Street Bowie sheath dulls edge.

[Raylas]

I like the hard shell casings but the dulling of blades seems to be a theme. From now on I'll be buying leather or other/nylon. Probably nylon because moisture is an issue with leather.

It does not make sense to quibble over it. The solution for hard shell casings just has not arrived yet.

Yeeaaaah the way my luck's going I'm thinking I might have to, since nobody who works kydex will get back to me.

[Rweeks1134]

I know this is a topic that’s a few years old but I was curious if Spyderco has a replacement for the factory sheath. The issue stems from the fact that the original sheath is made using glass reinforced nylon, which is a great tool making plastic, however it is slightly abrasive. I bought my street Bowie years ago and I love the design but I hate that it dulls just from riding in the sheath. It has nothing to do with how the blade is drawn from the plastic, it’s completely because the edge rides against the nylon while being carried and the edge eventually dulls. I also like the design of the sheath just not the materials

[Michael Janich]

Dear Rweeks1134:

Welcome to the Spyderco Forum.

Stay safe,

Mike

[vivi]

I know this is a topic that’s a few years old but I was curious if Spyderco has a replacement for the factory sheath. The issue stems from the fact that the original sheath is made using glass reinforced nylon, which is a great tool making plastic, however it is slightly abrasive. I bought my street Bowie years ago and I love the design but I hate that it dulls just from riding in the sheath. It has nothing to do with how the blade is drawn from the plastic, it’s completely because the edge rides against the nylon while being carried and the edge eventually dulls. I also like the design of the sheath just not the materials

I've carried my street beats and street bowie on many hikes and I've never seen them dull from simply being carried. If they did you'd be able to see flat spots in the edge.

With mine I can whack the edge into the sheath material without any damage, so I dom't see how lighter impacts from walking around could dull it.

I stand by my post from years ago. A solution has already been found. Adjust your draw. People have specific draws for knives and guns, specific grips they practice, certain stances they practice etc. I don't see why drawing a knife with a slight bit of pressure towards the spine should be viewed as particularly cumbersome. It's complete habit for me at this point with all my fixed blades.

I see people make the same complaint with ESEE, Cold Steel and other brands using synthetic sheaths. The solution is so, so simple.

[kerrcobra]

I second what Vivi is saying. I've never had this problem, and I also draw with slight pressure towards the spine. I also have several of Fred's custom knives, and his kydex comes tight - extremely tight; I don't get edge dulling from those either.

[Naperville]

The Spyderco Forums are excellent...and I apologize if any of my prior responses came off harsh. I forget we are not sitting around a campfire having a beer shooting the breeze, and I read what I say many months later and wish I had taken a year of Emily Post's "Friendly Communications and Happy Forum Posts."

I grew up (14 to 27) working in construction and 2/3 of the language they use is inappropriate for any forum. 1/3 of their language was grunts. I was raised by wolves!





I like the boltoron and kydex sheaths for how they look, but I think nylon beats them all as far as not dulling a knife. The only issue that I see with a nylon sheath is mounting options.

Using the power of the community, does anyone know of a maker of custom nylon sheaths? Maybe they can make me something?

[mark greenman]

I got rid of my Street Bowie due to the sheath dulling. A few reverse grip draws and the edge was dull.

Claiming you need to adjust your draw on a combat / emergency knife (which is what this knife is made for) is not a satisfying solution.

[Scandi Grind]

The Spyderco Forums are excellent...and I apologize if any of my prior responses came off harsh. I forget we are not sitting around a campfire having a beer shooting the breeze, and I read what I say many months later and wish I had taken a year of Emily Post's "Friendly Communications and Happy Forum Posts."

I grew up (14 to 27) working in construction and 2/3 of the language they use is inappropriate for any forum. 1/3 of their language was grunts. I was raised by wolves!





I like the boltoron and kydex sheaths for how they look, but I think nylon beats them all as far as not dulling a knife. The only issue that I see with a nylon sheath is mounting options.

Using the power of the community, does anyone know of a maker of custom nylon sheaths? Maybe they can make me something?

I've never heard of custom nylon, not that I would be the one to here of it, ha ha, but I was always under the impression that it is injection molded and therefore only effective if you have large scale production in mind? That was my assumption anyway, but now that I'm thinking about it is more of a question to anyone who might know.

I want to get some leather working tools and make myself some sheaths from leather. For me it is probably the best sheath material in general, but leather isn't the best for storing carbon blades in for long periods, which is most of my fixed blades, so that is the one thing that kinda bugs for me.

[Naperville]

The Spyderco Forums are excellent...and I apologize if any of my prior responses came off harsh. I forget we are not sitting around a campfire having a beer shooting the breeze, and I read what I say many months later and wish I had taken a year of Emily Post's "Friendly Communications and Happy Forum Posts."

I grew up (14 to 27) working in construction and 2/3 of the language they use is inappropriate for any forum. 1/3 of their language was grunts. I was raised by wolves!





I like the boltoron and kydex sheaths for how they look, but I think nylon beats them all as far as not dulling a knife. The only issue that I see with a nylon sheath is mounting options.

Using the power of the community, does anyone know of a maker of custom nylon sheaths? Maybe they can make me something?

I've never heard of custom nylon, not that I would be the one to here of it, ha ha, but I was always under the impression that it is injection molded and therefore only effective if you have large scale production in mind? That was my assumption anyway, but now that I'm thinking about it is more of a question to anyone who might know.

I want to get some leather working tools and make myself some sheaths from leather. For me it is probably the best sheath material in general, but leather isn't the best for storing carbon blades in for long periods, which is most of my fixed blades, so that is the one thing that kinda bugs for me.

