Harness needles really aren't that sharp to began with there meant to be used with existing holes. I'll just shorten one with a wire cutter and touch up the tip with a file.
The ideal way to reconstruct your holster, is different and more difficult than anything mentioned so far; and yet you can get an 'original' result if you're willing.
Step one: run a (very) sharp knife down the centre of the leather welt that is inserted in the seam. Doing it this way, like breaking a china cup and regluing it with super glue, the irregular surfaces can be re-mated perfectly at reassembly. If instead you do the 'obvious', and run the knife blade down one side or the other of the welt, you're very likely to slice into the holster instead. This is very bad
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Step two: should be the hardest. Use needle-nosed pliers to remove the cut threads from both sides of the holster. If you're lucky, one side (usually the backside) will strip off in a complete set, spitting out bits of the looped thread that we call the 'knot' (though it's not really a knot, just a loop).
Step three: use the leather sewing needles, which are blunt-ended, and five cord linen/flax thread. Buy it either waxed from Tandy, or beeswax it yourself by drawing the thread through the lump of wax.
Step four: judging the length of the thread is no fun. There is a formula that I don't recall; it'll be somewhere on the web.
Step five: start the process with restitching the belt loop. Start at the point of the belt loop furthest from the line of sewing that forms the underside of the belt tunnel. The needles are on each end of the length of thread: one needle through the hole and pulled until both needles are rougnly equidistant from the hole. Both needles pass, one at a time, through the next hole; tighten; repeat. At the end, overlap the stitches.
Step six: for the welt, although glue may not have been used on the original, likely you'll want to use some. Personally I'd not get to hung up on using 'the' leather glue; a gel superglue will bond leather handsomely. Originally glue had to be used to prevent the moving surfaces from squeaking. I've had a few apart that used no glue anywhere, even for the linings.
Step seven: the sewing that you did for the belt loop: repeat for the welt. Begin at the muzzle end, ideally doubling that first stitch and continuing up the welt. Use needle nose pliers to grasp the needles and pull them through the original holes.
Not nearly as time consuming as it sounds; and a much more satisfactory result when you're done because -- no one will know until you tell them, that it's been restitched
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It's new so the holes are drilled
Closeup of the finished holster
Joe in my backyard
