The Man from Kydex

In spite of the stinkin’ hot weather, I’ve been working playing with Kydex.  I’m using the knife a friend gave me.  I really like this knife, but it might not be the best to learn about Kydex sheath skills.

The sheath I have in mind is asymmetric.  That is, the back is largely flat while the front takes the brunt of bulging and forms the blade and knife handle pocket.  I want the back as flat as possible to make attaching a belt clip easy and flat against the sheath so the knife is held in tight to the body.  This handle calls for a lot of Kydex flow.

I also want the sheath to be trim and smartly shaped.  I can already make sheaths that looks like two pieces of plywood nailed together.  I want an organic (I hate that word, but I’m actually working with organic materials, so….) look that suggests the sheath grew around the knife. 

I have quite a ways to go.

To facilitate reaching these goals I’ve bought two new tools.  The first is a small set of French curves.  I used to use them to help draw graphs in math and science.   For those of you who only know Excel or any of the other graphing software there was a time….

A time when a man would place a razor to his throat and he would slip and cry out in pain and blood would well up ….    Oops!  Wrong time!!

What you really did was plot points as x and y coordinates.  If you could connect them with a straight line great, but sometimes it wasn’t possible, so you got out a pack of French curves and found a section of the curves that matched your points and drew the line. 

I’m using the curves to help me trace lines on the Kydex to give my sheath a fluidness and shape that is functional, minimalist and attractive.  

Am I asking for TOO MUCH?

I don’t know, but there is an art, a creative side to sheath making.  Sherlock used to say "Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms” (The Greek Interpreter).  So true.

To help me trim the excess Kydex from the line I can now draw I bought a band saw.  I also bought it to do a little woodworking, but I had Kydex in mind when I purchased it.

I went to Sears.  It's a Craftsman.  I wanted the 12 HP saw, but it was a little out of my league....

I was quite happy that my first band saw/Kydex sheath project was working out until for some reason, it took a jog sideways, hit a rivet and skittered away. 

The second rivet down on the right shows were the band saw and I departed from the planned operation.

Back side.  This is the reason I want the back so flat.  I need the sheath to hug the body.  I've lost too many knives 'cause they canted out from my body and got snagged by a coat or sweater.

 

Well, practice makes perfect.  My big problem is spacing the rivets and leaving enough Kydex outboard of the rivet so I can cut, trim and polish. The curves don’t work so well on non-flat, irregularly shaped objects and I need a better way to draw on Kydex other than pencil.

I have been working on a Kydex neck sheath for a Delica Salt. 

The screw is to control the tension.  I don't know if I need it, but I'd rather have it, set it and forget it than worry about losing the knife.  By the way --- those fingers are from a highly paid hand model.  I spare no expensive for this blog.....

It’s big and I tried it out in the salty Gulf of Mexico and the H1 steel didn’t rust, and more importantly, the knife didn’t fall out.  Now that I have a band saw, it’s time to revisit that project.

Sellin' Steel

I’m at Canton McKinley Rifle and Pistol Club’s Regional for three days.  It is the biggest regional bullseye match in the country. (By the way, it's open to the public, you can visit if you want!)

Why?

Simple.  The National Bullseye Pistol Matches start at Camp Perry the week after CMRPC’s Regional and Leg Match ( What’s a Leg Match?)   It’s like a tune up before the main event.

They get the military with their armorers, police teams, civilian shooters to come and punch holes in paper targets.  It’s very cool, ‘cause anyone can participate and you could find yourself shooting next to a national champion or a housewife from Sour Plane, NY.

I’m not shooting.  Bullseye takes practice and deliberate concentration stretched out over hours and days and years of practice.  It can also be a bit of an equipment race.

There’s always a better gun or gunsmith.  Maybe a new and improved oil which will make the gun shoot better, maybe a magic bullet that will shoot head and shoulders better than the rest.  Of course you can reload and the chase for perfection starts over.

I used to shoot bullseye, but it has fallen out of favor with me.

So, I’m there selling knives.  

