric liner glued into the inside... I was thinking heavy "pool table type" felt might make a good liner material ( sewed, not just glued ) into the inside of a holster... it could be used to insulated the gun from any hardware used... it's available in many colors, including more natural leather colors, for a more traditional look, but also red's & blues & some brighter colors if one were inclined ( not my style for the flashy colors, but there was red in the one I pulled apart ) maybe it wouldn't wear like a leather liner, so might not be good, but was thinking it might be easier to work with for a newbie ???