What’s up at Leo Combat?

UPDATE: THE WALL-SAVER SAFETY CYLINDER IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE.

Things have been super quiet here—much quieter than I’d prefer. What’s up at Leo Combat?

Well, there was the flu. So that kind of puts a damper on everything you try to do, even sitting and typing.

With that finally beat, the attention turns to the Wall-Saver safety cylinder, which is due to be released soon. And—let’s be frank here—it’s a bit of a struggle. Because while there has been progress with prototypes and various kinks are getting worked out, what has proven elusive is production—making a sufficient number with a low enough defect rate for sale. You just can’t wind up throwing out half of what you make because something goes wrong in the process and makes them non-functional or unsaleable. So while it would technically be possible to have them on sale now—it’s not really feasible.

There have been several redesign and re-prototype cycles in the last 2 weeks, all aimed at getting that last barrier down so that a nice inventory can be built up for launch. Each round takes, at a minimum, several days (assuming there’s no flu involved). Some things are firming up, but others are still uncertain. And even when a design seems to come together, there’s the small matter of actually causing that design to come into existence, which may call for tools or techniques that are trickier or more expensive than anticipated.

So what it amounts to is delay. Actually, this is no different than what happened with the Pocket-Safe hammer shroud, as documented in the “Making of” blog series. And all these blind alleys will make for a nice series of “errors you should avoid in making your product” once the cylinder is actually available. But in the meantime, I’m too busy fixing problems to be writing about them.

I have received word that the Pocket-Safe hammer shroud will be reviewed by Concealed Carry Magazine, which is great. I’ll link to the review when it comes out, and hope that they like it. And maybe I’ll send them a cylinder when it’s ready, too.

I won’t be sending out another newsletter until I’m ready to announce the launch, so sign up and you’ll be notified—and get a coupon—as soon as it’s ready.