But it was so hot today….  I didn’t care if I sold anything if it meant I didn’t have to move.  The building is open on part of one side and we had fans moving air around, but when it’s 98 degrees, it’s just hot air.  I don't know how the shooters survived for all those hours on the sunny firing line.  I thought for sure we would have some heat stroke, but we didn't.

It’s interesting to talk to the professional knife fighters, trainers, and amateur collectors and users.  No matter what you read in the knife magazines, you’ll find a contrary view from a person in the same profession.

I had a nice conversation about knife length with a Pentagon employee.  A police officer from Newport News Virginia and I discussed autos or switchblades.  I sold a SOG Tomahawk to a Marine.  He’s not sure what he’ll use it for but he thinks it’s a good idea.  I wanted that one for myself so I guess I’ll be ordering one.  I met a Coast Guard Captain who sailed around South America helping those nations set up their own coast guards.  He’s stationed stateside now and he always has some interesting things to say.

I sold a few knives too.  The ceramic kitchen knives are hot.  CRKT’s M16s are always picked up and purchased.  

I still have two days to go.  I’ll see what happens. 

Benchmade VS Kershaw

“Three little knives are we….” (With a tip of the hat to the Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan) my song should go.

I just got three new knives in and let me bring them out on stage.

Kershaw Brawler,

Benchmade Barrage in Tanto,

and

HK Entourage.

My three little knives.....Barrage on top, Entourage in the middle and the Brawler on bottom.  Still, who makes up these names??

They almost run the gamut of knives found in pockets across the nation.  The Brawler is made in China by Kershaw who is owned by Kai the makers of Zero Tolerance and Shun kitchen knives.  Benchmade makes HK knives as well as their own.  Both of these were made in the USA.

Two are assisted, two are made in the USA and one is not.  One is an auto.  You would be surprised how many people have a knife in their pocket with one of these descriptors.

Let’s bring one out.

Of all the knives the Entourage is the simplest in appearance.  

HK's Auto Entourage 

The knife is tapped for tip up, left or right carry.  The handle is detail free, snag free and has that annoying nail-on-chalkboard feel that enhances grip.  These are positive attributes for an auto opener.

The steel?

The 3.75-inch tanto blade is made from 440C hardened to 58-60 RHC.  The C stands for Rockwell C scale.  Rockwell has several scales including one for copper sheets and aluminum tubes, so it’s important we acknowledge which scale we use.   

This blade has Benchmade’s BK finish.

BK?  Oh, that’s Benchmade’s black ceramic coating, probably Cerakote made by NIC Industries.  I don’t know what that means either.

The spring is powerful enough to open and lock the blade even if the initial opening is slightly hampered.  We've all seen autos that snag, or catch on something and only get three quarters of the way open and the blade just dangles.  Don’t let yours dangle.

A simple wrist flick opens and locks the blade.  No biggy, except for those times when there is no spare time.

The Brawler

The Brawler sports a 3.25-inch blade made from 8cr13mov steel.  The steel is a Chinese stainless and we’ve all seen complications from so called Chinese quality products.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  Quality depends on the company and not the country of origin.  Kershaw is a well-known name and I would trust their products.

Front of Brawler

Back.  Note the high carry clip and tapping in all four positions.

I can’t find any information on blade hardness.  Other companies harden their 8cr13mov steel in the 56-60 RHC range.  I suspect Kershaw is in that range as well.

This knife is assisted opening, incorporating both flipper and stud.  It’s tapped in all four locations for tip up or down, left or right carry.  Very handy for any of us who like different carry modes.  The handle is a glass-filled nylon which makes for a very strong and durable handle.  The blade has a DLC finish.

DLC?  Diamond-Like Coating.  Did you know that $4000 Rolex wrist watches come with a DLC coating.  You should also be aware there is a family of DLC finishes.

Is it a balloon?  No - it's a Barrage.

The Barrage is one of the nicest designed knives I’ve seen in years.  The AXIS lock is so nice and so easy to use.  The knife’s grip sports little finger bevels to amp up your grip.  Why?  This assisted opening knife opens with authority and has a satisfying “thunk” when the blade locks open.  The blade is made from 3.6 inches of 154CM steel and the handle is composed of Valox.

