What: Blade Tech IWB Klipt Appendix Holster
Where to buy: Blade Tech
How much: $39.99-44.99+
Production time: 6-8+ weeks
Attachment: 1.75" clip only
Cant: Straight drop only
I picked one of these Blade Tech holsters up in the search for a better holster for my SIG P232. I'll get right to the point. The holster is very well fitted and very minimalist. That is one feature I like about this holster, and a feature I'm generally a fan of with some other holsters. In a day and age where everyone makes pancake style holsters that are the size of a shovel head, I'm all about minimalist.
Retension
Retension on this holster is excellent. Retension is accomplished through an indentation on the trigger guard area. The gun clicks in to the holster positively, and is definitely not coming out without any effort.
Attachment Method
The only option available at this time is a 1.75" polymer reinforced belt clip. It is a very easy on/off belt clip, which is great for convenience. Here's where I started to run into problems. I normally wear a 1.5" belt. With this clip, it allowed the gun to cant nearly a full 45 degrees in either direction, which is pretty substantial. Worse yet, with the holster being able to cant forward that much, it can easily slip the clip over the belt. I had this happen a couple times to me from simply being seated at a desk, and had I not quickly adjusted, the holster would have basically completely come off. This reinforced clip is a nice concept but, for my own personal preferences I found it alone to make this holster an absolute NO GO. A 1.5" clip option might help, but I'm generally not a fan of any single clip systems unless it's using something like the Ohio Travel Bag spring steel belt clips that have a retention indentation and basically make anything practically welded to your belt. Another unfortunate aspect of this clip design and it's propensity for movement/cant is that the gun actually conceals fairly poorly for it's size. In fact, it doesn't conceal any better than my G19 in a Blade Tech Nano.
Sweat Guard
There isn't one. For some guns, not a big deal. For something like a Glock or other guns with squared off or rounded rear slide sections, not really a big deal. For a blued gun, NO GO, you're going to get sweat on it and it will rust. For guns like the P232 with a very angular and sharp rear frame/slide section, again, it's a NO GO. Basically that pointy rear section of the gun will be poking you in the side all day long. It would be nice if a sweat guard was an option.
Production Time
This one honestly kind of took me by surprise. Blade Tech makes no conspicuous mention on their site, or at least not under this specific product section, of a general production time. It's my fault for making assumptions but, for a large manufacturer that is carried by many distributors and large national chain stores, I guess I just kind of figured that they couldn't be far off from Comp-Tac's typical production time of ~3-5 days. Boy was I wrong. A couple weeks pass by, I call to check on my order. I forget the response I got on the phone, but it was not very definitive. I believe about 1 week after that, I sent an email. Only at that time was I told it was a 6-8 week production time.... Are you kidding me? This is not what I expect when buying from a major manufacturer that has the market share of the industry that they do. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of their products, but this is certainly going to make me consider buying any Blade Tech products from dealers that have them in stock (not usually an option if it's an uncommon gun or configuration though) or auction sites where I won't have to deal with this.
Summary
I still like Blade Tech. They make great products. Unfortunately, this particular holster for this particular gun just doesn't work well. It's uncomfortable. Surprisingly, because of the clip design, the holster actually doesn't conceal very well relative to the size of the gun. For convenience, it is definitely a very easy holster to put on and take off, so there are some definite advantages there if those are some of your primary concerns. For me, the end result is either going to be selling this holster if I ever sell the gun, or more likely, I'll end up cutting the clip off this holster, doing a bit of surgery to it, and adding a better and more effective attachment method.
IMG_0643 by Dillo Dynamics, on Flickr
IMG_0644 by Dillo Dynamics, on Flickr
IMG_0649 by Dillo Dynamics, on Flickr
IMG_0646 by Dillo Dynamics, on Flickr
IMG_0647 by Dillo Dynamics, on Flickr