[ Main ] [ RKBA Home ] [ Gun Links ] [ RKBA Essays ] [ Holstermaking ]
The DIY Holstermaker
A Project by JDLawhon, AKA Bulldawg - Bulldawg's Firearms Page
© 2008 - All Rights Reserved
I've been making holsters for myself for a few months, now. I started doing this because I was having a hard time finding a holster that worked well for me for a particular revolver I have. I had some tools, and I had a Tandy Leather store not far from me, so I decided to go ahead and try my hand at making something myself. My first few attempts are almost comical when you look at them. However, with each new holster I make, I find myself doing something a little different that ends up being an improvement over the last holster... usually.
Whenever I post a picture of a holster I've made on a gun board somewhere, invariably, someone will ask for construction details, step-by-step, and so forth. Well, a few weeks ago, I drew up a pattern that I wanted to try out, so here's a write-up for you guys.
This pattern is for a slide design holster that will work for carrying two similar guns, but each with different barrel lengths. It's a pretty common concept, and just about every holster maker has a slide-type design in their arsenal. I've got a Smith & Wesson M&P 9 as well as an M&P 45 which are pretty much identical in measurements with the exception of barrel length, grip thickness, and a very slight difference in thickness near the muzzle. This holster ought to work out just fine for this.
It'll be a simple holster with single stitching. However, I'm going to experiment a little bit on this one with some stuff I haven't tried before. I've never made a holster with a slide guard (or sweat shield, if you prefer), I've never made a holster using this particular color I'll be dying it, and I've never used the substance I'm using for finishing the edges. Let's hope everything comes together for a nice end result.
Tools & Equipment Used in this Project:
- Premium 8/9oz double shoulder leather
- Speedy Stitcher with waxed nylon thread
- Awl or stitching fid
- Adjustable stitching groover
- Freehand stitching groover
- Edge beveler
- Overstitch wheel
- Utility knife
- X-Acto knives
- Contact cement
- Fiebing's tan leather dye
- Fiebing's Resolene
- Eco-Flo Gum Tragacanth
- Wool daubers
- Preval sprayer power unit and jar
- Sharpie marker (I use the shaft for molding/boning)
- Burnishing wheel (Optional, you can improvise here)
- Short, polished deer antler tine (can be used for burnishing and boning)
- Shoe-shine brush
- Ratty old dye-stained wash cloth
- Ratty old dye-stained cotton T-shirt
- Dremel or other roto tool
- Regular and small sized sanding drums for the Dremel
- Dremel drill bits
- Sanding sponge
- Paper towels
- Short pencil or dowel rod and some tape
Many of the specialized tools can be found online or in the retail stores of the Tandy Leather Factory. Other tools such as molding or burnishing tools can be improvised. You might be surprised what sorts of contraptions you'll find on a holstermaker's work bench.
By the way, have you ever wondered just how ugly a holster could be? Then be sure to check out my gallery of past projects.
The Beginning
Here we have the makings of a new holster. At this point, I've created a pattern, transferred it to leather, cut the leather, glued it together, and have done some basic smoothing and evening of the edges.
When drawing a pattern, you need to ensure you are allowing for the thickness of the gun when considering where you will be placing your stitch lines around the gun. A thin 1911 will need less space than a thicker gun like a Glock, Sig, or a revolver. I personally guestimate how much space I need, but smarter, less lazy folks will mock up a holster out of paper or manilla folder material. Regardless of how you do it, it's probably better to allow more room around the gun than not enough. With more room, you can at least still mold around the gun and come out with a usable holster. With too little, you won't be able to get the gun in the holster when it's time to mold. Ask me how I know this...
Take this time to lay out any other design features or belt slots you intend to put on the final holster to get an idea of where everything will be. I basically draw the entire holster, stitch lines and all, on my patterns to give me an idea of what I'm going for. Some people use cardboard or manilla folder material for making patterns. It's more durable and will be easier to trace around when transferring the pattern to leather.
See the little dots on the leather in the pic to the right? That's simply where I just punched through the pattern with the pencil while the pattern was on the leather. The dots tell me where my lines need to be on the leather.
After I've transferred the pattern to leather, I use a utility knife to cut just outside the lines of the holster. I'll use my sanding drums and sanding sponges to get the final shaping on the edges.
Once your leather is cut, take into consideration what material you'll be trimming and what you want to keep, then glue the two halves together keeping those considerations in mind. Be sure to keep any cement away from where the gun will rest when holstered since you obviously don't want that area glued together. Put something heavy on top of the glued holster, or sandwich between scrap pieces of leather and clamp it, and let the glue set up for a couple of hours. I use contact cement or rubber cement. There are other leather-specific products for this, as well, such as Tanner's Bond.
