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http://www.bearclawholsters.com/holster ... asset.aspx

Anyone have one of these? Any experience to share?

Don't own one so can't comment on how good they are but at $61, don't think I'll have the opportunity. I guess I don't understand how Forbus can make a holster with complex shapes for a little more than $20 and Bear Claw can get more than $60 for something that looks like it was folded around a rolled-up newspaper.

Thinking about it a little more, I guess I can better understand your question. There must be more to the holster than what shows in the pictures to justify the cost.

bpet wrote:.....and Bear Claw can get more than $60 for something that looks like it was folded around a rolled-up newspaper.

This comment had me rolling until I saw the picture of it. It does look like a pretty crude holster.

Check out Comp-Tac. It doesn't cost much more and the quality is MUCH better (based on the pic of course and not a thorough review).

I love my Comp-Tacs, and I can't tell for sure from the picture, but that BearClaw looks like it might be thinner than the Comp-Tac Pro-Undercover, which would be the most comparable model. If it is, that could certainly be a selling point.

bpet wrote:Don't own one so can't comment on how good they are but at $61, don't think I'll have the opportunity. I guess I don't understand how Forbus can make a holster with complex shapes for a little more than $20 and Bear Claw can get more than $60 for something that looks like it was folded around a rolled-up newspaper.

I think the answer is in the tooling. The raw Kydex needed for most holsters costs less than $5. Fobus pays upfront for expensive tooling that will consistently form the complex contours. When you have good tooling the operations can be made are more automated and can yield a more consistent product. It appears that the Bear Claws are formed by hand operations, so you are paying mostly for the labor.

I don't have any experience with Fobus, but I can recommend Comp-Tac.

It isn't just the cost of the actual amount of Kydex used it is the investment of getting the Kydex. It runs about $80 to $100 per 4'X8' sheet and except for a very colors you must by 10 sheets at a time. this also explains the lack of color choices even though Kydex comes in a wide variety of colors.

CompVest wrote:It isn't just the cost of the actual amount of Kydex used it is the investment of getting the Kydex. It runs about $80 to $100 per 4'X8' sheet and except for a very colors you must by 10 sheets at a time. this also explains the lack of color choices even though Kydex comes in a wide variety of colors.

Of course, it's not very practical for larger scale manufacturing, but there are a few companies that sell 12X12" pieces for knife sheaths that are large enough for holster making. I know one person who bought two pieces for less that $10. He was experimenting in his garage making holsters for his Double Eagle and Sig P232. They came out looking as good as the Bear Claw Hidden Asset. It only took about 10 minutes to form the holster, but he spent a couple hours sanding sharp edges and putting rivets and Chicago screws.

You are right about the selection of colors. I always wanted a red holster.

I checked into the small pieces. If you can get the correct thickness the color choices are very limited! Just beware there are several formulas of Kydex 100 one (expensive) works well for holsters and one Kydex T (chaeper) does not.

WildBill wrote:

CompVest wrote:It isn't just the cost of the actual amount of Kydex used it is the investment of getting the Kydex. It runs about $80 to $100 per 4'X8' sheet and except for a very colors you must by 10 sheets at a time. this also explains the lack of color choices even though Kydex comes in a wide variety of colors.

Of course, it's not very practical for larger scale manufacturing, but there are a few companies that sell 12X12" pieces for knife sheaths that are large enough for holster making. I know one person who bought two pieces for less that $10. He was experimenting in his garage making holsters for his Double Eagle and Sig P232. They came out looking as good as the Bear Claw Hidden Asset. It only took about 10 minutes to form the holster, but he spent a couple hours sanding sharp edges and putting rivets and Chicago screws.

You are right about the selection of colors. I always wanted a red holster.

I had a similar experience during my short foray into making Kydex holsters for myself. I don't recall the name of the company I bought the Kydex from, but they are a fairly big name. The shipping was more then the price of the couple of sheets I bought.

I carefully filled the sharp spots on my 1911 with clay to prevent snags, put the Kydex in the oven at a suitable temp for the recommended length of time, went to pull it out when it was ready, stopped to put on the furshluginer gloves, pulled the Kydex out of the oven and wrapped it around the gun. Trimmed away anything that didn't look like a holster and applied screws and belt clip.

I wore it to a couple of IDPA matches and it worked ok, except it was kind of at the wrong angle, and then came the day I shot like 500 rounds in a training session and the gun got real hot, and the holster tried to morph into something else. I have had that happen to me with two separate Kydex holsters, a cheapo manufactured one and my own design, I'll stick to the more expensive factory stuff from now on.

OTOH, I did create a couple of real neat flashlight holsters.

bpet wrote:Don't own one so can't comment on how good they are but at $61, don't think I'll have the opportunity. I guess I don't understand how Forbus can make a holster with complex shapes for a little more than $20 and Bear Claw can get more than $60 for something that looks like it was folded around a rolled-up newspaper.

Thinking about it a little more, I guess I can better understand your question. There must be more to the holster than what shows in the pictures to justify the cost.

