I was very much wrong about that last part... but it took me a while to figure that out.
Also back in 2011, Dennis Badurina was just getting Dragon Leatherworks going, and starting to make a... very well deserved... name for himself... and as it happens, he was sending out review samples to a few gunbloggers.
One day, I emailed Dennis, jokingly saying "Hey, where's my review holster?"... and being the good guy he is, Dennis wrote back and said "I didn't know you wanted one... Just tell me what you want, and I'll send it to you right away"... which kinda blew me away.
I wrote back saying I was just kidding... but he wasn't... he insisted on sending me a holster to review, so long as I wanted to review it. At that point, he was busy enough that his delivery times were out about three months, but he said he would have me the holster in less than six weeks, so I would have plenty of time to review it before bad weather in North Idaho made it difficult.
Well... I couldn't turn that down... I had seen the pictures and videos the other gunbloggers had posted, and read their reviews, and I was thrilled to get a piece of Dennis's work.
I took a good look at this website, told him what I liked, what I specifically didn't like, and the pistols I had on hand at the time... and I asked him to send me what HE thought would be a great holster based on those parameters.
Five weeks later... I'm sorry to admit, I skipped ahead in the line more than a little bit... Dennis emailed me to let me know the holster had shipped... A couple days after that, I had this beautiful piece in hand; a custom Dragon Leatherworks Talon.
Unfortunately, I was also in the middle of travelling for contract work at the time, commuting from Sagle Idaho, to San Francisco California and back, every week...
I would leave home every Sunday night to catch either the 2250, or the 0510 Monday flights from Spokane to SFO (sometimes direct, usually through salt lake, but sometimes other cities), work all week in the city, then head back Friday afternoon on the 1550 or the 1715 flights back up to Spokane.
...Because I was a stubborn and prideful idiot, who "wouldn't let cancer slow me down", and I just had to abuse and exhaust myself to prove it. That abuse and exhaustion would catch up with me a few months later... but that's another story...
I had the holster in hand for almost six weeks before I could actually test it, and take pictures and video. I took about 50 pictures both indoor and out, and made a five minute video... but I wasn't very happy with any of them... The lighting wasn't right, the focus was off in several important shots... in general, I just didn't think they showed the holster off properly, or made it looks nearly as good as it was.
I intended to just scrap the pics I took, and take an entirely new set of interior pics with a new lightbox setup I snagged off of Amazon, and a new set of exterior pics in better lighting and weather.
... and then things kinda exploded...
...Both for my family and I, mostly in a not so great way, but some things very good (like the birth of our son)...
...and for Dragon Leatherworks, in a very good way...
In the five and a bit years since Dennis made me this custom holster, his business has grown massively, and he has been recognized as one of the best makers of custom leather gear out there. He's even made holster rigs, and other props and items for several very popular movies and television shows, like NCIS and Jurassic World.
But, as far as why this review is so delayed... What it comes down to, is that the holster, and the original photos and video I took for the review, were both lost for most of that time.
I just found the original files a few weeks ago while going through old external USB drive... and Dennis just happened to message me a few hours ago, which got me to get my butt in gear, and post the review and pictures.
So... at this point, I'm just going to post the video review, and some of the pictures of the holster... because this is about the review, not about my tale of woe. If you want the rest of the story, you can read the rest below... or you can just enjoy the review and the pretty holster...
My disclaimer here... I don't think that the video or pics are good enough for a review of the product. My focus and lighting weren't great, my commentary is somewhere between wooden and dead... but Dennis said he just wanted me to post my honest review... that he wasn't worried about the rest...
So, without further delay, my already more than five years delayed video review, and photos, of Dragon Leatherworks custom Talon holster, for my commander length 19lls.
Honestly, my pictures and video really don't do justice to the piece. The lighting, color, focus, and background leave a lot to be desired... but they're better than nothing.
To my mind, as far as active custom and semi-custom holster makers go... I think you can't go wrong with Dragon Leatherworks... Veteran owned, 100% hand crafted in Oak Ridge Tennesse... you should check them out.
They have several standard models, of everything from deep concealment holsters, to pocket holsters, to duty holsters, in every kind of leather and finish you can think of... and of course they do full custom original designs as well.
If you like the Galco combat master, or the Safariland agent series holsters... you'll love the Dragon Leatherworks Talon.
If you're one of the many folks out there who loved the original pre takeover safariland 568 and other 500 series paddle holsters (and their companion models, with j-hooks or belt tunnels replacing the detachable paddles)...
...and I am, in fact I think they're just about the best paddle holster ever designed, but I miss the now long past days when they were actually made of leather...