Barrage in Tanto, Assisted opening

Valox is a thermoplastic polyester resin made by Sabic.  Benchmade doesn’t tell us if it’s a PET or PBT polyester or if it’s filled or not.  But really, how would that information make a difference to you the knife consumer?  At some point we all must trust the company.  That’s why it’s important to buy from quality companies.

So where are we with our three little knives?

Knife	Steel	Blade Length (inches)	Open length (inches)	Lock	Action	Price
Entourage	440C	3.75	8.44	Opened & closed	Auto	$165
Brawler	8cr13mov	3.25	7.38	Liner lock only	Assisted w/ flipper	$39.95
Barrage	154CM	3.6	8.35	AXIS with safety	Assisted w/ stud	$145

Takes the romance out of it, doesn’t it!

Both Benchmade knives have a safety that locks the knife in closed and opened conditions.  The Kershaw Brawler depends on needing sufficient force on the flipper to start the blade opening.  Its liner lock is stout enough to keep it open until you make the effort to close it.

Lock on Barrage.  Both the Auto Entourage and the Barrage can be locked closed or locked open.

Both companies offer lifetime sharpening.  Kershaw will even pay the postage to return it to you.  The auto creates a problem.  If you send it back for sharpening, you need to prove (a department letterhead or such) you can legally own the knife.  I don’t see it as a problem.  There are plenty of sharpening systems available as well as professional knife sharpeners.  (Hint:  Learn to sharpen your knife in the field.)

So which knife would I carry?  Depends.  In New York I couldn’t carry any of them. 

If I went in harm’s way, I’d carry the Entourage and back it up with the Barrage.  Why?  Excluding the 'one is none' rule, I’d use the assisted opener for normal activities: opening care packages from home, whittling, cutting cord and other non-lethal stuff.  I’d save the auto for those responses when only coarse motor skills were available to me, like fighting for my life.

With my lifestyle, the Brawler is more than enough.  I’d back it up with a full serration Spyderco Endura, but that just me.

The Other Side of the Knife Edge

I missed the Blade Show.

My mother passed away unexpectedly and we had to hightail it down to Florida.  It was a long two-day trip hampered by rain and traffic jams.

Every family does it differently.  Mom wanted to be cremated and returned to the Gulf.  She loved the ocean.

Cremation isn’t that easy.  The funeral parlor is required to wait 48 hours.  Concurrently, the doctor has 72 hours to sign the death certificate.  Some sign right away, others don’t.  Only after the death certificate arrives can they put Mom in the queue for cremation. 

 

Cremation is very popular in Florida.  It’s legal to dispose of the ashes off any pier, bridge, boat, shore or toilet.  No wonder.  With the high percentage of elderly, the high cost to transport bodies to family plots would be quite a handicap to many families and Florida would run out of land if everyone wanted to be buried there!

Because of the backlog, we had about a week between her death and the services.  My wife and I spent that time organizing and cleaning the kitchen and laundry room for my dad.  I knew my mother was a pack-rat, but this was ridiculous.  We found hundreds, really hundreds of clean, used bread bags stored in other clean used bread bags.  And why pen caps?  Not pens, but a shoebox full of mis-matched pen caps.  

Several years ago there was a science fiction-fantasy show about a missing room in a desert motel chain.  "Artifacts" from the room had strange powers and effects on people.  One of the more humorous ones was a bus ticket which deposited the holder on a road somewhere in Nebraska.  

My mother must have had the one that returns lost pen caps to her.

We scheduled a special trash pick-up for all the stuff Mom had packed away.  One exception was a defunct grass cutter which scavengers had already picked up.

We will not even begin to talk about all the open bars of soap she liberated from motel rooms when they traveled!

Father Pat should have presided over the small service my father wanted.  He was strangely unavailable and out of communication with us or the funeral home.  The rectory was closed, nobody was home, messages not returned.  A really different way to run a ministry.    At the last minute Farley Funeral Homes got a fill-in, Father Mike.