NOPE, not the hard sheaths, these are soft to the touch nylon sheaths and should not dull a knife. I do not even want a plastic liner in the nylon sheath. They generally are not as pretty to look at as a hard plastic/kydex/nylon sheath but I'd wear them under an untucked shirt, horizontally on my belt line.

TAKE A LOOK!!!

Off brand knife, but sheath is good enough.

Marbles example

SOG example

[Michal O]

Dear Spyderco, just make good kydex for it. No excusess. It's not rocket science. Other companies already managed to provide their fixed blades with kydex sheath so good, you don't need aftermarket sheath. I had to order kydex for my Street Bowie and Street Beat. It's expensive to buy Spyderco these days and if you need to replace bad manufacture sheath, I'll pass and buy fixed blade from other companies. Or just make at least leather one. Manufacture sheath is plastic waste for me.

[Scandi Grind]

NOPE, not the hard sheaths, these are soft to the touch nylon sheaths and should not dull a knife. I do not even want a plastic liner in the nylon sheath. They generally are not as pretty to look at as a hard plastic/kydex/nylon sheath but I'd wear them under an untucked shirt, horizontally on my belt line.

TAKE A LOOK!!!

Off brand knife, but sheath is good enough.

Marbles example

SOG example

Looking at that SOG one, it says "Hard Moulded Interior," so I am not sure what that means is on the inside exactly. It seems like there would have to be something hard inside that type of sheath though or else couldn't you just cut right through it? I don't suppose you can get any sort of retention out of this style either, so a handle strap would always be a necessity, and the handle designed to stop against it.

[Naperville]

NOPE, not the hard sheaths, these are soft to the touch nylon sheaths and should not dull a knife. I do not even want a plastic liner in the nylon sheath. They generally are not as pretty to look at as a hard plastic/kydex/nylon sheath but I'd wear them under an untucked shirt, horizontally on my belt line.

TAKE A LOOK!!!

Off brand knife, but sheath is good enough.

Marbles example

SOG example

Looking at that SOG one, it says "Hard Moulded Interior," so I am not sure what that means is on the inside exactly. It seems like there would have to be something hard inside that type of sheath though or else couldn't you just cut right through it? I don't suppose you can get any sort of retention out of this style either, so a handle strap would always be a necessity, and the handle designed to stop against it.

The hard plastic sleeve can usually be removed.

[Redhawk1369]

I just turned down buying the Street Bowie with a nice discount because of this issue which is abundantly found on other forums and reviews. To be fair, my Clinch Pick suffers from this, as my carry style has the handle pulling the end of the blade into the sheath and the last half inch gets extremely dull from walking around. It is a shame this knife seems so nice to me

[PeanutButterFan]

Just wanted to add that i have experienced this issue on my street beat as well.

[Redhawk1369]

I generally carry folders for edc other than the clinch pick. I suppose it could be a common issue for fixed blade with modern sheaths?

[electro-static]

I recently bought a street bowie, and it's a lovely design, very thin, very slicey, great handle, takes a wonderful edge.

There's just one giant, glaring issue: The Sheath.

Whatever spyderco used to make this, it's NOT kydex, it's got some sort of abrasive in it, because drawing and re-sheathing the blade as few as 3 times takes it from screaming, scary, hair-popping sharp, to "I can barely get it to shave hair"

This is not acceptable. I will be disposing of this sheath as soon as I possibly can, in the most destructive manner possible, and replacing it with a custom made kydex sheath.

I'm not real happy about this. I spent 115 dollars on this knife, and I can't even carry and use it until I replace Spyderco's poor decision to use a plastic that somehow manages to dull VG-10 for the sheath.

What's worse, I know this isn't a company-wide issue, it's a SPECIFIC MODEL issue. I have a Spyderco Jumpmaster 2. It has a lovely Kydex sheath and has never been dulled by it. Whatever the sheath material is for The Street Bowie in particular (Or possibly just mine? Perhaps glass fiber was in the mix?) is no good, and that upsets me, because aside this issue, the sheath is rather attractive.

I really hope Spyderco can either replace this sheath with one that doesn't dull my scary-sharp edge, or Enact CQI so that the next iteration of this knife, if there is one, doesn't have this problem.

I have the same issue with my Enuff 2 sheath, I had to buy a leather sheath to replace it.

[PaperKnife]

My understanding is the “injection-molded polymer sheath” has fiberglass reinforcement which dulls the edge. Run an edge across it and you hear a crunching sound.

To me, Boltaron is equivalent to Kydex - which doesn’t dull the edge, silent when drawing an edge across it.

I could understand Spyderco’s approach if maybe the Injection molded is more tough and has a tighter hold on the knife/handle.

It’s a bummer that they use these fiberglass type sheaths.

[vivi]

I've got spyderco sheaths that are over 15 years old that still hold the knife like a champ.

anyone skipping out on the spyderco / perrin collabs because of this is missing out.

like I've said over the years, drawing with a bit of pressure towards the spine is such an easy habit to develop.

I draw every fixed blade that way, whether strong side or weak side, regular grip or reverse grip, horizontal or vertical carry.

even if it has a leather sheath it helps avoid damaging the sheath.

to me it's no different than drawing a handgun with trigger discipline VS clutching the trigger. or the different holsters designed to prevent someone else drawing your gun - they require certain draws too.

there are specific draws for all sorts of tools - you practice enough you don't even think about it.

there is a free and easy solution for everyone in this thread.

if you find yourself in an emergency defensive scenario and you forget your draw technique, your knife won't be completely dulled from one bad draw unless it was already pretty dull to begin with.. That's a preparation issue.