Homemade Hybrid Holster Version 2.0

[Warhammer]

Well, I got my latest order of Kydex and started on my next hybrid holster today. Since I wanted this one to look a little nicer than the first, I started with dying the leather. I went with a all-in-one stain and finish from Eco-Flo called "fudge brown." It's a gel that you just wipe on with a cloth. The more you use, the darker it gets. After the stain drys, you can buff it and get a really nice sheen.

Next was to start forming the "chocolate brown" Kydex. I think these colors are going to look really nice together.

In order to get the gun and mag as close together as possible, I built a little jig out of some aluminum flat stock. This holds the Kydex flat against the bench while I form the pockets for the pistol and the mag on either side. I did the gun side first.

 

[Warhammer]

While I was waiting for the Kydex to cool down completely from forming it around the gun, I decided to make a couple of J clips. I have lots of remnants of black .093" Kydex from making motorcycle handguards. Most of these are just the right size to make two clips.

I went with J clips this time, but I'll probably make some other variations to see what I like best. These clips just need holes punched and the corners rounded over.

After the clips, I went back to the brown Kydex and formed the mag carrier. I think the forming went pretty well.

I just need to trim the extra from the top, bottom and sides, and then I'll start stitching the leather and Kydex together. Right now, I'ts just too hot to play around in the garage any more tonight. I'll finish up tomorrow.

 

[Warhammer]

I didn't get a whole lot done today. Sundays are always really busy for me with church, music practice, etc... I did finish molding the Kydex. I wanted to get the angles where the Kydex transitions to the leather really sharp. Just pressing it wasn't getting the results I wanted, so I tried something else. I heated the Kydex JUST enough to work it, and then I applied pressure with some various tools (the base plate to my Kahr's mag worked well), moving along the angles as the Kydex cooled. Basically, I used the same technique as hand boning wet leather. Using this method, I was able to get almost 90 degree transition angles. After getting the Kydex formed to my satisfaction, I trimmed the edges with my band saw and cleaned them up with a sanding sponge. I accidentally trimmed the edge along the mag holder a little closer than I wanted to, but I think it's still workable. Anyway, on to the pics!
Outside:

How it looks on the inside:

One of my major goals for this holster was to make it narrower than the first. I was hoping to narrow it by about an inch, but I ended up doing a hair better. Measured at the widest point, from side to side, V.1 is 5.89" wide and V.2 is 4.79" wide. Here's a comparison pic of V.1 (green) and V.2 (brown):

Hopefully, tomorrow night, I'll be able to drill the stitching holes and stitch everything together. Then I just have to bevel, slick and dye the edges, and install the clips.

 

[S&W Kinda Guy]

Very nice! How long did all of this take? I think it would be fun to try to build a holster.

 

[Warhammer]

The first one took me about 2 hours. The second I've been working on, off and on, for a couple of days. The two-hour one was easily equal to (if not better than) most of the "professional" hybrid holsters I've seen.

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

WAR... what do you use to heat up the Kydex ??? been wanting to try to incorporate some into my leather holsters as a stiffening liner... was thinking a heat gun ( the kind used for pealing paint ) might work pretty good ???

 

[Warhammer]

MWM, a heat gun is exactly what I use. You just want to be sure to keep it moving. If you overheat an area of the kydex, it will get a permanent shiney spot and you'll lose some of the texture. Also, wear some nice, thick leather work gloves to protect your fingers.

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

thanks...

 

[Barbicatter]

Nice project! Love the chocolate kydex. Thanks for posting.

 

[bobandshawn]

This is awesomely instructional!!! Thanks for posting and please continue!

~Bob

 

[Dc9Loser]

Great work! Can't wait to see it finished.

 

[Warhammer]

I've had a busy couple of days, so I haven't made much progess. Tonight I got the stitching holes drilled in the Kydex. First, I used a frehhand groover to scribe out the lines I wanted the stiching to follow. It's actually a leather working tool, but it worked quite well on the Kydex. Then, I used a 3/32" diamond hole punch to lay out the holes. I bought a 4 pronged punch, but it wouldn't make tight enough corners so I snapped one of the prongs off. at times, I had to lean it way over and only use 2 prongs to keep the stitch line smooth.

Then I went back and drilled the holes with a 1/16" drill bit. I'm pretty happy with how the lines came out and very relieved that there was plenty of space beside the mag carrier after all. After I drilled the holes, I cleaned up the drill-out on the back with a sanding sponge and did some final sanding on the edges to make the edges match up with the drilled holes better.

