So about 17 years ago I got into building my own kydex holsters. My early attempts were pretty damn scary, looking back with thru the lense of time. They worked - there were mistakes made, there was a LOT to learn. My first half dozen or so holsters were made without even so much as the help of a foam press - I heated the kydex with a hair dryer and the kitchen oven and wore thick leather gloves to mold the hot plastic around my unloaded gun. Instead of molding into the trigger guard for retention, I took a page from Safariland and used the ejection port, because back then I was scared shitless that molding into the trigger guard would lead to the gun discharging - I was young and naive.
I reorganized my office tonight, and found some ancient photo backup CD's so I gave them a look, and discovered some of my ancient kydex holsters in there. Its funny, because I remember building a lot of stuff and playing around with different design elements to aid in stability, concealment, and comfort. Back then there weren't 500 videos on YouTube on how to make a kydex holster - I dug up and obscure internet forum post that had a few pictures with some good written details, but I didn't know where to get some of the tools. I don't think KnifeKits.com was yet selling the tools to make kydex holsters - but they were selling kydex sheets, I know that much because aside from a few orders to DIY Holsters, knifekits / holstersmith has been my source for kydex from the beginning.
My early holsters were made mostly of either 0.093 or .125" thick stuff. Safariland doesn't even use that thickness to build duty holsters, though they DID sandwhich two layers of .060 together on a couple samples of old model 070 holsters, which I didn't even notice back when I used such a holster for work purposes. All my current Safariland 6000 series holsters are made from 0.080" Boltaron.
One of my old holsters, I discovered in pix, had what could be considered a precursor to the current "fad" of concealment claws - like I said, I was trying a lot to aid in concealment - and one of my old designs used a trailing piece of kydex that had a trailing clip bolted behind it - with the idea that it would rotate the grip into the body more. We didn't have DCC clips back then, and I was all about trying to build everything into the holster itself and just didn't know better - so I made my belt clips from Kydex, and the main clip was actually integral to the holster body and made with what would've been the sweat guard.
Then I found one that was a pretty big fail - belt clip was cut too low - not just for a combat grip, but so low that it exposed too much of the trigger. And my gut, in the pictures. Oy veh, excuse the ancient flab!
This one had a belt clip that was not only cut too low exposing the trigger, but it was also cut too long and wouldn't stay on the belt properly. I remember being pissed, because the kydex was expensive back then, and I wasted a whole sheet by making this failure.
Thankfully the stuff I'm making today is way better - using proper hardware, proper retention points, and proper coverage of the trigger. And I don't wear polo shirts with no under shirt anymore - no idea what younger me was thinking - gun up against the skin is no bueno!
I may just have to revisit some of my older designs though, see about modernizing them a bit, and see if some of those old tricks don't make for better comfort or concealment with a lot more experience and better tooling today.
I reorganized my office tonight, and found some ancient photo backup CD's so I gave them a look, and discovered some of my ancient kydex holsters in there. Its funny, because I remember building a lot of stuff and playing around with different design elements to aid in stability, concealment, and comfort. Back then there weren't 500 videos on YouTube on how to make a kydex holster - I dug up and obscure internet forum post that had a few pictures with some good written details, but I didn't know where to get some of the tools. I don't think KnifeKits.com was yet selling the tools to make kydex holsters - but they were selling kydex sheets, I know that much because aside from a few orders to DIY Holsters, knifekits / holstersmith has been my source for kydex from the beginning.
My early holsters were made mostly of either 0.093 or .125" thick stuff. Safariland doesn't even use that thickness to build duty holsters, though they DID sandwhich two layers of .060 together on a couple samples of old model 070 holsters, which I didn't even notice back when I used such a holster for work purposes. All my current Safariland 6000 series holsters are made from 0.080" Boltaron.
One of my old holsters, I discovered in pix, had what could be considered a precursor to the current "fad" of concealment claws - like I said, I was trying a lot to aid in concealment - and one of my old designs used a trailing piece of kydex that had a trailing clip bolted behind it - with the idea that it would rotate the grip into the body more. We didn't have DCC clips back then, and I was all about trying to build everything into the holster itself and just didn't know better - so I made my belt clips from Kydex, and the main clip was actually integral to the holster body and made with what would've been the sweat guard.
Then I found one that was a pretty big fail - belt clip was cut too low - not just for a combat grip, but so low that it exposed too much of the trigger. And my gut, in the pictures. Oy veh, excuse the ancient flab!
This one had a belt clip that was not only cut too low exposing the trigger, but it was also cut too long and wouldn't stay on the belt properly. I remember being pissed, because the kydex was expensive back then, and I wasted a whole sheet by making this failure.
Thankfully the stuff I'm making today is way better - using proper hardware, proper retention points, and proper coverage of the trigger. And I don't wear polo shirts with no under shirt anymore - no idea what younger me was thinking - gun up against the skin is no bueno!
I may just have to revisit some of my older designs though, see about modernizing them a bit, and see if some of those old tricks don't make for better comfort or concealment with a lot more experience and better tooling today.
