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An article In the April, 1998 issue of HANDGUNS brought back a flood of old memories. In this issue is an article by Bill Hawkins entitles "How To Craft A Custom Holster...Yourself". It was a similar article by George Farquhar in the April, 1987 issue of Guns & Ammo which started me on the enjoyable, and sometimes profitable, hobby of leather crafting. Both articles are quite interesting but both contain several errors which I have learned to correct through dearly bought experience over the past eleven years. I will attempt to correct some of the errors Mr. Hawkins made in his article. The biggest fault I have to find with Mr. Hawkins article is his recommendation to use 14-15 oz. leather. This is totally unnecessary. Leather grades are measured in ounces which refer to it's thickness in 64ths of an inch. A piece of leather 14 - 15 oz weight is very nearly 1/4 inch thick. Leather of this weight is referred to as skirting leather and is used to make heavy saddle skirts. Leather in the 7 - 8 ounce range is plenty heavy enough for a lined holster and an unlined holster for a large handgun is quite heavy enough if it is made of 8 - 9 ounce leather. In addition to being excessively thick, stiff, and heavy, the 14 - 15 oz leather is much more expensive than 8 - 9 oz leather . The 8 - 9 oz leather costs range from $3.99 - $5.99 per square foot while the 14 - 15 oz leather costs $6.87 - $8.12 per squared foot. (Prices are from the 1997-1998 Tandy Leather Catalog #137.) And don't think that you can walk into your local leather store and ask for one and one half square feet of such and such weight of leather. I tried that on my first visit. It doesn't work. In most cases you will have to buy a shoulder, a side or some other pre-cut pre- measured piece of leather. The 8 - 9 ounce leather will probably cost somewhat less than $80.00 while the 14 - 15 ounce leather will cost from $100.00 to $140.00 or more. I suppose I've beat that dead cow enough and will now move on. Mr. Hawkins suggests the use of a drill press to drill all the stitching holes for the holster. This is unnecessary. Now if you want to use this as an excuse to buy a drill press, by all means don't tell your wife what I say. In eleven years of holster making, I have used a drill on only one holster. That was a left- handed holster for a Desert Eagle .44 Rem Mag pistol. I had to add about four welts, or spacers, to get the holster to wrap around that massive handgun and I didn't have a chisel long enough to pierce the whole thickness. Ninety-nine per cent of the time a leather crafter is much better served by using either an overstitch wheel and a single prong thonging chisel and/or a stitching awl or a multi-pronged chisel. To use either the single or multi-pronged chisels, you will need a mallet. Your regular hammer won't do. Buy a mallet with a head made of either lacquered leather or polymer. Otherwise you will ruin your tools in short order. Another holster trick, which I learned from Bill Jordan's great treatise on gunfighting, No Second Place Winner, has to do with wet forming your holster. Nearly every other source of advise, including Mr. Hawkins, will tell you to thoroughly soak your completed holster in water, insert a well oiled handgun and press the leather to the handgun and let the leather dry with the pistol in place. Instead of water, use alcohol, the rubbing variety not the drinking stuff. The leather will get just as pliable and the alcohol is much less likely to cause your pet handgun to rust. Please don't think that I am trying to discourage anyone from trying their hand at leather work. It can be a most enjoyable hobby. Just be prepared to spend more money than you expected. On the up side, you can walk out of a leather supply store after spending about $100.00 - 125.00 and have not only the tools you need to get started in leather work, but enough leather to make several holsters, probably a belt, a cartridge box, a cell phone case, and tons of satisfaction. Who knows, you might discover a lifetime hobby or even your life's work. How do you think John Bianchi or Thad Rybka got started? |
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