‘Fabuflage’ J-Frame, Zero-Cant
Anytime you start something new, specifically when you are making a high-quality, handmade product, your first ‘customers’ will always be friends and family. My friend Tammy was curious about my holsters. She thought she might want one, but didn’t know exactly what kind she wanted. So, she did the only reasonable thing and went to a mutual friend. She borrowed the red holster that I made for my friend Will. Needless to say, her Taurus snubby fit into this holster quite well. She really liked the fit, how tightly it pulled her snubby into the beltline. I built the previous holster for the S&W Centennial frame, so it didn’t perfectly fit her Taurus, which it shaped more like the Chief’s Special. Regardless, she said that she wanted one ‘just like it.’ I did make a couple of improvements, though.
This one has full-grain hide on the inside against the gun and the back surface is raw split, against the wearer’s back. This provides a slip-free fit, so the holster won’t shift along the belt. The front surface is calf-skin bonded over the stitching, and I finished it in a camouflaged pattern of blue, emerald, and burgundy with a very light silver metallic frost. I finished the whole thing off with a super high-gloss sealer.
I nipped off the top corner of my original pattern for a couple of reasons. First of all, this holster is stiff enough that it created too much retention for such a small gun. Secondly, the elimination of that much material makes this holster work well for Centennial, Chief’s Special, and Bodyguard frames. It fits the S&W J-Frame and the Taurus equivalent. If I were to mass-produce one, this would be it.
The reason this one is built as a zero-cant lefty is that it is out of the way of a right-handed wearer, but the gun is easily accessible to either hand. I’d like to claim credit to the concept, but I cannot. This was suggested to me by Will, for the first of these that I made for him. It turned out really nicely, and it has been wearing well, apparently. She’s been wearing this holster on a daily basis for several weeks now, and I hear that it is not showing any signs of wear. I’m confident that these things will wear really well for the long-term as well!
