Beltless Sheath Revisited

Horsewright

Horsewright

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 4, 2011
Messages
13,096
Many of you will remember the Beltless Sheath idea we came up with a while back:

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Well we've continued to refine it till we've got it to the point we're comfortable to sell it. From the 5th protoype shown above till this one we went through two more protoypes. We've lined the snap tabs and re contoured the ends of the tabs just to refine and make it look better. Changed the angle of the knife slightly and the welt is a little different. The biggest thing we really wanted to fix was just making the tabs look a little more finished.

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Here's the knife that goes in it. A stainless (AEB-L at 62 RC) Gordo (slang Spanish for Chubby Boy) with a desert ironwood handle.

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During the original posting Ken asked if he could play with the idea. He made and sent to me just the most cool version of this sheath but for a folder with a snapped flap carried horizontal. First off I've got to tell you Ken's work is amazing. Simple, understated, elegance with absolutely impeccable workmanship. Most of the time I keep it in the shop and just look at it and go wow. Anyhoo during our discussions he mentioned something that never occurred to me. This sheath works great for wearing over a belt too. Then you can take off or put on your knife without ever messing with the belt. That never occured to me but its a great point.

So here it is while wearing a belt. Got to go to the bank and don't want to scare all the townies, just pop off the sheath and leave er in the truck. Great idea Ken

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So this is pretty much the finished version. Oft times my designs will evolve slowly over a matter of years but this is where this one is now. Whadya think?
 
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Dave, the only thing that causes me to wonder about this design is the uniformity of the distance between the belts loops as it would relate to different brand of jeans, or for that matter from jeans to jeans within the same band. I realize there is some wiggle room, but a fairly close fit lengthwise would seem to be important. It may not be as big a consideration as I thought.

Paul
 
Yeah it is a concern Paul. How we decided to market it is to say that it will fit jeans with belt loops up to 8" apart. Now that does cover the main cowboy jeans of Levis, Wranglers and some Cinch jeans. I've got two pairs of Cinch jeans and there was 3" difference and obviously ya can't accomodate that big a difference. I'm wearing Cowboy Honor jeans there in the pics and it works perfect on them too. Nichole has some of those outrageously priced Miss Me's and they fit those kind of girl jeans too. Of course the belt loops have a little flex either way but 7-8" seems to be about the norm and this sheath will cover that.
 
Oh my... You know I already commented on this on your fb page. I really love this whole layout. And even though I have your belt knife in my sig I would buy this right away. How come I overlooked the little chubby knife. And the sheath... So cool.
Btw is there a pic of the folder sheath?
 
Thanks for the kind words Dave , but in have a feeling your work leaves mine floundering in your dust :)
Is that Gordo knife shorter than the first one ?
I think the angle of the knife change you have used in that latest sheath looks better , and as long as the handle doesn't jab you in the gut I think its a good idea .
I've said it before , but your onto a winner with this design .
Have you given it a name yet other than " Beltless " , maybe one of your Spanish - Mexican names would be cool ?

Ken
 
Dave your a genius! That has to be way more comfortable to wear. Your work never ceases to amaze me ,absolutely beautiful. Someone will buy jeans just to fit the sheath.
JB
 
Very nice work Dave, love your ideas......recently made a press stud pop off sheath for the same reason of leaving it behind in the car, the one piece slides onto the belt and knife sheath fits on top.
I had the same issue of different belt loops not so much jeans but trousers in general.
 
Dave, Dave, Dave.... you went and did it. No I want to pack up all my knives and send them to you to have one of those sheaths fitted for them.

Is this something I could order for the Sonoran I'm buying? If so I'll move any further discussion to PM or email. I'll have to remember to measure the spacing of the belt loops on my jeans too... Fat boy pants might be a little wider set.
 
