Flap holster closure methods - magnet?

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quaid

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Im playing with making my own leather holsters, I’d like to make a leather flap holster and I’m interested in using a magnet as a closure method. I imagine it will be silent opening and closing, great while hunting.

Im a little confused on magnet types. I plan to glue and sew it into a pocket of the leather, and I don’t know what strength or size magnets to use.

I’ve been looking at heavy duty rare earth magnets but maybe that is overkill?

Thanks!
 
its hard to imagine this working for anything that gravity isn't already holding down. A typical handgun weighing around 2-2.5 LB will easy overcome even the strongest magnets with any real stress. I used to occasionally carry a Neodymium HDD magnet in my pocket so I could use a knife frequently and quickly by attaching it, but even that was too heavy. Of course, you may have better luck than me, and I hope you do. The big issue is not break away weight, which is very good, but sliding resistance, which is almost non existent. On my woods holsters, I would take a male snap of the same size as the straps, and put it on the inside of the belt area, and keep the strap fastened to it, unless going over something where falling was likely, or through water, then you snap it in, and that works well.
 
I wasn’t worried about retention- my goal was to protect the firearm from the woods a bit, and alleviate chafing from the under arm shoulder holster position it will be in.
 
The strongest magnets are Neodymium Iron Boron (NdFeB) rare earth magnets. The strongest grade of NdFeB magnets that I am aware of is N52.

All else being equal, in general the larger the magnet, the stronger it will be. In general, given two magnets of similar dimensions and composition, the one that is thickest along the axis of the magnetic poles will be strongest.

Here's a website that has a huge variety of NdFeB magnets. I have ordered from them in the past and had good luck.

https://www.kjmagnetics.com/

Keep in mind that your design shouldn't allow the magnets to smack together as they are sintered construction with some kind of plating (usually nickel, but sometimes gold) to provide corrosion resistance and additional structural integrity. If they are allowed to smack together with force, they will eventually chip/break and then once the plating is compromised, they will corrode fairly rapidly. In addition, the plating is very thin and hard and does a passable razor blade impression once it starts to flake after being compromised.
 
REM (Rare Earth Magnets) can be weird.
Pull the quarter-sized, kidney-shapped ones out of a dead hard drive, and stick one in your pocket, you can hold a 15" crescent wrench through the pocket. Bend your leg a bit too much, and "Clang!"

REM are high-intensity, but have small effective fields. It's very much a cube/cube root function. Except when in REM-REM adhesion. Those values as solidly in the square/square root realm; and are very hard to separate once in direct contact.

As to design, probably all you need is a steel disk or square in the body of the holster, then have the magnet in a pocket in the flap would work reasonably well. If using store-bought craft REM, the "button" style ones are not as strong. I might put a row of 2 or 3 in the flap with a corresponding strip of metal as the "grab."
 
I had in mind to skive a little pocket into the leather to glue a magnet in place and put a piece of scrap leather over the pocket. This should prevent the magnets from smacking anything.

Thanks for the information. We’ll see how it goes.
 
Harness snaps have done a good job for a long time. Rub a birthday cake candle around the ring and it will be pretty quite when unsnapping.

Magnets might work well on a shoulder holster, especially with a very thin piece of leather glued over each magnet.
 
boom boom said:
Is that your holster or do you know who made it? Pardon my ignorance but that is a good looking and useful flap holster that would look nice for some of my long barrelled revolvers.
Click to expand...
Sadly, no. Not mine.

I just pulled it off the net.
Turns out its is from this page (french?):
http://www.p-l-m-brand-saddlery.com/pages/flap-holster.html

ETA:
I found these too:
https://www.purdygear.com/SAflap.html

https://www.rockingksaddlery.com/index.php?pg=holster

https://www.riverjunction.com/2558
 
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