With the leather soaked, place your chop-sticked pistol in a thin plastic bag (such as produce bags from the grocery store) and stick it in the wet holster. With your hands, work the leather, pressing it into all the nooks and crannies of your pistol so it starts to take the shape of the pistol. I work mine for about half an hour, then set it in a warm room to dry. I usually pick it up every couple of hours to work it some more. Probably not necessary, but I enjoy it! Give it a good 24 hours or so to dry completely. When dry, the holster will have shrunk to fit the pistol snugly and be very stiff.
(IWB holster for my Taurus 24/7 right after it finished drying.)
Trim the edges of the holster and then use a Dremel tool with a smooth drum and run it along all the edges. The idea is to "burn" off all the hairs and such on the edges.
Put Edge Kote on the edges. This seals them off and "paints" them. Let that dry an hour or two.
With a dauber, coat the holster, inside and out, with a liberal amount of the dye. Once you have done the whole holster, start from the area you did first and give it another dose of dye. Be generous!
Put the gun back into a plastic bag (make sure it has no holes in it or you'll get dye on your gun), and make sure the chopstick it taped to it again. Stick the plastic-wrapped, chop-sticked pistol back into the holster and set in a warm room at least over night. I then take the pistol out and let it sit another 12 hours or so to make sure the holster is completely dry.
(Drying after application of the dye. I also made a holster for my SureFire G2 flashlight.)
It will look like crap at this point! Not to fear. With a clean cloth, wipe light coats of the Satin Shene over the entire outside (smooth side of the leather). After 10 or 15 minutes, give it another light coat. I usually do a third, but that should about do it.
Let that dry. No need to reholster the pistol.
When that's completely dry, wipe the mink oil paste all over the leather, inside and out. I like to warm the leather first by placing it in the oven for a few minutes at 110 degrees or so. It just helps it to absorb the oil.
Wipe it down with a dry cloth and you've got yourself a custom-made holster!
(Here's the finished holster for the .357 Magnum shown early on.)
(And here's the finished IWB holster for my 24/7. This holster turned out to be remarkably comfortable!)
(Another shot of the 24/7 hoslter.)
(It tucks snugly into my side and conceals very well.)
By the way, I've made several holsters only to end up throwing them away. Likely you will too. But you're only out less than $15 or so instead of the $85 on a store-bought one that didn't work out.
Anyway, enjoy!
(IWB holster for my Taurus 24/7 right after it finished drying.)
Trim the edges of the holster and then use a Dremel tool with a smooth drum and run it along all the edges. The idea is to "burn" off all the hairs and such on the edges.
Put Edge Kote on the edges. This seals them off and "paints" them. Let that dry an hour or two.
With a dauber, coat the holster, inside and out, with a liberal amount of the dye. Once you have done the whole holster, start from the area you did first and give it another dose of dye. Be generous!
Put the gun back into a plastic bag (make sure it has no holes in it or you'll get dye on your gun), and make sure the chopstick it taped to it again. Stick the plastic-wrapped, chop-sticked pistol back into the holster and set in a warm room at least over night. I then take the pistol out and let it sit another 12 hours or so to make sure the holster is completely dry.
(Drying after application of the dye. I also made a holster for my SureFire G2 flashlight.)
It will look like crap at this point! Not to fear. With a clean cloth, wipe light coats of the Satin Shene over the entire outside (smooth side of the leather). After 10 or 15 minutes, give it another light coat. I usually do a third, but that should about do it.
Let that dry. No need to reholster the pistol.
When that's completely dry, wipe the mink oil paste all over the leather, inside and out. I like to warm the leather first by placing it in the oven for a few minutes at 110 degrees or so. It just helps it to absorb the oil.
Wipe it down with a dry cloth and you've got yourself a custom-made holster!
(Here's the finished holster for the .357 Magnum shown early on.)
(And here's the finished IWB holster for my 24/7. This holster turned out to be remarkably comfortable!)
(Another shot of the 24/7 hoslter.)
(It tucks snugly into my side and conceals very well.)
By the way, I've made several holsters only to end up throwing them away. Likely you will too. But you're only out less than $15 or so instead of the $85 on a store-bought one that didn't work out.
Anyway, enjoy!
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