A Simple Crossdraw Holster

The way I make my patterns is to trace around the lower profile of the gun I’m making the holster for. Then I can lay the outlines around the drawing as I want it. Most of the time I make the holster completely cover the entire trigger guard, but in this case, I was asked to cover only half of it. This type of holster was called a “Slim Jim” type.

Tracing the pistol for a pattern

The pattern is cut out and labeled for future use. I can flip the pattern over to make right or left handed cross draw holsters.

The pattern is made and labeled

The pattern is traced onto the leather and cut out.

Pattern is transferred to leather

Instead of carving, we’re going with simple stamped borders and a simple stamped corner design. The rough finish is applied to make the holster look old and used.

Simple stamping instead of carving

In an earlier blog, I mentioned a “welt”. This is a piece of leather that gets stitched into the edge of the holster. It adds thickness to the edge, and it protects the stitches in the seams.

Leather welts to protect the seams

The liner is glued in place and trimmed.

Gluing in a liner

The welt is glued in before the holster gets folded over to be glued then stitched.

Adding the welt

The holster is prepped for edge stitching, trimming, and edge sanding.

Prepping for stitching after gluing the fold over on itself

The belt loop is folded over and formed.

Folding over the belt flap

Here you can see the stitches and edges are finished. Instead of edge dressing, I left the edges plain. Normally the stitches are countersunk into a groove to protect them from being rubbed, they’re left on top of the leather for a rougher look.

The holster being formed to the revolver

This is the sharper angle of the cross draw holster and how it hangs on the belt. The gun is tucked up close to the body and makes it easier to carry a longer pistol while seated on horseback. This is generally NOT allowed in some cowboy action shoots, but this IS how actual cowboys did carry their guns back in the day. The drop legged Buscadeo rigs with the gun tied down on the thigh is a 1920’s Hollyweird myth.

The finished crossdraw holster hanging on the belt

Since this was meant to be a simple holster of the time period, I didn’t include a hammer loop to keep the gun in the holster. Later improvments did have this feature.