...then you should check out the Dragon Leatherworks Valkyrie. It's everything good about the classic Safariland paddles, only better.
... In fact, I think the next time I order a holster, it's probably going to be a Valkyrie, to replace one of my lost Safariland paddles.
... and that concludes the review portion of the piece...
...So... if you are actually interested, the rest of the story is under the break...
It's been a long damn time between late 2011 and now early 2017... 5 and a bit years on paper, but it feels like half a lifetime, in what has happened.
There's no point in going back over everything that's happened between then and now... You've probably already read all about it if you were a regular reader, and if you weren't then you probably don't care... Plus it's just a depressing list of bad news, worse news, and occaisonal comic relief, to be followed by more bad news...
At any rate, back in 2011 I never got to take the new pictures...
And unfortunately, we lost the house in Idaho a few months later; kicking off more than three years of moving around the country multiple times, multiple false starts in new houses and new jobs... falling into a myxedenic coma for 10 days, almost dying, almost moving to New Hampshire, then actully moving to Florida, and eventually finally moving back home to New England.
In the process, I lost all the original photos and video, and the notes I had for my review.... I thought permanently.
... fast forward about four years...
The funny thing is... around the end of 2015, I messaged Dennis, and asked him if... since I was working again, in a stable home, and no longer trying to avoid dying from cancer... I could pay him for the holster, as I had never posted my review.
Well... he wouldn't take my money... He just wanted me to post a review if I could... and that would square things up between us.
I told him that I couldn't find the original pics and video I took, and I didn't think they were good enough anyway... but I thought I still had the holster and knew where it was, so I could take new pics and video, and write a new review.
I let him know that I was working way too many hours, and spending too much time commuting right then (as I was back in 2011) and it would probably take me a couple weeks to find it, take the new pics and video and write the review... and I would send him an email when I had the review posted.
... As it turns out, I made a promise I couldn't keep... again...
Unfortunately... somewhere in the chaos of these last few years, I lost the holster. I thought I knew where it was, but it turns out I didn't... The holster was gone, as was the gun I thought it was with. I may still have it somwhere between Arizona and here... but for the life of me, I can't find it right now.
... And just to prove that God has a strange sense of humor... literally just a few days after messaging Dennis and saying that I wasn't trying not to die from cancer anymore...
Well.. as you probably know if you're reading this... I was made a liar... And my cancer not only came back, but had metastasized into my lymph nodes.
Yeah... Funny how that happens... God is an iron eh?
... So, again everything kinda exploded... and in the chaos, and the cancer brain, I completely forgot about the review again.
I didn't think about it again at all, for over a year...
... until a few weeks ago, when I was going through some of my old USB flash drives and external hard drives... and found a BUNCH of pictures and videos that I had taken, intending to use them for blog posts...
...Including the pics and video for the holster review.
Great... Now I can finally try to make things right I thought... I had intended to take a whack at editing them and seeing if I could enhance them and manipulate them enough, to the point where I thought they were good enough to represent Dennis's product in a review.
... and then cancer brain, and pain brain, and exhaustion and illness struck again... and I forgot again...
... and... there's something I have to say...
I've fucked up a lot of things in the last five years... particularly in the beginning, and then again after my surgery, once I started feeling better and recovering from the radiation... I couldn't accept how sick I was, and how much the cancer was diminishing my abilities and my energy and focus...
...and I took on work that I couldn't handle, and made promises I couldn't keep.
I've made amends for as many of those things as I could... I haven't done enough, and apologies and amends don't repair the damage done... but I've done what I could...
I let my pride make me stupid, and stubborn, and in so doing, I compromised my principles, and my honor... and I let a lot of people down.
But past is past... we can't change it, we can only accept it, fix what we can, and move on.
I will be honest... with the cancer brain... I probably would have forgotten about all of this again, just completely gone...
But Dennis messaged me a few hours ago... just asking what had happened, if I had ever posted the review.
... and so I got one more underved chance to try to make things right, in at least some small way...
I told him that I couldn't find the holster to take new photos like I had planned, but that I found the original photos and videos. I offered to show them to him, and fgive a go or no go... but he said he didn't care about the quality of the photos etc... He just wanted me to post my review.
Once again, I asked Dennis if I could at least pay him for the holster... But he won't take my money. For him, it isn't about the money and it never was... he just wants me to post my honest review, as I promised.
... I was about to try to insist again, but I thought better of it... and I apoliogized to Dennis for trying to press for things that would make my conscience feel better, rather than just respecting his wishes, and that I would drop it and do just that...
So... here above, is the much delayed review that I honestly did write and produce back in 2011, but never posted... because my ego and pride made me stupid.
