Club Obi Wan

To those of you that have made your own holsters, or own a holster from another maker and might be familiar with the various leather weights: What weight/thickness would you recommend for someone wanting to make their own holster?

I too would be interested in this info.

Anyone? Anyone? Beuller? Beuller?

Well, after some diligent searching, at least one maker uses 2-3mm leather, which should be somewhere around 7-8+ oz. leather, and judging from pictures this seems to be about right. Fortunately I have a Tandy Leather local-ish, I can get a feeling for the weight before I buy.

Okey, I don´t want to suggest any detailed measurements, but you should choose a heavy leather, which is elastic enough, but also quite rigid, cause otherwise the gun you´ll carry later on will copy its contours into the leather too much, that´ll look unlovely. It happened to my first try

Would a 6-7 oz veg tanned leather work? I'm thinking it'd be quite rigid, and after it's dyed it's a little more stiff too.

Companies making holsters for real world use (as opposed to props) seem to favor 7-8 oz leather. Most of the holsters that I own have leather approximately 1/8 of an inch (3 mm) thick on average.

- Mac

Just to chime in here.
If your talkin about a real world, hard use holster,
Most holster makers use either 8/9 ounce or 10/11 ounce leather for holsters(if making an unlined holster) and usually the same for making gun belts(This is pretty much standard in all the books/videos on holstermaking, especially for western holsters). If making a lined holster, then usually 6/7 ounce with 2/3 ounce leather for the liner. Be sure all leather you use is vegetable tan, other wise the chemicals used in other types of leather tanning will react to the metal of the gun.

If really interested in holstermaking, pick up the following:
DVD-Frontier Holsters by Chuck Burrows, Wild Rose Trading Company(Covers everything including antiqueing the holster and sewing the toe Plug)
Books YeeHaa! and Book of LeatherCraft by Jim Simmons aka Brazos Jack
and there is a book by Al Stohlman on Holster-making available through Tandy, just can't recall the full name at the moment.

These are good beginner books/dvds. In the next two or three months, I'm going to be making an Indy Rig(for my Browning), 2-4 gun rigs for Cowboy action shooting and a few other projects). Talk to ya'all later and hope this helps.

Tandy Leather recommends 6-7 oz for holsters. It would probably be OK if you are not getting dragged behind a truck. Old military holsters I have seen (granddad's and dad's) are in this weight range. As has been stated, a really durable holster would be more in the 8-11 oz range. That weight might actually be a little stiff for a flap-style holster.

Anything less than 3 ounces becomes too thin and also is more prone to indentations and reshaping.

I would recomend 7-8 ounce leather because as stated before that is what Tandy recommends and that is what I am using. It is very rigid and easy to shape and sew.