Concealex sheaths

[george tichbourne]

I have just finished making some Concealex sheaths, my first. I was sucessful the second time around. This is a list of the things that I learned.

Concealex works very well if it is heated on a cookie sheet in an oven to 350 Degrees.

It tends to roll up on itself when hot if you lay it on the cookie sheet face down.

The material shrinks slightly so cut about 1/2 to 1" oversize.

Blade Tech sells molding foam to form the material to the knife, it works very well so don't consider molding without it.

Blade Tech lists Chicago Screws... the nut portion or posts come separately so order both at the same time or all you will end up with is the screws and nothing to screw them into.

I made 8 neck knife type sheaths in less than one hour once I recut the material 1" oversize to compensate for the shrinkage.

The smell of hot concealex is not very strong and the wife says that I can do it in the kitchen again as long as I have the ventilation fan on full blast.


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george
www.tichbourneknives.com
sales@tichbourneknives.com

 

[Shawn R Sullivan]

Thanks for the information. It will be good to know in the future.

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Shawn R Sullivan
~San Diego, Ca~

 

[Dr.Lathe]

George,
You are well known for your mirror finishes!
Do you have any problems with the Kydex or Concelex scratching your finishes??? Please check my topic, Kydex and Blade Finishes,
Thanks,
Neil

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[george tichbourne]

I am reserving the Concealex for lower end knives that won't suffer from the scuffing.
I will not be using it on anything from $100 and up except by specific customer request after they have been warned about scratches.


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george
www.tichbourneknives.com
sales@tichbourneknives.com

 

[Jim Beam]

how do i get a hold of blade tech?
thanks

 

[RadarMan]

Shrinkage? George, are sure you are not loosing surface area to the geometry of the knife? Thermoforming synthetics should have little shrinkage.
www.blade-tech.com

 

[george tichbourne]

Some themoplastics have a memory and return to the normal state when heated. The common use for these materials is in stretch film that shrinks back to size when heated and electrical insulation which is made oversize and shrinks tightly around electrical connections when heated with a torch or match. This characteristic can be imparted by cold stretching the plastic so when the plastic is heated it will return to it's original shape. It only works with rubber modified plastics.

Over 6" the shrinkage was about 1/4", not significant in most cases but if you are as frugal as I tend to be and measure carefully to the 1/16" it makes a difference. It was my own fault for being so cheap.

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george
www.tichbourneknives.com
sales@tichbourneknives.com