Holster Materials

[Dark Star Gear]

There's a lot of misunderstanding out there, and even more holster makers just spouting off incorrect information. We use Boltaron primarily because it forms nicer and looks a little nicer. If we had to use Kydex, not much would change and most customers wouldn't know. The inside surface of Boltaron is just nicer, which in turn releases from molds better and just looks a little cleaner. They have a rolled texture that is nicer too, but Kydex has many textures and we select one that's close.

Before considering any strength or durability concerns, take a look a the table below. (I made this a few years ago and never used it)



References:
http://www.boltaron.com/films/4332.asp
http://www.boltaron.com/films/4335.asp
http://sekisui-spi.com/assets/images...Data_Sheet.pdf
http://sekisui-spi.com/assets/images...ata_Sheet0.pdf
http://sekisui-spi.com/assets/images...Data_Sheet.pdf

[Dark Star Gear]

Going property by property, starting with what I feel is the most misunderstood one on the list... The Izod Impact test... This tells us a good bit when dealing with metals, but using it for plastics or materials that have the plasticity of... plastic can be hard. It's not the best tell tale. That aside, people look at this number and instantly think impact, which isn't entirely incorrect. My issue there is that the support gear we carry isn't subjected to impact, and if it is, it's largely compression and not going to break that way.

[Dark Star Gear]

Heat Deflection Temperature is the next property that's worth talking about. This one is something that is listed as one value, but as seen leads me to believe it's incorrect sometimes. All of the plastics have a heat deflection temp above most hot cars in most areas, but in more tropic or desert areas, they can creep up. Boltaron 4332 has the lowest HDT though.

[Dark Star Gear]

Flexural Strength and Bending Strength are next... Both matter.

There are some good references out there, this one included, that go deeper.

In short, tensile strength is the strength in tension and flexural is in bending. When we use a holster, it's not in pure tension or pure bending, it's a combination. The forces a holster sees that have been the most concerning are with OWB attachments, wings, and anything that hangs off to the side that imparts a force that flexes the shell. Fatigue is what kills holsters the fastest, not some impact. We need to reduce the things that bend the holster. Wings are a necessary evil and even our customers who are hardest on holsters are getting a year out of a holster. This does improve with better practices when wearing it, such as reducing belt tension or removing pads/wedges. Sometimes people will put too much stuff on their holster and create problems because they didn't try it out to see if they had any first.

The customers who do frequently break holsters this way get free replacements. That's not unique to us either.

[Dark Star Gear]

E... This is the modulus of elasticity. This is how much the material can elastically deflect and is akin to stiffness. A great example of this would be a pipe. Take a 2" OD pipe with a wall thickness X and make that pipe from PVC, steel, and aluminum. If the pipe is supported on one end, each material of the same shape will sag differently. The steel pipe, with the greatest modulus of elasticity, will sag the least, the PVC the most. This property, again, for all intents and purposes, doesn't matter much because they're all close enough. There's enough deviation to cause concern. One thing to note though, while it's stated to be the same regardless of color, may of the lighter colors exhibit deflection that would lead me to believe it is much less than black. This hasn't manifested into a problem anyone could really notice.

Since stiffness is how we relate to this property, it's worth noting that there is material stiffness and shape stiffness. A tube is a strong shape. Roll a piece of paper into a tube and it'll stand out, leave it flat and it flops down. For shapes this is the moment of inertia. Doesn't really play a part in holsters, but when you see ribs that people add, this is what is happening. Often times the ornamental ribs cause problems though, but that's a different story.

[Dark Star Gear]

Shrink Rate... Nothing that matters for the consumer. This is a manufacturing thing, should the maker be attempting to maximize material usage. In most cases, the shrink rate is meaningless as most makers won't be able to get one extra piece if they nest cuts in an excessively detailed manner.