I'm wondering if anyone has used shoe polish on a holster. I'm guessing the answer is yes...

I'm thinking that if I find a holster I like (good angle or 'cant', price) but it's in a brown color, I'd like to try to color it black with shoe polish.

I turned a pair of faded brown shoes into nice looking black shoes once. But, should I worry about the polish rubbing off on my belt or pants?

I asked just this sort of question at Tandy Leather.

The problem is that a leather holster is probably dyed, then waxed or lacquered, then polished. The new shoe polish will not likely penetrate the watertight finish of the holster. Furthermore, the polish is a combination of black and shiny, not a pure dye.

Your shoes may have worked because the wax or lacquer finish had worn off to a large extent.

If you are going to dye finished leather, there are strippers you can use (get `em at Tandy), then liquid dyes, then liquid waxes to finish (and wax over the dyed leather helps reduce color transfer to your shirt and pants).

Hope this helps. And I hope that I eventually get around to finishing my first homemade leather holster.

Just don't wear the holster with any cloths that you like or want to wear more than once. Shoe polish isn't permanent and will come off on your clothing. I use a neutral polish and even after that, it most interact with the dye because I get some black that rubs off of the holster unto my cloths. Just so that you follow what I am saying, I have been wearing a holster for a period of time, no problem. Then I use some neutral polish on it and then I get like a dirty or gray area on my clothing.