I've been playing around with making holsters and whatnot out of kydex. Sat down in my favorite comfy chair to relax and pick some locks... And I had to get up occassionally for a different pick or torsion wrench. Can't have that, so I decided to spend a bit of time firing up the oven and press.
The shell is kydex, 0.08 inch. Flaring rivets are 3/16's. Happened to have some elastic on-hand, so I ran it through the rivets and slapped some velcro on the ends.
At the moment, the holder has only two "slots". I used my Majestic picks as they have two "bumps" in the handles. By pressure molding the shell, the picks now "snap" into place due to the rivet bumps on the picks. I tried shaking the carrier like an English au pair, they didn't come out. But they pull out of the slots pretty easily.
I use the top of the carrier at the moment for carrying random torsion wrenches. I could also toss in more picks there, but they wouldn't be as securely retained.
Put a strip of leather on the undersize. It rides very comfy on the forearm. Weighs very little. The elastic I have is kinda narrow, but it was what I had on hand. I keep it on the hand I'm using to hold the torsion wrench, so I can change picks quite easily.
I tried to see how well the shell protected the picks. So I whacked the carrier with a rubber mallet for a bit. I'd use a steel claw hammer, but that'd mess up the finish quite a bit. Picks survived unbended as far as I could visually notice. And they opened a Master padlock in short order, which I suppose is the true test.
All and all, turned out much better than I had hoped for. I was just messing around for a bit between projects.
Some lessons learned and features for the next version.
- Curve the shell to better fit the forearm (surprisingly tricky)
- Add more pick slots
- Wider elastic
- Carved notches for torsion wrenches
- Replace the leather with foam or neoprene
i want one lol