Kydex: An Alternative To Leather For Holsters

Aaron Spuler is a firearms enthusiast and recreational shooter. Follow more or his work at The Weapon Blog

When it comes to storing firearms and their accessories securely, leather has so much to offer. While leather rough, water resistant, easily worked and abrasion resistant, it is also beautiful to look at. These are a few reasons why leather is the top choice of material to manufacture gun holsters and magazine pouches.

In addition, it’s a cheaper material in terms of cost and can is easily available as it comes from a variety of sources. Cow hide is not only the source of leather; some of the premium holsters are made from horse hide, among other things.

However, when it comes to firearms, leather does have several shortcomings. The tanning chemical that remains within the leather causes havoc sometimes on blued gunmetal. For this reason, it’s strongly recommended not to leave blued guns within their holsters for long. Moreover, leather needs a break before the gun holster will be any use at all. Leather needs to expanse over frequent use so that it fits the gun properly.

Due to these issues, Kydex has now replaced leather and is so popular today as a better material for holster.

KYDEX

For your information, Kydex is a synthetic acrylic polyvinyl chloride material (PVC) and a hybrid of acrylic and PVC. While it is very firm and abrasion resistant, it isn’t brittle like PVC and has excellent chemical resistance unlike leather.

Pros of Kydex

Kydex feels like a hard plastic to your hand with a rough surface. Talking about its appearance, it is mostly light gray in color.

Whether it’s a knife or the gun holsters or the magazine pouches, Kydex is a fantastic material for all. It’s thermo-molded meaning that it begins life as a flat sheet and is heated over a mold later where it takes its final shape.
While kydex is never going to be as drop dead gorgeous as leather, it does have some important advantages:

• Kydex is a thermo molded material, which means that your new Kydex holster will fit your firearm accurately, with no slack or slop.
• Unlike leather, there is no break-in period with Kydex. The moment you buy it, your gun will fit, and that too perfectly. No need to stretch it, no special oils or other laborious tasks.
• Kydex is pH neutral and will not affect your firearms coating.
• Kydex is much firmer and less easily bendable than leather.
• A Kydex holster never requires maintenance or oiling other than an occasional wipe down with a damp rag.

Cons

The only downside to Kydex, is the fact that it is so well molded that you need to find the exact model of holster for your firearm. Most of the leather holsters will double as one-size-fits-all holsters for similar handguns which is not the case with Kydex. Still, for a daily carry holster, Kydex makes excellent sense!