Glock 21 Gen 4 Multicam Kydex holster

I suck at gift giving.... Once I have a gift for someone I get so excited to give it to them that I end up giving it early. Case in point the topic for today's post, a Kydex holster for my Dad's new gen 4 Glock 21 for a Father's day present. As of the time of this writing, he already has been given the holster...



I wanted to make a pancake style holster for this project as I knew he would love the multicam print and I wanted a larger front surface area to show this off. I like how pancake holsters are outside to waistband but can be easily concealed and they hold the firearm really tight against the body. For those that are unsure as to what a pancake holster is; It is simply two molded pieces of Kydex riveted together so that they "sandwich" the firearm in between (maybe they should have called it a sandwich holster!). I started this project by getting a properly sized piece of Kydex material to work with. To do this, you simply use a straight edge and score a line on the Kydex with a razor blade, then you just break it off like a kit-kat bar (a strong kit-kat bar). This is the width I went with;

After this, I sized the back piece (I used black Kydex for the back piece) to be the same. Once both pieces are ready, it is time to prep the firearm. Using whatever solid item fits, I block the ejection port on the pistol and blue tape the slide of the gun. I block the ejection port for two reasons; While it looks cool on the holster to have every bit of definition possible, the ejection port (especially on a Glock) creates entirely to much retention, and because of that, every time the gun is re holstered, the protrusion inside the holster abrades the slide of the gun which will in the long term wear off the finish on the slide.

Now I heat up one piece of Kydex at a time and press the two halves separately. If you try to do both halves at the same time you will have difficulty getting both pieces to be at the same temperature and they will have a tendency to shift while being put into the press. Note that I updated my foam from my last Kydex post about the Gerber Profile sheath, I am getting better definition out of this stuff. I got this foam from wally-world (Wal-Mart) in the form of a sleeping pad, I just cut it into 12" X 12" tiles and stacked 2 on each side of the press.

Once both pieces were pressed and I was happy with their outcome, I clamped them together and marked out my rivet placement. Here is how they came out after pressing;

After I got the two halves lined up perfectly and clamped together, I started marking my rivet placement and drilling. Make sure you plan your rivet placement as it is paramount to the adjustability and dictates what attachments can be used. I go with 3/4" or 1.5" on center rivet placement because G-Code, Blade-Tech, and MALICE clips use this pattern and those are the attachments that I use. Once all the holes are drilled, de-bur both sides of every hole to get all the boogers off the Kydex (Kydex boogers, not booger-boogers.... I recommend the use of a tissue for booger-boogers).

Once the holes are de-burred (and the holes above are not de-burred), rivet the two pieces together using whichever method you prefer. Once the two pieces are riveted, take a pencil and mark out the shape you want from the holster and the lines you need to cut along to achieve that final shape.

I used a Dremel tool with a cutoff wheel to cut along the lines I marked on the Kydex but you can use a scroll saw or even a coping saw to do this as well.

That's a lot of boogers... now it is time to sand the edges flat and I did this without a belt sander by clamping a strip of sand-paper to my work surface and moving the holster back and forth. Once everything was all flat and how I wanted it, I washed the debris out of the holster and put the Glock in it. I wanted my Dad to be able to get a full firing grip on the gun before drawing it from the holster so I sanded down an area to allow the proper clearance to get a finger in there;

At this point, the holster is still flat and the edges would do a good bit of sticking out if you were to put it on a belt. To remedy this, I clamped the holster's edge using a straight edge and applied small amounts of heat until I could bend the holster to curve the edges so that they would conform to the side of the human body.

Only after this did I finish the edges off. I did this by hitting the edges with a felt wheel to radius the edges and take any sharp corners off, and then a cotton wheel to polish the edges. I finished it all of with some coyote tan MALICE clips that allow the holster to be mounted both easily and solidly to a MOLLE platform, and to a belt!

I am ecstatic with the way that this holster came out, and my awesome Dad was equally as pleased once he got the holster in his hands!