Business Related question - How do you figure your price??

[TN Mongo]

Outrider,

I do know exactly who you are talking about.  You'll notice when things aren't going their way, they often pack up and go home before the match is even over.

I plead guilty to making "tactical" cowboy holsters.  I guess I make what people ask me to make.  I appreciate making historically correct stuff, but our fantasy game demands that stuff be functional.  To that end, most of the stuff I have recently made for people has been thick stiff holsters that hold their shape, with rolled edges and an occasional adjustable aluminum lining.

No one recently has asked me to make them a historically correct set of holsters.  I'm starting to get more orders for historically correct Mill's style belts, but that's about it.  This hobby is mostly about having fun and creating functional art, but I do like making money.  The money I make from this does allow me to help deal with my addiction for acquiring more cowboy guns and other paraphernalia.     

[JD Alan]

I realize their are limits to anything, but as one who is 6'1 ' and tips the scales above 250, having those holsters angled out away from the body helps this body reholster safely. The straight up & down guys are not in the same position as those of us who wear our gun belts in the southern hemisphere. Mine aren't metal lined or screwed down though. We have a few of those too, but they don't shoot better than anyone else because of the gun rigs they use. JD   

[outrider]

Mongo, 
Yup...you right on...they often do go home when things don't go their way....I have seen times when they get angry over the stage design and pack up...then you don't see them for a few months

You may make steel lined holsters but at least they look somewhat period...at least the B Western period...correct.  What I am referring to are those ones that have several different cant adjustmaents and are angled so far out from the body that you could park your lunch on the pistol grips.

[Slowhand Bob]

TN, if the buyer is happy then you have done your job.  I have never been a fan of extensive carving, bling or otherwise embellishing my personal leather BUT I accept that this style of leather work can be beautiful and is highly desirable by many.  We can not lose sight of the fact that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and for many line and function are as important as artistic embellishment.  I have always thought that the most personally pleasing, to my eye, pair of holsters was the somewhat plain looking Prospector by Kirkpatrick, while many of the extremely high end Silver Screen style rigs just look almost vulgar to me.  We all know how popular the fancy Silver Screen rigs have become with the new SASS categories while I'll bet the Prospector is not even in the top 75% of Kirkpatricks product line, so much for the value of my opinion!  The hottest thing going right now is metal or kydex skeletons formed to stiffen the holster, extend and cant the gun grip away from the body.   

[TN Mongo]

Slowhand,

I had to go to the Kirkpatrick site to look at the Prospector rig.  I like it.  I'm a big fan of plain and functional.  I really despise flashy or gaudy rigs, but I've made them.  Most of my stuff is a cross between a Kirkpatrick Longhunter and a Menickle Evil Roy rig.  I'm doing a rig right now that the guy said that he wanted it to look like a working cowboy's rig.  He doesn't even want a border stamp design.  I started doing leather again because I was too cheap to pay someone to make something I thought I could make.  It just kind of snowballed from there. 

I haven't carved anything in 30 years (way before I discovered CAS), but I think I'd like to try it again just to see if I could do it.  I'm really impressed by some of the carving work I've seen on this forum.

[Slowhand Bob]

I am really trying to fit in some time to do a new metal lined competition rig.  I will try and do it as a topic in the next few days.