I completely understand your comment bpet. I'm in the same boat - I make leather rifle rests, but am having a hard time selling them. In my mind, the price is totally justified and reasonable - but it's like selling a home in a way... No matter how nice your house is, you're still pretty much competing against comparable sales prices in your neighborhood. You can buy a fixed-size leather rest from Cabella's for $20-30+ dollars for one rifle, then buy one or two more for the rest of your rifle collection, as well as a few pillow pouches to adjust the height, and then tote them all to the range. Or, you can buy one adjustable leather rest that's good for all of your rifles, and save yourself some money in the long run.

I guess this doesn't totally relate to the Bear Claw, but in the end, the difference seems to be in the details.

particle wrote:I completely understand your comment bpet. I'm in the same boat - I make leather rifle rests, but am having a hard time selling them. In my mind, the price is totally justified and reasonable - but it's like selling a home in a way...

In the past I tried to make some money by selling some of my woodworking projects, but found that the prices I could sell them for would barely pay for the wood. People would always comment on the quality of workmanship, but said that it was too expensive. I couldn't compete with the particle board junk from WalMart and Ikea.

Sorry mr. 72. I have strayed from your question about Bear Claw holsters.

CompVest wrote:I checked into the small pieces. If you can get the correct thickness the color choices are very limited! Just beware there are several formulas of Kydex 100 one (expensive) works well for holsters and one Kydex T (chaeper) does not.

Thanks for the heads up. I knew about the different thicknesses, but didn't know about Kydex 100 versus Kydex T. I don't know which one he bought.

I would think that with IWB, most people wouldn't care about the color. Yet some people buy the sharkskin-trimmed Milt Sparks.

particle wrote:

bpet wrote:Don't own one so can't comment on how good they are but at $61, don't think I'll have the opportunity. I guess I don't understand how Forbus can make a holster with complex shapes for a little more than $20 and Bear Claw can get more than $60 for something that looks like it was folded around a rolled-up newspaper.

Thinking about it a little more, I guess I can better understand your question. There must be more to the holster than what shows in the pictures to justify the cost.

I completely understand your comment bpet. I'm in the same boat - I make leather rifle rests, but am having a hard time selling them. In my mind, the price is totally justified and reasonable - but it's like selling a home in a way... No matter how nice your house is, you're still pretty much competing against comparable sales prices in your neighborhood. You can buy a fixed-size leather rest from Cabella's for $20-30+ dollars for one rifle, then buy one or two more for the rest of your rifle collection, as well as a few pillow pouches to adjust the height, and then tote them all to the range. Or, you can buy one adjustable leather rest that's good for all of your rifles, and save yourself some money in the long run.

I guess this doesn't totally relate to the Bear Claw, but in the end, the difference seems to be in the details.

Totally agree. I have never ventured into the realm of trying to sell anything that I made at a commercial level because the competition is just too intense. If your product doesn't have something unique (and in demand), or the quality is not superior in some recognizable way, you are at the mercy of cost effectiveness of mass produced products. As I see it, the Bear Claw holster doesn't provide anything unique and I don't see anything that would make me believe it's quality is any better than much cheaper competitors. All of this subjective opinion is of course based on looking at a picture. We still haven't heard from anyone who actually owns a Bear Claw holster. I guess that says something after all.

Well I guess you guys haven't seen or used one first-hand.

I agree it is about 2x the price I'd expect to pay for it.

What I find unique about it is the pure simplicity of the clip. Nothing extra attached, just one piece of molded Kydex.

I don't plan to buy one or try one, I just thought it looked interesting.

New here ... thought I'd chime in ... I have a few BearClaw Holsters in my modest collection: http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x137 ... /Holsters/.

Fobus can make a holster for much cheaper because Fobus is plastic, not kydex. Uncle Mike can do it cheaper because they use injection molded kydex which is liquified and ran through giant machines, of course the liquification ruins the better qualities of kydex as it makes it brittle. RM Kydex, BearClaw, Dan Hillsman Holsters, (I think) Comp Tac, and a few others use thermoformed kydex which is harder to work with but leaves the best qualities of kydex intact after processing.

Then among the thermoformed kydex crowd you have people who are folding each holster by hand and those who can afford to move up to vacuum molding. The latter greatly increases the number of holsters that can be made in a day thus the vacuum people can offer a smaller price break. Being a 'little' opinionated I tend to think the craftsmen are those who do each one by hand (not vacuum molded), and I only buy handmade holsters from craftsman though they always cost more.

Then there's the matter of the boning. The sharp corners and all the little protrusions and bends that you see on Uncle Mike kydex holsters sure do seem impressive until you have all those corners and bends pressing on your body all day. Then you figure out why RM Kydex, BearClaw, Dan Hillsman and other craftsman make 'smooth side' IWB's - its because they are comfortable even if they look like they were 'wrapped around a newspaper'. The big factor for an IWB is it's thinness and comfort so the BearClaw is a huge winner in those departments.

Changing the subject slightly ....

I had never been to Texas until last month when I dropped one of my kids off at SMU in Dallas ... man was it hot down there. Upon returning to MN the daily temps are peaking out at about 74 degrees so it's nice an cool. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I have a permit to carry up in MN and I carry every day. Thanks to reciprocity I also carried every day when I was in Texas - and was thankful to do so especially when I walked into one of the Dallas walmarts and felt like I had just stepped into a prison yard. No offense, our wally worlds are the same way up here ... I should know better by now.

Shoot safe.