 

Father Mike was an older priest with curly white hair and the map of Ireland written on his face.  He said hello and the service started.

You read off a prayer sheet with little notations like (his/her) or (departed) inserted in the text.  The priest inserts the name or gender of the person to make the ceremony a little more personal.  After all, the normal “donation” is 100 bucks for less than a half hour of work.  That’s a rate of $400K per year if you can find steady work.  In Florida you can come pretty close.

We prayed for a while and he said, "...we pray for Debby."  Mom was June, but my sister Debby was handling a huge part of the burden of arrangements, finding accounts, overseeing so much, she needed a few prayers too, so I didn’t think too much about it.  After about the third time, we realized he had the wrong name……   We corrected him.

Funerals are for the living.  Part of the ceremony is to pray for the living.  So when he got to mentioning my father, “Jack”, we were a little jarred because his name is Frank. 

 We got that straightened out right away.

“Please!  My father’s name is Frank,”  I interrupted. 

My sister Debby, who apparently had been buried earlier in the ceremony, chimed in with “His name is Frank!”

So Father Mike looks at Dad and says “When I met you I called you Jack.  Why didn’t you correct me?”

Dad looked at him and said, “I didn’t want to be rude.” 

I suspect my father’s poor hearing didn’t let him hear correctly so he just assumed the priest had the right name.  I still think we should have given the priest a blood alcohol test.  I bet the level of the cooking sherry was down an inch or two back in the rectory!

The next day everyone wanted a small portion of Mom’s ashes.  This wasn’t unexpected so I searched earlier in the week for small metal containers.  My wife thought she knew where some were sold, but they didn’t have any.  My father's response was to start pulling out amber-colored prescription bottles he uses for small screws and nuts.  I said no to that.

We finally found small metal cans with a clear plastic window in the lid and a magnet on the bottom.  I’m told they are spice containers and the magnet helps them stick to other containers.  Spice containers?  I was out of ideas.   So I told everyone it was a window that Mom could see out of and they could stick it to their refrigerator.  The idea of having your mother’s ashes watching you from the kitchen refrigerator door was strangely comforting to my sisters.  I don’t know where they got this quirky outlook on life from, but my father chose an empty camera filter case to hold Mom’s ashes.  Go figure…..

My absent brother wants to have his own service with Dad, so I planned to leave some ashes in the original container, but my sister said no.  It wasn’t elegant enough.  She chose a thick ceramic container with a metal latch.  Okay….

So the rest of my mother’s ashes are in an old ceramic cheese jar.  Who are these people?

We went to a pier where Mom and Dad fished at, found a nice spot and mindful of the wind, we slipped her ashes into the Gulf and said good-bye.

Mom's at rest in the Gulf of Mexico.

It was a strange and peaceful moment.

Blade Show and Counterfeit Spyderco

I’ll be attending and blogging from the Blade Show in Altanta next month. 

The Blade Show isn’t really a trade show like the SHOT Show.  Yes, large orders will be placed and taken by different vendors and company representatives, but it’s really a show for knife lovers.  They will also have the annual cutting contest.

It’s true.  Name an activity and somebody will make a contest about it.  I’m told that NASCAR has its roots in bootleggers outrunning the feds.  I don’t know if it’s true, but makes for a great story.

A tough lie.  It's in the rough and it looks partially buried.  Must have been soft ground.

I don’t know the roots of the Blade cutting contest, but contestants have a variety of objects that have to whacked off, cut through, bisected, and separated from the rest of it.  The knives are closely regulated.  I remember discussions with participants over the best place for a lanyard.  I remember several older winning designs that had points.  Most of the knives today have round noses because there is no stabbing event and the point was wasted knife.  They don’t look like the kind of knife you would carry for daily use.

The general comment seems to be that the cutting contest will result in the design of better steels, blade grinds and theories about how things are cut.  All of which will improve your knife.  Hmmm, that’s a lot to ask.

