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Is Kydex actually useful for making things and other makers are missing out, or is the firearm community missing out on other better materials for diy holsters/sheaths? Fire arm folks use kydex as a generalist material for anything and everything. Others don't use if for anything, at all.

I happen to have a huge amount of kydex when I bought some in bulk when I was younger. It's slightly handy when I need a sheet of plastic more generally or if I need some plastic where I have control over its dimension because it's a score to cut material. But in looking for excuses to use it up I haven't found it very handy. Searching for what things others have made out of it not too many other people have found it useful besides gun enthusiasts.

For those completely out of the know kydex is also a thermal plastic, meaning if you heat it up to around 300F you can bend and shape it. You can also score it on the "wrong" side to make angled bends without heating.

Basically in the analogy between metal and plastic, sintering would be 3d printing while kydex would be sheet metal. But no one besides the firearm community finds that useful to have the plastic equivelent of sheet metal and with my own experiences I find you have to think pretty damn hard to find an excuse to use it. Do you think there is anything fundamentally wrong with the idea of a plastic equivelent to sheet metal?

Is Kydex actually useful for making things and other makers are missing out, or is the firearm community missing out on other better materials for diy holsters/sheaths? Fire arm folks use kydex as a generalist material for anything and everything. Others don't use if for anything, at all. I happen to have a huge amount of kydex when I bought some in bulk when I was younger. It's slightly handy when I need a sheet of plastic more generally or if I need some plastic where I have control over its dimension because it's a score to cut material. But in looking for excuses to use it up I haven't found it very handy. Searching for what things others have made out of it not too many other people have found it useful besides gun enthusiasts. For those completely out of the know kydex is also a thermal plastic, meaning if you heat it up to around 300F you can bend and shape it. You can also score it on the "wrong" side to make angled bends without heating. Basically in the analogy between metal and plastic, sintering would be 3d printing while kydex would be sheet metal. But no one besides the firearm community finds that useful to have the plastic equivelent of sheet metal and with my own experiences I find you have to think pretty damn hard to find an excuse to use it. Do you think there is anything fundamentally wrong with the idea of a plastic equivelent to sheet metal?

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[–] • 3 pts

Did you know the word plastic comes from the Greek words plassein and plastikos? As a teenager reading James Fenimore Cooper’s 1826 novel Last of the Mohicans I came across the word plastic. How in the world could the word plastic, with which I at the time associated only with the modern invention plastic we know today come to be in a book written so long before it’s invention. Come to find out it meant to mold, shape, formable, etc.

Kydex sucks in my opinion btw. Leather knife sheaths and holsters only for me. Plastic being both a curse and a blessing at the same time I try to have as little of it as possible, which is impossible.

[–] • 3 pts

There some well known clip of a guy shooting himself when holstering his gun. Turned out it the leather holster was old, started curling in and that caught the trigger when he holstered it. Can't happen with kydex.

[–] • 0 pt (edited )

Yeah I shouldn’t say kydex sucks. Lot’s of reasons to take kydex over leather. When I carry I’m usually in the wilderness. The wilderness for me means leaving the plastic world behind, which as stated is hard to do, but I try as much as possible when out there. Used to do mountain man rendezvous so a bias may be in play from those days of having to be period correct. I loved to make my own gear and clothes for it. Leather, steel, cloth and wood just seems more fitting and there is a artistic uniqueness that can be applied in the making of equipment with those elements. Not so much with kydex, but you are correct it has its place and I should have explained myself better. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

Edit; spelling

[–] • 0 pt

I think there are hybrid holsters too. Kydex with leather over it or something like that.

[–] • 0 pt

Kydex sucks in my opinion btw. Leather knife sheaths and holsters only for me.

Knife sheath, of course leather is better imo. Gun holster? You'd be a fool to not use kydex, even iwb carry. It just holds better for many reasons and never loses shape. And while leather is more comfortable, it just isn't as safe.

[–] • 0 pt

I won’t dispute your assertions.