Beginning Holster Making?

[SSloan]

I was just on the Tandy website. They have some in expensive tool sets. Which is better for holster? Belly cut? Side cut? They don't tell how many oz the cut is. I use 7.5 or 8oz.

The better Tandy stuff. But I don't go that route anymore. Used to be a good Tandy store in Bend 30 years ago. They always had local hides as well; I got used to laying hands on and hand-selecting. Tandy used to reserve their good hides and refer to them as "tooling". Might be able to find better leather locally. Tandy, pick your slice & pick your weight, if they have it. $189 (about 4x$ from what I remember). Never judging, just trying to help.
European Veg-Tan Single Bend
SKU 9038-05 $189.99

4 - 5 oz (1.6 - 2 mm) - $169.99 6 - 7 oz (2.4 - 2.8 mm) - $179.99 8 - 9 oz (3.2 - 3.6 mm) - $189.99

 

[thorborg]

I still sew leather some even though my hands dont work so well. Pushing a needle through thick, especially unsoftened rawhide leather is real hard and even painful now but where there is a will there is a way so some time ago I made a simple setup for my drill press that, albeit very slow helps me considerably:
Its a bench mounted press at eye level so I can easily see the bottom of the leather when I start to draw out the needle to make the loop to poke the locking thread through. As I said, slow but effective.

 

[SSloan]

Leather
Couple sometimes unique or less expensive sources.
Have many more sources if you need, some simply aren't listed anywhere.
Sullivan Glove Bend, premium deer & Elk
Maverick leather Bend, nice stuff
Springfield Leather Springfield, MO
The Leather Guy, St. Charles, MN