Holster Life

[steelhawk]

How long should a holster last? I know that is a broad question, but I will add some specifics. 4 years ago I made an OWB holster with a thumb break for a Glock 35. This has been worn daily during the owner's employment. He brought it back recently for a touch up on the dye. I fixed it up and he was happy, but I noticed it had seen better days, and may only have a year or so left in it.

Holster is made from 7/8 oz HO Leather, with resolene finish.

[stu925]

I think it depends on how hard it's used.  For a police holster I would think it would see a lot shorter life span.  For a pancake or IWB holster that's used fairly regularly I would think it would last 10+ years with some basic maintenance.  4 years seems a bit of a short life span to me but again it's going to depend on how hard it's used.

Stu

[steelhawk]

It gets used pretty heavily, plus it is heavy pistol.  Worn all day at work, the county jail. He has to unholster whenever he goes back to where the prisoners are.

[Red Cent]

Depends on the type of leather and what the owner does to the leather. Just recent, a good customer comes in with a ccw gun belt I made him. Natural look with finish, two ply 8-9 ounce machine sewn. The buckle was almost falling off the belt held by threads. Leather was in small chunks. He asked me to repairit. I asked him to come in about three days. Made him a new one free and he disclosed he used NF oil on it regularly. Soggy, chunk, mess. No more NF oil.

Our SASS holsters are worn about two or thee times a week for about 4-5 hours. In a day of six stages, we draw and holster each gun one time each. 90 degrees to -0- degrees, sometimes in the rain, sleet, and or snow.  Add in the hundreds if not thousands of times we dry fire practice at home. Figure that out over five years. And the holsters and belts will still be going strong. We wipe them down with NF oil once a year. Lightly.

I still have holsters from my IPSC life and that was thirty years ago. Look through some pages of Packin' Iron and you will find holsters that are 100 years old.

Edited April 12, 2016 by Red Cent

[stu925]

On 4/12/2016 at 11:18 PM, steelhawk said:

It gets used pretty heavily, plus it is heavy pistol.  Worn all day at work, the county jail. He has to unholster whenever he goes back to where the prisoners are.

Even in that setting it should have lasted longer than 4 years.  We have duty holsters at work that are probably twice that age and still going strong and they are worn around the clock (well they're supposed to be anyway).  We're not allowed to furnish our own holsters so we turn them over to whoever relieves us .  Our holsters never see any maintenance either, a true testament of how tough leather really is.

Stu

[steelhawk]

I need to ask him what he does with it.  Maybe he oils it. The holster I made six years ago, and use regularly, is still stiff and functional, probably good for another six years.

[BHPshooter]

Something I've learned is that sweat can be a big factor. Back before I was making my own, I bought a nice, custom-made IWB holster that I used nearly every day. After about 3 years, it was basically done-for. It looked and behaved a lot like an over-oiled baseball glove.

My line of work has changed, so I don't spend as much time soaking holsters with sweat (I have also learned to rotate them so they can dry completely), and haven't ruined one since.