Clear Kydex?

quattrokid73

quattrokid73

Joined
Nov 2, 2007
Messages
427
Hey everyone. My Bark River disease is becoming chronic. Just ordered this guy, and I want a Kydex sheath for it. Ideally, I want a clear Kydex sheath for it. Is this possible? Regardless, who can you recommend for great quality Kydex sheaths at a decent turn around?


Rising Wolf by quattrokid73, on Flickr


Rising Wolf Top by quattrokid73, on Flickr
 
Clear? Why? I would think clear, if it exists, would be so eaisily marred and smudged, it would look like poo in short order. Just my .02.
 
OrdnanceBubbaUSMC said:
Why are you claiming photos that are not yours?
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Sorry, Flickr does that now. Don't mean to claim them as "quattrokid's".

I miss the old Flickr where you could link directly to images. Now everything's all copy protected.

Anyway, I supplied the images as reference. They are from Bark River.
 
Ahhh...I didn't know Flickr did that now. I just use the image url straight from the website of the companies.

I think you could have some one make a clear sheath out of a different type of plastic and it would work ok, but like jimh0220, I don't think it would look too good.
 
jimh0220 said:
Clear? Why? I would think clear, if it exists, would be so eaisily marred and smudged, it would look like poo in short order. Just my .02.
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It depends on the properties of the particular plastic. If it's like normal Kydex, it would probably fair rather well. Kydex is rather undisturbed by heat, so if it's possible to find it in clear, I doubt molding would cause any discoloration.
 
Just as a note you can right click on the image and should get a "copy image url" option, then you can us
tags and it won't populate that phony stuff under it.

That is a cool knife though, you could do a molded acrylic sheath, might look cool until you actually used the knife.
 
Yes it exists (though it's not technically Kydex). Been meaning to pick some up to play with. Here's one done by SwissBianco.

3675880029_96e5022241.jpg


Not sure about durability though. Like Jim said, it would look pretty rough pretty quick and would need to be polished to keep it clear.
 
Kiah said:
Yes it exists (though it's not technically Kydex). Been meaning to pick some up to play with. Here's one done by SwissBianco.

3675880029_96e5022241.jpg


Not sure about durability though. Like Jim said, it would look pretty rough pretty quick and would need to be polished to keep it clear.
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That is beautiful. Is he the only person doing it? I wonder what kind of plastic it is.
 
quattrokid73 said:
That is beautiful. Is he the only person doing it? I wonder what kind of plastic it is.
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What he used I'm not sure. I remember him putting Kydex in quotes though. I assume something similar which would be Acrylic-PVC. Kleerdex does make what's called Kydex CL (CL2) which is actual clear Kydex brand thermoplastic. Of course it's not gonna be exactly the same as "Kydex"

I'll probably pick some up at some point to play with, but like most things, there's likely a reason it's not done more often. I imagine what most clear plastic looks like after being carried without a protector for a while. The screen on my VU for example, and it's kept in my pocket. I know how easily scratched the smooth side of Kydex is as well. That texture is there for a reason.
 
Yes, you can heat and bend Lexan. But if you over-heat it, it will develop air bubbles in the material.
It will also scratch fairly easy, but I made a handle for a Saami-style knife from Lexan and that turned out quite OK..
 

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If you want it clear then Lexan is the way to go, I made one once with a Aluminium back and it worked fine. before anyone says anything yep it is a bigger version of the dogfish in 1/8" TI
Mysheath2.jpg
 
Clear sheaths do not work well at all.

The stuff I used 6 or 7 years ago was called PETG a form of plexi-glass.

Regular plexi-glass does not work well because it sticks to itself & it forms bubbles when heated. It also cracks over time.

The PETG worked ok it was finicky & it stuck to its self although not as bad as the plexi-glass.

the problem is that it scratches very easily & it shows all the dirt or what-ever you get in the sheath.

neat idea but I would stay away from it.

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Seems like it would be pretty cool for a safe queen but look crappy real quick on a user.
 
hoopster said:
Seems like it would be pretty cool for a safe queen but look crappy real quick on a user.
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True. I've mentioned before that I may start doing clear formed display cases at some point. I think it would work well for that.
 
Yeah, I agree it would be good only for your show pieces or safe queens.
Looks cool while it new but looking at Tinbasher's sheath it wouldn't take long to scratch it up. Not really sure why but IMO it gives it that "tear it off and use" look like the film the put on electronic screens.:D
 
Ok. I will switch gears. Now I just gotta find a good sheath maker for a normal kydex sheath!

Hmmm....white or black....
 
quattrokid73 said:
Ok. I will switch gears. Now I just gotta find a good sheath maker for a normal kydex sheath!

Hmmm....white or black....
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There are a few in this thread alone. If you don't wanna send it in, there's a very high probability that Sharpshooter will have the knife on hand, with it being a BR.

As for color, white stays white for about 5 minutes, if that. You can scrub it spotless and it'll look like crap before you get it on your belt. Black is the better option of the two. If I may make a suggestion, that knife would look good in a chocolate brown sheath.
 
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