new leather - a holster review

[Guest nysos]

Ok, so I ordered a texas style iwb leather holster from adam's holsters on 10/14 for my fnx9. I am not the type that has a rough idea of where I want to go with a review, so I just let it all spill out as far as my experience - hope you all enjoy.

Got the holster in 2 days ago, today was the first day I actually carried it out and about. First day/night I was trying to get the holster broken in. The holster came pretty snug, so I did what was recommended by Luke on his website. I drew from the holster about 100 times, was still a little snug so I wrapped my fnx in a heavy duty ziplock (which is what the holster was conveniently wrapped in the box with during shipping) and reholstered. I wore the holster during this time for a few hours, then removed the baggy to try the fit again. Still a tad snug, did a double wrap of ziplocks and left it over night. After this the pistol drew fine from the holster by itself, but the extra tension from my belt when wearing it made it grip a little too much and tug at my pants when drawing. I drew while wearing the holster about 15-20 times, then decided it was doing ok and went out for errands. Now at the end of the day, the flexing of wearing the holster has made the draw much smoother. I expect it to be perfect in the next couple days of wear.

The finish is quite good, there are a few parts that seem a little lighter than the rest most likely due to the grain of the leather. The leather is nice and thick, and doesnt flex much which is good. The holster has a natural curve to it to contour to the body. It took a bit of fiddling to figure out where I needed to position it vs my comptac. I tried a few different positions with the kydex clips, one complaint I have is that the clip on the slide side of the gun if you raise it - it gets in the way of the draw. This could be remedied by making the holster slightly wider and giving more space between this clip and the body of the gun. The kydex clips are very hefty and loop underneath the belt slightly, once looped onto my belt the holster does not move at all. Right now this holster is not quite as comfy as my comptac, but I recall when I first started wearing my comptac until the leather got broken in - it wasn't nearly as comfy as this one brand new. I expect this to be an extremely comfortable holster after a few weeks of wear.

The shape of the holster is well thought out, as expected of a custom holster it fits like a glove. I love how the sweat guard portion of the leather covers the hammer and rear of the slide just enough, but there is not too much spare leather to be obtrusive and warrant trimming. The stitching appears to be very sturdy, I opted for the hand saddle stitching vs the machine stitching, this was the only custom option I went for. As much as I would like an ostrich leather trimmed and tricked out holster, my budget does not allow this so I need a good work horse holster. As plain as this holster is, I enjoy clean simple looks on some things and this holster appeals to me in a certain way. You can tell Luke has really take his time to properly develop his holsters and make things precise, even before I ordered this I knew he had an eye for detail when we were discussing possible doing a mag carrier to go with my holster. He did not have any mag molds for the fnp series so he asked if I had a caliper & cared to send him the dimensions. I asked if he just wanted the thickness of a few measurements and he said, as many as you want to give me - the more detailed the better. Where some people would settle for a tape measure and a rounded measurement to the 8th of an inch, Luke wanted measurements with a caliper - I find this good.

I don't know where I would rate this holster out of 10, I feel like I need to wear it for a few weeks and get it broken in before I could really pass judgement of how much I like it. Right now I am just really enjoying the fact that I can carry something other than my sig p229 which weighs about 10 oz more than my fn. What I can definitely rate on is customer experience dealing with Luke, and he gets a 10 out of 10 for sure. He keeps you very up to date, and answers all your questions and is very open to opinions on options you would like on your holster. His website is very good for someone that is just a 1 man business and really helps him keep track of orders & keep customers updated throughout the process. I have heard horror stories of other custom leather holster makers that are great at making holsters, but terrible at running a business. This isn't the case with Luke.

Below are some snap shots of the holster, hope you enjoy and feel free to ask any questions.

[Trekbike]

The stitching appears to be very sturdy, I opted for the hand saddle stitching vs the machine stitching, this was the only custom option I went for.

Overall it looks like a quality holster. Please explain about the difference in the stitching...I assume the hand saddle stitching is better than the machine but please confirm.

[Guest nysos]

Yes, hand saddle stitching is better. Machine stitching is just like on clothing, if 1 thread gets snipped or torn, a few rungs will fall out and it is like a chain reaction. With the hand saddle stitching the 2 threads are interwoven on each side vs connecting in the middle, so if 1 thread breaks on a rung, it wont cause a chain reaction. Luke actually has 2 diagrams on his webpage showing this.

Hand vs. Machine Stitching