I just stumbled across this thread and thought I would share some thoughts. I am a hobbyist holster maker, and a student of the innovations of my predecessors, including Red’s prolific work.

Why “notapancake”? First some history, or perhaps, “Holstory”...:-) Roy Baker’s Original Pancake was a two piece construction holster with belt slots fore and aft of the pocket. The front and rear panels were equal sized, hence the term “50/50.” The design is stable and pulls the gun snugly into the body of the wearer, aiding concealment. The downside of a 50/50 pocket is that after the handgun is drawn, the empty holster tends to “pinch” and constrict the mouth of the pocket, thereby hindering the (re)holstering process. Common solutions to this issue have been the addition of reinforcement to the outer panel, and better yet, offset construction (sometimes called “flatback”) in which the outer panel is larger than the rear panel, effectively shifting the pocket outward and reducing the pinching effects of belt tension.

I find it interesting that the pancake and the Avenger style holsters each are nearing the half century mark. Yet, there are few notable examples of professional holster makers attempting to merge the positives of each. Other than Red’s Maltese Falcon (one of my personal favorite designs) and now his “notapancake”; the only other notable examples I can think of are Tucker Gun Leather’s HF1 and Bob Mernickle’s PS6.

In the past I have experimented with some modified pancake and Avenger designs, a couple of which may be of interest to fellow holster enthusiasts. First is the “Hemlock”, which is basically a 50/50 “pancake” pocket design. However, the back panel is “full size” and the front panel is abbreviated. I call it three-quarter sized. The belt slots are located in the rear panel. This concentrates the belt tension on the rear panel, minimizing pinching at the pocket mouth.

Second is the “Stiletto”, which much like Red’s “notapancake” is a one-piece, full-wrap pocket design similar to an Avenger except the rear tunnel loop is replaced with a forward belt slot. This style incorporates the best features of the Avenger and the pancake, i.e. the “Avengercake”, or maybe “Cakevenger”, perhaps.


In any case, the pancake and the Avenger are each solid designs that have withstood the test of time. It would seem reasonable to expect that the “notapancake” will too.