Howdy!
First, mods, I really did think about where to put this post. If it's wrong, please feel free to delete with extreme prejudice. We don't really have a 'carry' section, so this seemed to be (to me) better than the 'Tactics and Training' forum.
Second, please no heated debate over the merits of pocket carry. It's been beaten to death in other threads. If you don't like it, fine, some do.
I have several pairs of work pants - Carhartts and Roundhouses and coveralls and the like, and while these are generally tough pants, mine all seem to wear in my right front pocket - where I carry a little pocket stinger when I need to be ultra-discreet.
The reason they tend to wear out is because the makers of all these drawers of mine don't use that tough canvas on the outside of the pocket - the thigh side, on all my pants, was tough duck material. The OUTER half of the pocket was regular white cotton, like in any old pants.
I had holes in almost all of my pockets from the high points of the gun rubbing through, and in my really old ones, they wore through the pants! I could see my shootin' iron and my holster right through mah drawers!
Now, I'm not one to give up a set of fifty-buck pants because of the hole in the pocket. Work pants are expensive, but I've had some of my oldest sets for nigh on ten years - amortize that fifty bucks, and they look purty inexpensive all of the sudden. The dang material was too thin to really sew up. I'm not too bad with a needle and thread, but this looked kind of hopeless.
So I picked up some iron-on patches. Wal*Mart had a lovely set (made in China, but I needed SOMETHING in a pinch) of multi-size patches. I cut a little cardboard 'pocket' to put inside the pockets (almost like a backer at the range), and went to town with the iron. I found that I could put a patch inside the pocket, outside the pocket, and one inside the leg of the pants.
What a pain! Two minutes for each patch, and that's if I could fit the whole thing under the iron! Plus some re-dos, and it took me the better part of three hours to do ten pairs of pants.
However, it made my pants usable again, and strengthened the material that hadn't worn through. Most happily, it breaks up the outline of the gun something fierce.
Grand total was seven bucks and change, and three hours. Super easy, and seems to be a pretty good solution to this problem. Might have been done before, I don't know. I liked it, and I thought I'd pass it along to you fellas.
Good luck!
-L.
First, mods, I really did think about where to put this post. If it's wrong, please feel free to delete with extreme prejudice. We don't really have a 'carry' section, so this seemed to be (to me) better than the 'Tactics and Training' forum.
Second, please no heated debate over the merits of pocket carry. It's been beaten to death in other threads. If you don't like it, fine, some do.
I have several pairs of work pants - Carhartts and Roundhouses and coveralls and the like, and while these are generally tough pants, mine all seem to wear in my right front pocket - where I carry a little pocket stinger when I need to be ultra-discreet.
The reason they tend to wear out is because the makers of all these drawers of mine don't use that tough canvas on the outside of the pocket - the thigh side, on all my pants, was tough duck material. The OUTER half of the pocket was regular white cotton, like in any old pants.
I had holes in almost all of my pockets from the high points of the gun rubbing through, and in my really old ones, they wore through the pants! I could see my shootin' iron and my holster right through mah drawers!
Now, I'm not one to give up a set of fifty-buck pants because of the hole in the pocket. Work pants are expensive, but I've had some of my oldest sets for nigh on ten years - amortize that fifty bucks, and they look purty inexpensive all of the sudden. The dang material was too thin to really sew up. I'm not too bad with a needle and thread, but this looked kind of hopeless.
So I picked up some iron-on patches. Wal*Mart had a lovely set (made in China, but I needed SOMETHING in a pinch) of multi-size patches. I cut a little cardboard 'pocket' to put inside the pockets (almost like a backer at the range), and went to town with the iron. I found that I could put a patch inside the pocket, outside the pocket, and one inside the leg of the pants.
What a pain! Two minutes for each patch, and that's if I could fit the whole thing under the iron! Plus some re-dos, and it took me the better part of three hours to do ten pairs of pants.
However, it made my pants usable again, and strengthened the material that hadn't worn through. Most happily, it breaks up the outline of the gun something fierce.
Grand total was seven bucks and change, and three hours. Super easy, and seems to be a pretty good solution to this problem. Might have been done before, I don't know. I liked it, and I thought I'd pass it along to you fellas.
Good luck!
-L.