Thanks guys! Ken if you have a pic of your sheath feel free to post it. I havn't taken any. Yes the first knife is my Tapadero model which is 7" oal. The Gordo is about 5.25" oal. Gonna have to find out about beltless in Spanish, Ken that one is past my little bit of cowboy Spanish. Yeah we'll have to come up with a name more suited. I was thinking Buckaroo Beltless sheath since its a lot of the buckaroos that don't wear a belt. But Nichole didn't like so much as we already offer a Buckaroo knife model, thought it might be confusing. Have to keep thinking on that one.

Wade I think that Camp Knife would be way too big for this application. So far it seems to work better with the smaller knives like that Gordo. So Nichole has one of these sheaths for her Tapadero (the very first pic in this post) and one for her Gordo. Of all my knives these are the two that she personally owns. She don't know it but I've been watching and she wears that Gordo in this Beltless sheath almost daily. The Tapadero when we've got calves to work at the ranch. Seems like she really prefers the shorter knife in this sheath. I don't think I would want to try this sheath on anything bigger than a Tapadero. I've found that 7" is about the practical max length for crosdraw sheaths anyway. Go much past that length and it seems like the sheath is getting caught on everything, just not too practical.
 
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I never got a pic of me wearing the sheath , and all I have in the way of pics are these ones that I took when I was making it .
As Dave said I asked him if I could use his idea to make a folder sheath prototype .
Dave doesn't do folders as far as I'm aware so I thought it would be cool to make him one and send it to him to try .
This was put together rather quickly because I had to go back out country to work .
This idea does have a lot of potential in my opinion and Dave and Nichole need to take a bow for thinking this up .

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Ken
 
Great idea and wonderful craftsmanship. I might buy one myself when I have some extra money around that I don't know what to do with. Kudos:thumbup:
 
Wow ken... Put together quickly?! That looks super smooth. Would probably be a cool way to carry a sak or a leatherman.
 
That is fantastic Dave. The tabs look great too. Definitely an improvement on the prototype.

Dang it, now I'm going to be limited one or two brands of jeans because I'm definitely stealing this for a little 3 finger knife. It's a Fiddleback Forge Karda and it's sweet, but sheathing it is a pain due to the small size.

Not my knife, but mine is very similar.

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Dave, I can't decide whether I like the design or the knives more. Really a toss up.

Ken : Love how compact your folder version is. Rough out is just icing on the cake :)
 
Good work for both Dave and Ken , I love how it looks.:thumbup:For managing different sizes I would put two parallel slots in front part after the turnaround part and then weaved down in first slot the end part with snap and then up from second slot to set the snap. The end with snap should be than narower so you could weave trough slots. For Ken's sheat it would be easier to do as its looks like its lighter leather. Also it would hold on itself even that snap goes loose .I think you could manage about one to two inches in difference.
 
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vilePossum said:
Wow ken... Put together quickly?! That looks super smooth. Would probably be a cool way to carry a sak or a leatherman.
Click to expand...

Its funny you should mention making a SAK sheath with this idea . The molded top of that sheath was one that I had pre-made for a SAK and because I was in a hurry I used it and luckily it adapted OK to fit the old Traditional knife that I sent with the sheath .
I must admit I had half forgotten about this Beltless concept and haven't done anymore , but this new thread here has got the juices flowing again and in a flash of brilliance as I was driving down the road I got an idea of something a bit different to try .
I'm at home this weekend so I might try and see if I can bring it to life .

Ken
 
AWESOME IDEA! I have been sloshing it around in the old brainpan a bit and I feel you could make a one size fits all. Take one of the strap pieces and make it a little longer and add one or two top snaps to it. but make it bend over the other way. That way you have zero chance of the snap catching on anything and releasing.
 
Michael, I thought about that. We tried it as one of the prototypes and for some reason it kept popping loose when it was snapped under. Always sem to be when you were doing something too, getting in and out fo the truck, bending over to pick something up off the floor etc. Turned the flap back over and it stopped coming undone. Not sure why but it did.
 
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