Before you can draw you pistol...

[rintinglen]

you have to have a holster. And if you have a gun that isn't dirt common, you may have trouble finding a holster to fit. So, what's a fellow to do?

Well, the best answer to that is to make your own holster. Believe me, it is not Rocket Science, and you need not purchase a ton of stuff to make one. I work with leather and That is what I hope to demonstrate here. (I am showing a 5 " Colt Official Police--try buying a holster for that at the next gun show.)


Now before you start slashing up a hunk of Leather, you first need to get a few things to hand. You are going to need to make a pattern. The best thing that I have found to use is the old-fashioned manila folder. A few years back our office went paperless and threw out several boxes of manila folders, one of which I promptly snagged. That has been the origin of most of the holsters I have made in the last 10 or 12 years. Any stiff piece of paper will do, but I have'nt found anything that works better.

Now to make a pattern using a manila folder, open the folder and lay it flat. Take the EMPTY gun that you are going to make a holster for, and lay it on it's sights, exactly centered on the mid-line crease of the folder. Carefully roll it to one side, being sure not to pivot the gun as you do so.


Using a sharp pencil, scribe the outline of the gun. Remember, the better your pattern, the better your holster will be. Once you have traced the outline of your gun on the paper, you now have to draw the holster. USE A PENCIL--unless you are a better artist than I, you'll want to make adjustments. (I Used a Sharpie to make the pattern stand out better, but careful observation will reveal several other pencil lines meandering around.)
Here are some rules of thumb:
If you are not going to use a welt, the edge of your holster pattern should be 1/2 the thickness of your gun, plus one eigth of an inch, away from the edge of the profile you traced. E.G., if your automatic has a slide that is one inch thick, you'll draw the boundary 5/8" away from the slide. This holster will have a welt, so I will plan on a half inch border to give me room for a stitch line and a 3/8 inch welt. (A welt is a spacer on the seam to be sewn that allows you to make your holster fit the gun more closely.


You will need at least 3/8 of an inch for the trigger guard.

Don't be afraid to copy--look at other holsters to see how they fit.

Once you have the pattern sketched out to your liking, cut out the pattern with a sharp pair of scissors. Again, take pains to do the best job that you can
.

On a pouch style holster, after you cut out one side fold it over and cut the common edge--that way, they'll match up better when you transfer the pattern to the leather.

Once you have made the pattern--TRY IT ON THE GUN. Make adjustments as needed. Don't be afraid to start over--Paper is cheap: leather is dear.


Depending on the Style of holster, now make patterns for your belt loop tunnel, welt strip(s), and any straps you plan on using.


Try them together, make adjustments as required, and now you're ready to start making your holster. I'll have another thread on how best to do that later this summer.

[rintinglen]

Here are the holsters I made with this pattern

[rintinglen]

Here is the completed pattern. Note that the pieces are marked so that I can tell at a glance whether the holster is for right or left hand. To change, one needs merely to turn it over. On the holsters I made with this pattern, one RH straight draw, one RH cross-draw, I merely changed the stitching lines on the belt tunnel. It took me four tries to get the belt tunnel to my satisfaction, but now I can make this pattern holster fit on any belt up to 2 inches wide.

[nicholst55]

Wow, very nice! I'll be waiting for your next thread on this subject. I would truly love to develop this skill set.

[375RUGER]

Good tutorial.
I always start a preliminary pattern on paper. Then when I think I got it right I cut out the final or semi-final pattern with linoleum/vinyl flooring. Armstrong, I think it is makes one that is extra thick so it simulates the thickness of the leather. this is especially helpful if you will do double thickness.

[rintinglen]

Good tip, Ruger. I have used Card Board to the same purpose, but find that it makes final fitting a bit difficult. The vinyl flooring would work better, being more flexible.

[btroj]

Biggest thing I learned in leather work is that the quality of the stitching speaks volumes aout the overall quality of the work.
Stitch lines need to be straight, stitches need to be neat and even. It isn't that hard, it just takes some practice and care.
Never made many holsters but made well over 50 shooting bags for muzzleloading.

[kullas]

Nice leather work there. i have made some sheaths for a couple knives but nothing that nice great work

[Bored1]

Thanks for sharing the knowledge! Had toyed with the idea of trying to make a holster, now that it's been "demystified" Im going to have to try that!

[rintinglen]

Tandy Leather has a sale on this month that includes economy leather shoulders. They work great for holster making.

[Bored1]

Tandy Leather has a sale on this month that includes economy leather shoulders. They work great for holster making.

Thanks for the tip. What type of shoulder should a person get for this type of project?

[MDC]

9oz single shoulder. 9oz being the thickness and a single shoulder should be 5-6 sqft. It should make at least 3 or 4 holsters and a couple of knife sheaths if you plan your cuts.

[rintinglen]

Vegetable tanned leather of a thickness appropriate to the weight of the gun.
Rule of thumb;
gun weighs <20 oz use 5-6 oz leather
" " 20-30 oz use 6-7 oz leather
" " 30-40 oz use 7-8 oz leather
" " >40 oz use 8-9 oz leather
Leather is normally sold by weight per square foot, but each ounce works out to about 1/64 of inch in thickness, so a 8-9 oz peice would be a smidgeon over an 1/8 of inch thick. Most high dollar leather will be sold in a one ounce range, cheaper, economy grades will have a wider range of thickness, so the good stuff will be rated 4-5 oz, or 6-7 oz (or so on) while the cheap stuff runs 5-7 oz or 7-9 oz.
Right now they (tandy leather) have economy single shoulders on sale for 19.99 til the end of the year. They have a lot of range marks, but you could easily make a nice holster, especially if you basket stamp to cover up the scars.

[rintinglen]

Tandy has a year end sale that has some pretty good deals.

[Blackwater]

Great post Rin. Thanks. I've only made a very few, but this would have helped me, and I really like your design. Lots of coverage to protect a gun in the field. Great work, sir!

[rintinglen]

The follow up to this is a sticky now in the Special projects page.