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pbwalker wrote:I love that mag / pistol holster! Is this a hobby for you or a business? If the latter, I'd love to pick one up for my G23!

Just a hobby, although I could be convinced to make them for others if I can get ahold of a gun and mag to mold the Kydex on. Alternatively, if you ever get up to DFW, I'd be happy to make one for you or help you make your own. The stitched leather/Kydex holster takes some extra time, but I can make a riveted one in an hour or so.

snorri wrote:Does anyone sell reasonably priced j-hooks? I don't see any on the Tandy site. Some of the high dollar makers of tuck holsters sell them, but for the price of one pair, I can buy a sheet of kydex and make a dozen or two.

I've never seen them at what I would consider a reasonable price. They are ridiculously easy to make. Just buy some Kydex and go for it! I score the Kydex with a box knife (using a metal straight edge) and snap it to make the strips. Then, I use a keen edge beveler (from Tandy) to bevel the edges of the Kydex, then finish them up with a sanding sponge. That makes really nice edges on the Kydex. Then I heat the strips with a heat gun and use a belt as a guide to bend the clips. Finally, I use a leather punch to punch the holes in the clips. Here's a holster I made with j-clips and regluar belt clips. Since I almost never wear my shirt tucked in, I've found that I like the regular clips better since the give better support.





As for dyeing, I've only done one holster that I dyed so far. The pics above really don't do the finish justice... it turned out really nice. I used an all-in-one finish from Eco-Flow (fudge brown), applied using an old t-shirt and then buffed with a shoeshine brush. I burnished the edges with a slicker wheel (by hand, no power tools needed) and then dressed them with Fiebing's Edge Kote.