The Belt Loop - This is an integral part in almost every kydex project. At some point you are almost always going to be forming a belt loop. This is most easily done with the heat gun. The heat gun allows you to target a specific area, get it hot enough for forming, without bending the whole rest of the project out of shape. When using the Heat gun, I like to plan exactly where I will be bending the kydex, and draw a line as pictured with the silver metalic sharpie.

Have I mentioned before, that when you heat kydex that has already been formed, it will try and return to it's original position? This can be a serious disadvantage to using only an oven for forming. If you do that, you must get the entire piece formed the first time, and in the press. For your more complicated designs this is just not possible.

I like to form the part of the holster that will hold whatever i am designing it for, and then form the belt loop, that way the belt loop is not effected by forming the other areas.

I use a 1/4 inch piece of plywood that is 2.125 inches wide and about 4 inches long to wrap the kydex around. I make each bend separately with the heat gun, only heating one section at a time, and then bending it around the template. As you can see from the pictures, I use piece of scrap wood that I have laying around to keep strait edges while forming, and apply pressure with my hands. Of course i'm wearing my welding gloves so I barely feel the heat of the kydex at all. After it has cooled for a minute or two, I release pressure and move on to the next section.

For many of your projects, you will stop here, as it will already have been incorporated into the rest of your design. However if you are adding a belt loop separately to another piece of kydex, then you continue on with the mounting system.

Regardless of how you are mounting, take a look at the sanding section below if you have a chance.

Ok, so you are going to be mounting this to another piece of kydex, and need to drill some holes. First CLAMP the kydex as firmly as possible. It loves to jump around once you get that drill going! Remember to select the right size holes for the hardware you are using. In this case, I am using 1/8th inch rivets in this .60 Kydex, the rivets that are designed to work with 2 layer of this kydex. The next step, after cleaning up the holes with a countersink will be to install the rivets or eyelets. Since I don't have a fancy pants eyelet press, I'm left hammering them out like most people do. It's a fairly easy process, detailed in my article on that process.

The final step is to start sanding. Believe me, you can't skip this step, and if you try to, you will be left with a scratched up belt. I use a small jewelers file for the areas inside the belt loop, and remove most of the larger rough areas. Then I move on to the sanding films to bring it up to a nice polish.

Questions? comments? Write me