Cutting the Stitch Grooves
Here's a close-up of the adjustable stitching groover. There's a screw at the tip that allows you to adjust the L-shaped bar (which is the cutter) in and out based on how far away from the edge you want your stitch line. You just run the groover along the edge, letting the stepped-down tip run along the outside edge. The tip of the L has a small hole in it - that's the cutter. You can see the remnants of leather that are left after cutting your groove. Just make a couple of smooth and steady passes, being careful not to slip. You're making a groove for the stitches to lay in, keeping them below the surface of the holster where they could get snagged or worn out. Here I am using the freehand stitching groover to cut grooves where the adjustable groover won't reach. I've drawn my lines (connecting the dots I punched through the pattern), and I use a straight edge for any straight grooves that need to be cut. Again, smooth and steady for a couple of passes. This other groove takes a little more patience. One little jerk, and you've got a groove running where you don't want it. Slow and steady is the name of the game on this one. Keep in mind, I'm only doing these lines on the front for now. Once I've pre-drilled my stitching holes, I'll go over them with this groover on the back. Cutting Belt Slots
At this point, all of the grooves are good to go. You can see that I've used my leather punch to knock out top and bottom holes for the belt slots. I draw a straight line from the edges of the top hole to the edges of the bottom and then use my flat-blade X-acto knife to cut out the material between the holes. The small dremel sanding drum is used to clean up and straighten the slots (I need new sanding drums bad). I've also pre-marked my stitches, which leads us to the next step. Pre-marking and Pre-drilling Holes for your Stitches
Here's the overstitch wheel I use for pre-marking my stitches. You just run it along your grooves, and it leaves little evenly-spaced divits behind. Once I've got the little divits done, I go over each one individually with my awl making them more visible and distinct. I use a small drill bit in the dremel to pre-drill all of my stitch holes. An alternative to this method is to use specialized punches that are purpose-built for punching diamond-shaped holes for stitching. One does multiple holes (I think four at a time), and another does single holes. Here I've pre-drilled all of my stitch holes, cut my rear freehand stitching grooves, and cleaned up all of the holes with the awl. Now it's time to go sit in front of the TV with the Speedy Stitcher for an hour or two. Molding
Molding is pretty straightforward, but it takes a little practice. Once the stitching is complete, I wet the leather under running hot water just enough to get it all wet, and I let it sit for an hour or so. You don't want the leather sopping wet when molding, just damp and cool to the touch. Sopping wet leather won't hold it's shape very well when molding. After an hour or so, I then take the gun, tape a pencil or dowel rod between the sights (so we can form a sight channel), and cram it into the holster until it is resting where I want it. This sometimes takes a little bit of effort, so don't be discouraged if you think it's not fitting at first - stretch, twist, and contort the leather a little bit if you have to. Try not to use saran wrap or baggies or anything to protect the gun. You want the holster to be molded to the gun, not a gun with saran wrap and baggies around it. Wipe down and oil your gun afterward if necessary. I begin molding by hand and then move on to detail molding with the back end of my Sharpie marker. When detail molding, or boning, your tool(s) and your technique helps a lot. Knowing the lines of your gun and how they interact with a holster helps a lot, too. On your boning tools, you want something that's hard, smooth, and non-porous. You don't want any rough surfaces on the tool gathering contaminants or sharp burrs marring your leather. I even clean the black logo markings off of the Sharpie before using it, as I've found that they can rub off on the leather. When using your boning tool of choice, be careful not to get too aggressive with it. Some slips and errors can be smoothed out while the leather is still damp, but if you tear or puncture the leather, you're stuck with it. Use a straight edge if you're having a problem maintaining a straight line somewhere.
After molding, I remove the gun from the holster and reshape anything that may need it after removing the gun from the still-damp holster. Once the holster is completely dry (as in overnight, at least), I give the edges a final smoothing and beveling using a sanding sponge and edge beveling tool. The edge beveling tool uses a small forked prong with a sharpened edge between two slides that ride along the edge of the leather. Yeah, hard to describe. Anyway, this knocks down any rough edges. I find that a sanding sponge does a pretty good job of getting most of it.
Dying
Now that the molding is done, it's time to dye. I've decided on Fiebing's Tan leather dye this time around. I've had it for a while, but I haven't tried it on anything, yet. I apply dye with wool daubers. Other application methods include spraying or using strips of sheep's wool to rub it in. I apply the dye inside and out, liberally drenching the interior of the holster to ensure it runs into all the nooks and crannies. I keep applying the dye wherever needed until I've got an even coat everywhere. Using the wool daubers means streaks, so to overcome the streaks means applying lots of dye. Lots of dye means a darker finish, so this holster is turning out with a nice dark brown color, which is fine by me. I was concerned I wouldn't like the dye's effect on the thread, but after applying it, I kind of like its yellowed hue. At this point, the holster is wet again. I can touch up any molding wherever it may be needed (and I did just that after taking the two pics below). Once the dye has dried, I'll buff it good with a shoe-shine brush and go to work waxing and burnishing the edges. Burnishing the Edges
Normally, I use bee's wax on the edges, but I decided to experiment with another product called Gum Tragacanth this time around. This is a slimy substance that you apply to the edges, and as you burnish, working it into the edges, it forms a hard, clear sealing layer on the edge. The idea is to smooth out and mat down all of the little frizzies that tend to stick up off of cut leather. When burnishing, you are literally burning the leather through the use of friction. Darkening on the edges will occur and will be more noticable on undyed or lightly dyed leather. The amount of darkening will depend on how much burnishing you do (on a holster you're dyeing black, this is all a moot point). Some holster makers will use a felt wheel to do this. I simply do it by hand using my deer antler tine, sharpie marker, and/or burnishing wheel, depending on where I'm burnishing. Once I've burnished with those tools to my satisfaction, I'll poke a finger into a wash cloth and rapidly rub it back and forth on the edges (some folks will recommend canvas for this - I'm using what's handy). This is just adds to the burnishing effect.