 

[beeenbag]

man that looks really good. I am carrying one that I made not long ago. I didn't put the mag pouch on mine though. Nice job!

 

[Warhammer]

Thanks beeenbag. It's been a fun project.

I got quite a bit done last night. I laid out the finishied Kydex on the leather to determine my cant. I just eyeballed it at forst, then I measuered the angle and it turns out thet my guess came out right at 15 degrees. That was what I was looking ofr, so I marked the positiion. Next, I used an awl to mark the position for the holes in the leather, using the Kydex as a template.

I drilled out the leather, making the holse for the first row of stiching.

Then I flippped the leather over and follow3d the dots with my groover to make the inset groove that the sticki8ng would snug down inside. This gives you a flush surface when you're done, rather than having the stiching raised up above the surface of the leather.

Next, I temporarily stiched the leather and Kydex together. This held everything in the proper alignment while I drilled the holes for the other two lines of stitching.

After drilling all the holes, I again flipped the leather over and grooved the stitch lines on the back.

There you go... ready to start sewing.

 

[Warhammer]

I decided to single-needle stich the parts together. I started in the middle, went to the frist and and doubled back, wnet to the seconde and and then doubled back, ending in the middle. I overlapped the start and finish by about 2 stitches to keep theings locked together. Here'es the first row of stitching. I dirlled one or two holles off a little, so this one isn't as straight as I would have liked, but it's not too bad.

Done with the all three rwos of stiching. I broke the heads off of 3 needles doing this. The Kydex has no give, and when you hit a hole for the second time with the needle and thread, things get really tight. It took pulling the needle through with a pair of pliers, and some of the holes were a real effort. Make sure you really do a good job drilling the holes in the Kydex. I could defintely tell whcih holes had been drilled cleaner than the others. Also, I opted to use braided nylon thread rather than twisted thread. The braided thread is thicker and looks much better (IMHO) when stictched on the rather large holes of the Kydex. When you pull it tight, it flattens and fills in the hols more. However, the twisted thread is thinner and MUCH easier to sew with, especially on the second pass. Overall, I pretty happy with the look so far.

Here I have the homemade Kydex J-clips mounted. I remade the clips as my first version just looked too unrefined. I think these turned out much better. I like my holster to ride pretty high, so they are set pretty far up. I wnet ahead and added some extra holes for adjustment, but I think I'm going to like it pretty much where I have it set. The clips are spaced out from the leather using leather washers that I cut from the same material. They are mounted using Chicago screws. Once I'm positive of their placement, I'll hit the screws with a little bit of Loctite to make sure they stay secure. (you can see the leather spacing washers in this pic, too.)

Here, you can also see that I've started trimming the extra leather away. I like to do this slowly and in increments, since I can always cut more off, but I can't add it back on.

This is more or less the final shape. I may trim more off after wearing the holster, but that's it for now. I like to have a full sweat shield, rather than the "combat cut."

 

[Warhammer]

The last thing for the night was to bevel and slick the edges.

First I used a sanding block to smoth up the contours of the edge. Then, I ran my #3 edge beveler all the way around the holster on both the front and the back. Finally, I light wet the edges with water and ran my slicking wheel over them by hand. It really takes very little work to burninsh the edges to a nice, smooth contour.

I let the edges dry overnight before applying the edge dressing.

 

[Warhammer]

Alright, I applied the edge coat to day and did some final fidgeting. The Edge coat goes on really easily. You just wipe it on the edges with a sponge and let it dry. I did two coats to get a really nice black edge. A finished edge really does a lot to make a holster look good. This stuff also waterproof and protects the edges of the leather. It's probably overkill, but I went ahead and burnished the edges of the leather washers and edge coated them, too.

I heated up the Kydex to do some final fitting. I adjusted the retention of the pistol and added some pre-curve to the Kydex to make the holster fit my body better. The leather will form iteself over the next few days of wear.

I reainstalled the clips, and we're done!

Once I make a final decision on ride height, I'm definitely going to trim the excess off the bottom of the j-clips. I can already feel thet part digging into my hip.

 

[Warhammer]

Here is my homemade holster next to a professionally produced Kholster. (I daresay mine is prettier!)

And here are few pics of the holster in use. It's already quite comfortable, but it'll be even better after a few days of breaking in.

 

[Magnum Wheel Man]

really nice work...

 

[BrokenBottles]

That's really cool. You did some great work and it does look a quite a bit better than the production one.