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A Question for Eric, - Sheath makers
- Thread starter BillL
- Start date
Eric Isaacson
Pirate
- Joined
- Dec 19, 1999
- Messages
- 12,547
Hello Bill
I guess I'm a little confused by your question, do you mean the sheathmakers listed here www.swampshack.com ? If so the Swamp Shack website is a website created by one of our customers and while we do help with some of the info it is a customers website and not ours. The sheathmakers listed all have experience with our knives and they all do fine work. I have sheaths by each of them but we do not endorse any specific sheathmaker.
In order to damage the temper, the knife needs to get pretty hot and I think the synthetic material would be melted to the knife. I think the sheathmaker would have really screwed up if they damaged the temper. It could happen but I don't think it would very easily. I would be more concerned about the coating being damaged which could easily happen if it remains heated to long or at too high of a temperature.
Leather sheaths do not need to be heated so there shouldn't be any problems.
I hope that helps
I guess I'm a little confused by your question, do you mean the sheathmakers listed here www.swampshack.com ? If so the Swamp Shack website is a website created by one of our customers and while we do help with some of the info it is a customers website and not ours. The sheathmakers listed all have experience with our knives and they all do fine work. I have sheaths by each of them but we do not endorse any specific sheathmaker.
In order to damage the temper, the knife needs to get pretty hot and I think the synthetic material would be melted to the knife. I think the sheathmaker would have really screwed up if they damaged the temper. It could happen but I don't think it would very easily. I would be more concerned about the coating being damaged which could easily happen if it remains heated to long or at too high of a temperature.
Leather sheaths do not need to be heated so there shouldn't be any problems.
I hope that helps
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2001
- Messages
- 13,564
I'm not a kydex bender but I can vouch for Erics comment, the process isnt near hot enough to damage the temper, the plastic would turn to goo and the blade coating would burn off before the temper would be affected.
Hope this helps, and I havent seen the list of sheathmakers lately, but last I looked they are all good to go and most have the patterns in hand so you stand a good chance of not having to send your knife in for fitting.
Hope this helps, and I havent seen the list of sheathmakers lately, but last I looked they are all good to go and most have the patterns in hand so you stand a good chance of not having to send your knife in for fitting.
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2001
- Messages
- 13,564
Got one on the way as a loaner so things are looking up in the sheath department for the SAR! Gimme a holler. 
Gimme a holler. 
RokJok
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2000
- Messages
- 4,193
The temperatures below indicate that there could be a problem with it. But I suspect it doesn't happen because of the difference in thermal density of kydex vs steel. In other words, while the temp of the kydex surface may be hot enough to be in the tempering range of some steels, there isn't enough thermal mass in the kydex to heat the steel up enough to do the damage.
Also, from reading the Tech Brief, I suspect many sheath makers (at least those who use heat guns instead of ovens) are not heating the kydex up slowly or consistently enough to acquire the prescribed thermal mass. The outside layer of the kydex is hot enough to bend, but the inside is some amount cooler due to the thermal insulation property of the material itself, thereby reducing the absolute amount of heat in the kydex.
Tempering temps for hi-carbon steels: 300-500° F range
(hopefully some of the bladesmiths in the crowd will correct me if this is grossly wrong, but I don't think it's too far off)
Kydex working temps from Kleerdex (mfr of kydex) Tech Brief TB-116:
330 - 350°F (165 - 177°C) for £ 0.060” (1.5mm). (most common sheath material thickness)
360 - 385°F (182 - 196°C) for 0.060” to 0.125” (1.5mm to 3.2mm). thickness used for heavier-duty sheaths
(edit to add) In retrospect, those kydex temps look too high, since I recall some sheathmakers talking about having their ovens set in the 200 degrees F range. Maybe those are the temps the Kleerdex folks recommend having the *heating oven* set to heat the material. I may have to contact the mfr about that TB-116 info.
Also, from reading the Tech Brief, I suspect many sheath makers (at least those who use heat guns instead of ovens) are not heating the kydex up slowly or consistently enough to acquire the prescribed thermal mass. The outside layer of the kydex is hot enough to bend, but the inside is some amount cooler due to the thermal insulation property of the material itself, thereby reducing the absolute amount of heat in the kydex.
Tempering temps for hi-carbon steels: 300-500° F range
(hopefully some of the bladesmiths in the crowd will correct me if this is grossly wrong, but I don't think it's too far off)
Kydex working temps from Kleerdex (mfr of kydex) Tech Brief TB-116:
330 - 350°F (165 - 177°C) for £ 0.060” (1.5mm). (most common sheath material thickness)
360 - 385°F (182 - 196°C) for 0.060” to 0.125” (1.5mm to 3.2mm). thickness used for heavier-duty sheaths
(edit to add) In retrospect, those kydex temps look too high, since I recall some sheathmakers talking about having their ovens set in the 200 degrees F range. Maybe those are the temps the Kleerdex folks recommend having the *heating oven* set to heat the material. I may have to contact the mfr about that TB-116 info.