Tougher than you think.  A golf ball cut with a single swing.

I worked for a tire company that used to claim what they learned from making essentially 500 miles of left hand turns with tires designed differently for each of the car's wheels produces a better passenger car tire.

That’s BS.  It produces advertisement and brand recognition.  So with that background in mind let’s just say I’m cynical about blade improvement from cutting golf balls and hacking through a 2x4.

I saw this ball cut in half with a single chop.  Impressive as hell!!!!  I wonder if the ball has a cut proof guarantee?

Still it’s amazing to watch!!!!

My friend bought this at a gun show.  The seller had a box of them and was selling them significantly below wholesale.  All the knives were without boxes.  It looks like one of Spyderco’s SLIPITS.  All the markings look good.

Looks like a Spyderco SLIPIT.  For those cities and nations that think locking blades are TOO DANGEROUS  for the common man.

 

And the price!  It was just so good that he couldn’t resist.  The problem is the price was too good.  Is it or is it not a real Spyderco?

The flip side.  Still looks good to me?

I’m taking it to the Blade Show to ask Spyderco.

Stay tuned for more…………

Sheep Skinner

My friend Derrick has been working with knives and airguns for some time.  He has become quite expert at building, repairing and refinishing these big boy toys.  Frankly, more and more women are admitting to an interest in knives and what's not to love about a gun you can safely shoot in your basement all winter long.  This is an email he sent me and I got his permission to publish it on my blog.  I really enjoy his work and I wanted to share it with you.  

I'm having a little trouble with most of the images, but life is an adventure so here goes!!!

I've had this Russell sheep skinner blade for almost a year and finally found both the time and the inclination to move forward.  

Got it from Jantz Supply.  I liked the shape and found it vaguely reminiscent of the Grohmann pattern Canadian knives.   It's not like I want to skin a sheep.   As it comes, there's no actual point.  It's rounded and the point is completely unsharpened.  The rest of the blade was honed to shave.  I'm not sure how to describe the polish on the blade.  Crocus cloth maybe?  Kinda wavy.  I like it.  It's a high carbon steel.  Probably 1095.  After re-drilling a handle pin hole and filing 10 thumb notches in the back of the blade, it's gotta be in the upper 50's on the Rockwell hardness scale.  I reshaped the blade to create a point and slimmed down the handle.  Reshaping the handle resulted in the rear pin hole being off the centerline.  The new hole location was going to overlap the existing hole slightly, so I filled the hole with a tiny stub of steel rod, staked it in place, then ground it flush.  Spot annealed with a torch for the new hole and through drilled.

Since I still had some green canvas micarta from the Gerber project, I elected to just use it up.  If Woodcraft was closer...  Some areas of the tang still need some final polishing to remove all the tool marks.  Filing the thumb notches was a bitch.  I didn't bother to measure or mark them--just did it by eye with a needle file.  A diamond needle file would've been a luxury.  So, now it'll need a sheath.  I think the kydex is a no go this time around and I'd like to try to make a leather sheath.  Try to scrounge up some 8 oz. saddle leather locally.  Pat Catan's maybe?  Here's the pics of the knife.  I figure it's 90--95% finished.

China Knives and AG Russell

Had an interesting event at the April meeting of the WRCA knife club.

Call to order and a reading of the minutes

One of the officers stood up and showed off two very nice AG Russell knives he just purchased. 

No clip, no stud, no lock, but it felt very good in my hand.

He claims each knife was under $50 online.  The interesting thing was both were made in China.  I took a close look at the knives.  The finish was first rate, the handles and bolsters met nicely and I couldn’t feel any separation or mis-alignment.  They were very well made knives!

 

I really like the wharncliffe blade. And its nail nick is on the other side so you don't have to fight with the drop point blade to open it.  I see a lot of American knives without that feature. 

I really like the knives and that’s odd for me.  Very odd.  Neither knife locked open nor did they have a pocket clip.  And they both used nail nicks to open the blades.  This makes these knives totally un-natural for me.  But you know, if the blade locked open, I’d carry them.  I’d give up the clip and one-handed opening.  That’s how nice they were.

