I’ve been working on building a Kydex sheath for my little
South African dagger. I’m using two
different colors to make a black and blue sheath. It isn’t that I like the
colors, it’s the ease of molding I like.
The black Kydex is 0.06 inch thick and the blue checks in at 0.04 inch. That small difference really lets the blue Kydex
mold detail so much better.
Having played with these materials in the past I decided to mold
the belt loop as a continuous part of the sheath. I cut out a piece of each to the same width,
giving myself a lot of extra room. I
made the black backing four inches longer to be folded later into the loop. Surely that’s enough I thought. The belt loop template was fabricated by
cutting thin Masonite into strips 1.75 inches wide and 3 inches long.
I wanted a drain hole molded in the Kydex and I got the idea
of cutting a groove down the center of a small dowel rod and taping it over the
blade tip on the central axis to the blade.
It also occurred to me it would create a reference mark when I assembled
the two sides of the sheath. It worked
well for those purposes.
I taped the edges with blue painter’s masking tape and started
molding. The thinner blue Kydex took
nice sharp impressions of the little dagger. The thicker black material
provided a nice flat back with just a hint of the knife impression.
The Kydex pieces weren’t perfectly matched, but I had cut
them oversized so I was able to line up the two halves. Between the heat gun and the toaster oven I
was able to wrap the excess Kydex around the Masonite without affecting the
previous molding. I used a couple of pop
rivets and washers in the corners of the excess Kydex to align the two halves for
drilling. I wanted to use small black
0.3 inch eyelets to fasten the two sheets together. They were the right diameter for the size of
the sheath.
Everything went well until I was drilling my last hole. The drill bit grabbed the Kydex, ripped it out
of my hand and boogered the hole. The
eyelets would no longer fit.
Well. I just decided to pretend I had that planned and used
a Chicago screw and o-ring as a compression screw to alter the sheath
tightness.
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| The compression screw would work better higher up on the sheath, but it's hiding an oops! |
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| back of the sheath |
But I knew what happened.
I called the first one a prototype and then went to work on
another one. This time I decided I would
mold the belt sheath separately so the under construction sheath would lie flat
flatter on my drill press and have less chance of hanging up on the bit.
That worked. With the
aid of a set of French curves I trimmed the sheath with my band saw and
fastened the belt loop. A little sanding
on the bench sander (that’s why I make everything a little bigger than I need)
and I had a relatively nice sheath.
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| This worked out nice. The image is a little nicer than the actual Kydex sheath, but I'm happy with it. |
What to do with the first one? I had a can of textured tan paint from Rustoleum
and thought ”Why not?”. The paint took a
while to dry but I like the effect. The paint
gives it sort of a desert sand/camo look.
The second one I decided to leave black and blue. I’m learning to leave well enough alone!
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| I'm not sure which shape I like more, the painted Kydex or the two-tone job. I'll have to get some black or gray Kydex and repeat these sheaths. |
Everything was great.
At least until I suited up with my new knife sheath. The belt loop fit like a glove, but the loop
is so tight the sheath can’t move up or down when I sit. It also catches on jackets and long coats.
So now I’m thinking about attaching a larger belt loop with
a pivot (most likely a Chicago screw) so the knife sheath can move on the belt as
well as rotate.
Still, working with Kydex has been fun and I have more
than a few knives I want to re-sheath. I’ll
keep you informed.
