Looks nice. I confess I don't understand how one vacuum forms a holster to fit around a pistol. Is the outside air pressure (approx 15 psi if I remember correctly) by itself enough to do the job?

 

For sure air pressure is more than enough, that holster collapses like an empty suit

I did it in a seal-a-meal type vacuum sealer. After the leather is wet, I wrap the gun in plastic food wrap, slide it in the holster and vac out all of the air from the bag.

Leave it in the bag for a day, and another day out of the bag, when the gun is removed the holster fits like a glove, it slides in and out easily, but will not fall out even if held upside down.

All that remains after that is to dry out the leather, I use my toaster oven at 170 degrees for a few 15 minute cycles with the door slightly ajar.

 

Looks like it is awesome! Nice work!

 

Interesting...
I have seen guys mold custom holsters from kydex at gun shows but never custom form leather holsters with a vacuum.

 

I did my second one today, this time for my Anaconda. Before forming it flopped around in the leather, now it's securely held. It came out pretty good.

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I backed-into this notion when I was in the Army. Several of us would have bitty-guns in survival kits for field gear and whiling away in a married guys kitchen one day, his wife comes in and starts vacuum-sealing some lobster and halibut we'd just taken up-New Hampshire.

I found the device stunningly effective (a new concept for me back in '82 or so). Normally, we'd grease-up our pistols and put them in a 'ziplock' with a tiny cocktail straw sticking out and then submerge them in the deepest water container or even the base-pool to have water pressure force the air out.

Seeing the kitchen vac-seal changed that. Then, when a couple fellas did theirs with holsters, they found then to be form fitting since we didn't need to goo them up with grease as badly. Mine was and still is a Beretta 950 and I wish that I'd vacuumed that into a holster since it stayed sealed for over 15 years and would have been kinda cool.

Now, everyone I know just short-cuts with kydex and a toaster-oven but there are some things that I just won't do.😉

 

Pass on plastic holsters really !!!

 

You should reread the post.

 

I think I'll still wet-fit - done right, the leather stays supple, where heat can leach out essential oils.

 

You're probably right but maybe that's overthinking a $10 holster?

I couldn't measure the temperature inside the oven but with it set at 170 and the door ajar it came out just warm to the touch, certainly better than a holster might be retrieved from a vehicle on a hot summer day where I can't touch my steering wheel?

 

I wet mold my holsters, use no heat and use plastic pistol models to fold leather over and around then press fit it for a hour or two. That's mostly all I need.

 

Cool, I will have to try that some time. I have a seal-a-meal laying around somewhere.

 

So did my GF, so we gave it a try. So you know if you want really deep impressions of the gun's profile you can use a soft tool to press the leather deeper into the spots you want to really show up.

I definitely do not need a retention strap now.

 

I got the kit from a company in Toronto called Roarockit. It's their Thin Air Press kit with a 26x28 bag. It's a manual pump that draws a better vacuum than a any of the electric pumps that I have used.

 

When we realize that using the vacuum forming process on wet leather, is only a substitution for the padded presses long used by traditional makers, then you'll do yourself a huge favor by learning about the rest of the process: drying. A moulded holster s/b dried immediately, in an open-air fan-force oven/blower/dryer; about a half hour is all and if a holster shrinks then it's only because the heat is too high, or it's been left drying too long. The very finest gunleather is always dried to harden the leather into its final shape, and keep it that way. Called 'tempering' and once used to make leather body armor. 1970s Seventrees were done this way, especially great with horsehide.

The driers that Bianchi used are beyond our means but ready equivalents are dead easy when one grasps the simple science behind their use. The lowermost pic is of holsters for Skeeter Skelton using that process (by yours truly).