The Twin Experiment
My first usable holster (This was a second attempt.)
I won’t lie. My first holster attempt was a disaster. I’m of the opinion and mind that you have to fail miserably at least once in order to truly succeed. The first attempt turned out to be black, leather jerky. If you would like to see that one, you’ll have to pay me a visit, as I refuse to show it online. I quickly figured out what I did wrong and the second holster came out markedly better.
That one has since been retired, as I had to start torture-testing the next generation, but I am still wearing it’s left-hand twin on a daily basis. The thought was that I could have made that first successful holster on pure luck, and if I could replicate the results, it would show me that it was not such blind luck after all, but that I was indeed developing a skill.
This one is a very basic, double-stitched, single-layer pancake that I did in a black-cherry. Honestly, I consider it to be a little crude at this point. It certainly lacks the fit and finish that my later work has. One thing that struck me about these first attempts is how well they conceal. I’m not a big dude by any stretch of the imagination. I’m 5′ 6″, 145-lbs, and yet I can hide my 3-inch 7-shooters under a light cover shirt.
Honestly, I probably wouldn’t build another one exactly like this unless somebody wanted it really, really badly. My later revisions have simply been too great to revert back to the earlier designs. The pattern itself works very nicely, but it’s parts of the execution that I don’t like. For one, I don’t think that double stitching actually renders a more durable holster. A well-placed single row seems to work more than adequately. Plus, the double-layered walls that I’m working with now have turned out to be a purely golden improvement.