Take a look at the first image in this section, and note the difference between the outer edges of the holster and the inner edges of the belt slots. I had not yet burnished the belt slots at the time I took this pic.
Once everything is burnished, you can leave it as is or dress with a colored edge coating such as Edge Kote (clever name, huh?). I choose to just leave it as it is.
Now that the edges are nice and burnished, I clean up any stray leather flecks, fibers, etc with a lighter. Now it's time for the final finish.
Final Finish
Thoughts on the Final Product
Before getting to the final finish, there's one more thing I want to take care of. The back side of the leather I'm using is fairly fibrous, meaning it isn't sanded all the way down to a smooth surface. It's smooth as it comes from the store, but as the leather is worked and a pistol is repeatedly insterted and removed, the fibers on the interior of the holster will tend to start sticking up. To help remedy that, I apply some Gum Tragacanth to the interior surface of the holster and rub it in vigorously with my fingers. This seems to keep everything nice and smooth inside the holster. For the final finish itself, I'm using Feibing's Resolene, a liquid acrylic leather sealant. My first experiment with this stuff some time ago resulted in a nasty tacky mess since I tried applying it with wool daubers. This time around, I'm trying out a Preval sprayer unit. It's basically a can of air which screws to the top of a jar with a pick-up straw dipping down into the jar.
I poured some Resolene into the glass jar that's used with the unit and cut it with a little bit of water. I sprayed a generous amount into the interior of the holster, and I went over the exterior with about three or four light coats keeping the nozzle about 10 or 12 inches from the holster. I used a hair dryer to force dry the finish between coats, as per a tip from another DIY holster maker on the Pistolsmith.com forum.
I'll be honest here - I'm not sure that I like this method. It looks okay in the pics, but up close, it appears very grainy - as if there's a million tiny bubbles in the finish. Since the finish is dry to the touch, I decided to experiment with fire (Hey, who doesn't like playing with fire?). I ran a lighter flame across the surface of the holster a few times, and I then buffed it with my shoe-shine brush. This seems to have smoothed it out a little bit. Regardless, I'm not sure the Preval unit is putting out a fine enough mist for a perfectly even coat. I'm going to let it cure up for a day or two and see what happens before passing final judgement on this finishing technique.
Not my best, but not too bad. I did some more buffing and rubbing, and the finish smoothed out a little bit more. I'm happy with the overall design of this holster, but there are a few things I'll want to pay closer attention to next time. For one, I think I'll stick with the simplicity of the Leather Sheen in a rattle can for my future final finishes. I may experiment with the Resolene some more, but if I'm making something for actual use rather than experimentation, I'll just use what I know works for me. (Update - Resolene ain't for me...)
The molding went well on this one. Almost too well. I initially overdid the molding in the ejection port area resulting in a gun that took some coaxing with a kitchen knife to get out. Be careful in this area. You want good retention, but you still want to be able to get the gun out! I ended up having to re-wet this area and soften up the molding a tad.
I need to pay more attention to my stitch layout and stitch groove depth. On this holster, I probably should've allowed about an extra 1/8 to 1/4 inch around the gun. After stuffing the gun in this one when molding, the stitch grooves around the gun almost want to close up over the stitching due to how close to the gun I layed out the stitch lines and how deeply I cut the stitching grooves. I also think I'll spend more time beveling the edges on my next holster. I don't particularly mind the semi squared-off edges, but I'd like to do something a little more rounded.
I'd like to find or make a finer boning/molding tool. Overall, the back end of a Sharpie marker works well for most of the detail molding (and I recently found out I'm not the only one who uses a Sharpie!). However, I'd like something I can use for some finer detailing. (Update - WalMart Crochet needles, of all things, work pretty dang good!)
(Update - Since this project, I've been talked in to hand-stitching my holsters using the same thread but without the use of the Speedy Stitcher. Makes a much stronger stitch, is just as easy, if not easier, and it looks just as good.)
Overall, I think this project went well, and it's always fun doing another holster (although I wouldn't want to do it for a living!). I hope you DIY holstermakers out there enjoyed this write-up and found it helpful.
For more info on leatherworking tools, click here. Also be sure to check out the well done DIY holster step-by-step from the same website here. Thanks for these write-ups and for the folks at Pistolsmith.com for the excellent tips and insight into leatherworking.
To see a gallery of my past projects, click here.
