About
Humphrey Custom Leather is located in beautiful Clayton, Ontario. Traffic is pretty heavy around here.... if you blink you'll miss it!
I will add more about myself soon, in the meantime please take a minute to read these explanations on lining in hosters by Rob Leahy, and hand sewing by Robert Jones:
Lining for holsters:
I no longer offer lining as I have come to the conclusion that it is a waste of my time & your money. I have yet to find a lining (No matter the holster maker) that does prevent wear to the finish, and in fact some of the softer linings actually accelerate wear by retaining grit. Skeeter Skelton wrote about this 40 years ago and nothing that I see has changed.
The other part of this is that the silicone treated vegetable tanned flesh side of leather is pretty easy on the gun's finish as it is.
A properly fitted holster will go farther towards preventing excessive finish wear than any lining.
Used by permission. Rob Leahy, Prescott, AZ
Why is Hand Sewn Better?
Leather products that are sewn by machine are a dime a dozen. While most of the business world seeks to produce things faster, I seek to produce things better. Hand sewing is superior to machine sewing.
Leather sewing machines commonly use the "lock stitch" (also called bobbin stitch). If just one loop of a lock stitch is broken, the other side will automatically be loosened, often this process of unraveling will continue until the entire product is ruined.
Hand sewing in the time honored manner will not unravel if one loop is broken. In his book "The Art of Hand Sewing Leather" Al Stohlman said
"Though slower, hand sewing is superior to machine sewing. It is the best method of stitching two or more pieces of leather together for lasting years of wear and service."
There are thousands of different sewing machines, designed for multiple or specific uses. The most common of the machine stitches is called the "lock" stitch. This is made with a top thread and a bottom thread ... which is in a small spool called the "bobbin". The lock stitch is formed by the top threadgoing around the bobbin spool, picking up the bottom htread, toform a loop. Whn properly adjusted, the loop is pulled between the two thicknesses of materials being sewn. The cut-a-way illustratoins below show the differences in the LOCK STITCH ... and the HAND STITCH.
With hand sewn leather you get a one-of-a-kind, quality product that will stand the test of time. Time honored methods produce time honored products, experience the difference!
Used by permission. Robert Jones, Kokomo, IN