Many people at the meeting felt that any product made in China was junk.  I see that perception at my knife table at the shows.  But it’s not so.  AG Russell doesn’t sell junk.  Spyderco doesn’t make junk, here or elsewhere, nor does Ka-Bar, to name a few. 

True, some companies are bringing some of their lines back to the USA. I suspect this has two causes.  One, they didn’t have enough oversight watching production and quality slipped.  The second reason and perhaps the hardest to remedy, too much of their customer based is rooted in the equation:

China = Junk

I don’t think that equation is unconditionally valid.  I think quality companies can produce a quality knife in China if they choose to.  Of course, one should expect a relationship between cost and quality. 

 

A $2 dollar knife made in China or the US will be junk.  

A $30 knife made in China by a quality company will not be equal to the quality of a $150 knife made by the same company in the US, Germany or Japan.  It will match and perhaps exceed a $30 knife made anywhere else.  

I advise my customers to buy quality in relation to their needs.  Your 11-year old son in Scouts doesn’t need an $80 Benchmade, but a $27 CRKT might just be the perfect starting place. 

A three-month trapping expedition to Alaska merits a TOPS fixed blade knife and maybe several SOG or Cold Steel folders.  Scrimping on price and quality here could be disastrous!

So, who are the people opposed to quality Chinese knives?  I don’t know.  I suspect they had problems with a counterfeit product, or bought cheap and found out they only bought trouble.  Perhaps they see the Chinese worker as a direct threat to their employment. 

 

China is far from perfect.  I don’t like their government; I don’t like their economic system and some of their labor practices sound like indentured slavery to me.  But the Chinese want a standard of living approaching ours.  And they know that quality is the way to get there.

These subjects are far above my pay grade, but I suggest to keep an open mind about products and their country of origin.

Dover Knife Show: Part Two

The show?

It was fun.

The hard part is the set up.  The tables are in place when you arrive.  You start setting up, knowing you have a 6 foot table to fit 8 feet of stuff.  You haven’t met your neighbors yet; the customers haven’t arrived yet and soon the vendors will be trading among themselves.  Everyone is excited!

Is this my table?  No!  Well, where the-shut-the-front-door is it?

 Every kind of knife can be found here.  From the used and abused collectibles…

...to the ultra high-end knives made by Master Bladesmiths. 

Interested?  Email Harleypaularocks@yahoo.com

The WRCA club staffs the administrative duties and they go out of their way to help both the vendors and customers.

You say the missing dog has 3 legs, blind in one eye, missing an ear and answers to "Lucky"?

I found a great new knife made by Larry Withrow from Charleston, WV.  Both his leather work and forged blades are incredible.

lwithrow@cebridge.net

The steel is a high carbon 1095 San Mai with a Desert Ironwood handle.  It just caught my eye and I was quick enough to beat out several other buyers. Lady luck smiled on me.

The blade is so slightly hollow ground it takes a straight edge to see it.  Larry tells me the knives are in demand with hunters in the Texarkana region.

Author, new knife and his table.  I've got two folders, one clipped in each pocket.  

How can anyone have enough knives?

One of my favorite people is Joe Kinches, who is the only Ohio Flint Whisperer in existence.  He must be.  What he coaxes out of the flint, which is a flawed, brittle rock, is amazing.

Contact Joe at designsbyjoseph@yahoo.com or go to his website http://www.collectorcabz.com/

His display won Best Display 2012.   I like his work and I think it was well deserved.

Here’s a few pictures of the show.

Sunday mid-morning: plenty of room to shop

What can I say?  The vendors had plenty of time to talk with the customers.

No matter what your taste, collectible knives were available.  Mankind's oldest and perhaps first tool, how you have changed and still stayed the same.

My Favorite Table.   I'd never be embarrassed to be found with these in my pockets.

Two custom knife makers checking out the other vendors

 I’m sorry you missed the show.  The vendors are friendly, helpful and love talking about knives.  You would have enjoyed it.