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I made this primarily because I'd just been wanting to mess around with kydex at some point. I did this all with a heat gun and some small chicago bolts. It's just a simple sheath that ties onto my backpack strap.




Turned out pretty nice! But hey, what's all this scratches on the blade from the sheath all of a sudden? This is clean kydex, nothing in there. Definitely no sand. Kydex isn't supposed to scratch steel... from what I've read at least. Kind of a bummer, but the Bow River is meant to get used.

Did you put masking tape on the blade before you put it all in the kydex press and let it form?

Pancake wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 29, 2019 12:42 am

Did you put masking tape on the blade before you put it all in the kydex press and let it form?

I didn’t use a press, just formed it by hand.

Oh, ok. I think the sheath is just too tight, but the way you made it, it has to be.
Most kydex sheaths get the friction to hold the knife from the handle area, not from blade.....If you know what I mean.

Pancake wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 29, 2019 8:19 am

Oh, ok. I think the sheath is just too tight, but the way you made it, it has to be.
Most kydex sheaths get the friction to hold the knife from the handle area, not from blade.....If you know what I mean.

Yeah, it is pretty tight. Should I build up some layers of masking tape and re-form it to be looser? There's a tab that hooks over the heel of the blade so it can be looser without falling out.

I'm still confused how it's scratching though. Kydex is soft.

You could do that, just check the retention is it still tight enough.

Nice work zhyla!

I use 2 layers of packaging tape on either side of the blade in order to make sure the knife can enter and exit freely without it being able to rattle while in the sheath.

It's normal for a kydex sheath to scratch the blade if it's too tight, particularly if the steel is not a high wear resistance/high hardness steel. It can scratch the blade even when it's not too tight if there is any sandpaper grit left inside as well. The grind lines on the blade run vertically and when you slide the knife into the sheath perpendicular to the grind lines it's easy to knock down the tops of the grind lines.

Even though you have already drilled the sheath for hardware, you can still adjust the fit. Just tape the blade, leave all of the hardware attached, re-heat the sheath and insert the blade with tape on it.

Best regards,
Chad

I couldn't find any recent photos of knives I've taped for sheaths but I found this old one.. I used to use masking tape. It works just fine, I simply prefer packaging tape now. Notice that the tape does not extend past the bevel of the blade so that the ricasso and the handle have a nice secure fit. The drill bit is there to create a drain hole. The drill bit drain hole works beautifully for some designs and not for others.



Best regards,
CK

Ok, I loosened it up a bit with the tape trick.

One of these days I need to get set up to do rivets for this kind of thing.

I also made a simple taco style ( or should I say pancake style ) sheath. I have to made a hybrid style kydex/leather loop for belt, but for now it is quite ok.

Nice job guys!

I've had Kydex scratch PD#1 and PMA11 just from pinching the sheath too hard while removing the knife, nothing to worry about though.