In the tradition of the rest of my leather craft I decided to make my own holster. A four day project from designing a template based upon various photos of REAL webley holsters from back in the day, to creating the template, transferring to 7 ounce leather, redoing the template after screwing up the first attempt, and finally cutting, shaping, staining, and stitching.
Now all I await is Rook's Webley prop and the two singles will become one!!!
I am still trying to figure out how I will create the plug at the bottem of the holster. The images that I have of the original Webley holsters are stitched into the leather. I did not have a prop to mold the holster around so I had to "wing it" and add two strips down the spine in order to seal the opening. The plug will be stitched for decoration only and most likely glued into the end. Still trying to figure it out though!!!!
Last edited by IndyWannaBee on Thu Mar 13, 2008 4:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
You can actually sew in the plug if you want -- it's not all that difficult, just fiddly. You just need to use a curved needle and/or bevel the inner edges of the holster and plug so they fit together at right angles. I would certainly glue it into place first.
A beautiful job! Was the 7-oz leather heavy enough, in your opinion? Tandy says that their 7-oz is for holsters, but some on this board have said 9 or 10 is better. I have a source of some 7-oz scraps , enough to make a couple of holster, but haven't bought it yet because of the uncertainty.
Chevalier Krak wrote:A beautiful job! Was the 7-oz leather heavy enough, in your opinion? Tandy says that their 7-oz is for holsters, but some on this board have said 9 or 10 is better. I have a source of some 7-oz scraps , enough to make a couple of holster, but haven't bought it yet because of the uncertainty.
The Raiders holster I'm working on is 7-8 oz. tooling leather and about 3/16" thick. It's plenty stiff and holds its shape well after wetting.
Great job on the holster! Your belt loop and back stitching look better than my own.
After looking at Minnesota Jones' holsters, my plug is definately not correct. I wonder actually if one shouldn't stitch the plug in before they do the main stitching up the side.
Thanks all! It was field tested today at Wizard World LA and everyone that commented liked the holsster! Gives me warm fuzzies inside!
Actually the 7 ounce leather is perfect! It was easy to mold when wet but very stiff when it dried. I have seen 8-9 ounce leather used for more western holsters because there is alot of intricate designs added to the leather.
I used many differen photos of real Webley holsters I found on Google images for inspiration. Many came up from collectiblefirearms.com!
Rook wrote:Great job on the holster! Your belt loop and back stitching look better than my own.
After looking at Minnesota Jones' holsters, my plug is definately not correct. I wonder actually if one shouldn't stitch the plug in before they do the main stitching up the side.
I'll have to try it that way next time.
Russ
Thanks! Compliments from you are honorable. Now I can't wait to get one of those Webley's to sit in that holster...........hint hint hint!
