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Thread: Vintage Kydex? Some old school Blade-Tech

  1. #31

    I dig my old Blade Tech

    The OP's rig looks sorta familiar..

    I have an old Blade Tech that I have been using since the mid 90s. 96-97 maybe? I can't recall.

    I remember I put I couple drops of Loc-tite on the screws back then and literally have never done a single thing in terms of maintenance other than hosing it off every now and then. It is actually one of my favorite kydex rigs.






  2. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by Dagga Boy View Post
    I feel horribly old when kydex and vintage are in the same sentence. I am afraid to even mention a Snick, which was the hot rig when I started to get serious about this stuff. If we have any lefties....I just dug out some “extra vintage custom Mad Dog Gun gloves”.....
    That's a name I haven't heard spoken in a while. I'm pretty sure the last acquaintance to mention it passed about 4 years ago at 70; so for that alone I had to run a quick google.

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/WOW-RARE-Vi...-/183929257305

    ...just in case you needed a spare.
    Jules
    Runcible Works

  3. #33
    My friend Rick Miller was at the Columbia Conference, where IPSC was formed. He's told me about how, during the shootoff, Mike Harries was using a Snick. The stage required that the shooter start with an empty can in his strong hand. On signal, he would run forward and place the can onto a stick, then draw, shoot some targets, reload, and hit a stop plate. This was set up as a "man against man" exercise, as Cooper was fond of that format.

    The Snick is a front-break holster and, while running forward, Harries' arm hit his pistol and it pushed through the break front and it fell in the dirt. Harries snatched up his pistol and finished the exercise (there was no DQ for a dropped pistol back then). He ended up winning the bout, as his opponent...Ken Hackathorn...fumbled his mandatory reload. The Snick was fast, but not very secure.

    I first learned about the Snick from the classic book "Survival Guns" by Mel Tappan. Harries and the Snick are in a number of illustrations therein.

    The next time I heard about kydex holsters was when Mark Moritz wrote up the Mad Dog holsters made by Kevin "Mad Dog" McClung in "American Handgunner" magazine. I was interested in these. Back then, you mailed a maker $1 with a self-addressed, stamped envelope and you got a brochure. It took McClung over three months to get me a brochure. The brochure informed me that, due to varying dimensions, he would have to have my pistol in hand to make a 1911 holster. I figured that if it took him three months to drop a brochure in an envelope, I sure as HELL wasn't going to send him a pistol.

    Shortly thereafter, Blade-Tech started offering holsters. The adjustable tension feature made it possible to offer a generic 1911 holster, off-the-rack. I still have my first Blade-Tech.

    I eventually did get some Mad Dog Glock items from Hilton Yam. Hilton ran a mail order business, selling Mad Dog kydex and knives, called "Ground Zero" in Pennsylvania before becoming a 1911 'smithing icon and FBI guy. The Mad Dog stuff was nicely made, but the non-adjustable, riveted holster design wasn't forgiving to dimensional variances or user preferences as to retention.

  4. #34
    banana republican blues's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2016
    Location
    Blue Ridge Mtns
    "Mad Dog" Kevin McClung was an amazing self-promoting machine back in the early days of bladeforums.com The man created issues and controversy wherever he trod.

    We moderators had our hands full.
    There's nothing civil about this war.

    Read: Harrison Bergeron

  5. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by runcible View Post
    That's a name I haven't heard spoken in a while. I'm pretty sure the last acquaintance to mention it passed about 4 years ago at 70; so for that alone I had to run a quick google.

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/WOW-RARE-Vi...-/183929257305

    ...just in case you needed a spare.
    Didn't Mel Tappan speak favorably of this in his "Survival Guns" book? (Not even sure I can still find my copy.)

  6. #36
    Quote Originally Posted by lee n. field View Post
    Didn't Mel Tappan speak favorably of this in his "Survival Guns" book? (Not even sure I can still find my copy.)

    Yes, he did. Not to speak ill of the dead, but I doubt that Tappan really had much practical experience. He clearly liked guns and was a good writer and was able to tap into 1970's "survivalist" movement. Besides the book, he had a paid-subscription newsletter and wrote for several magazines. He was quite good at drawing from the expertise of others and getting it out to an audience. He was crippled all his life and probably quite unable to do a lot of the things he was offering advice on.

    I liked his most of his stuff and, much like FDR, his disability was kept under wraps in that pre-internet world.

    He got a lot of people thinking about how they might prepare for when the grid goes down. For that, if nothing else, we owe him a debt of gratitude.


    Rosco

  7. #37
    Member
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Bellingham WA
    I have a couple of the original BT holsters. I think they are the best design BT ever produced.
    Semper Paratus,

    Steve

  8. #38
    Site Supporter
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Canton GA
    I started USPSA in 1986 - has been interesting to watch the holsters evolve.

  9. #39
    My first Kydex was a Talon Tactical.
    I tried to buy Ky-Tac but could not get holsters delivered.
    I turned to local Kydex bender Chris who was mostly copying Ky-Tac and have stayed with him now dba Ready Tactical.
    Code Name: JET STREAM

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