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- Sep 2, 2008
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I just received another great piece of work from Kiah Stinson of Kiahdex Sheath Systems. I recently bought a second Fallkniven F1, after experiencing seller's remorse over my first F1. The knife shipped with the standard Zytel sheath, which is both serviceable and minimalist. However, I prefer to carry both a firesteel w/ striker and an altoid's tin with my favorite hiking/backpacking/camping knives. Also, I have really come to love sheaths with buckled webbing danglers, especially for backpacking use. I find webbing danglers better than a simple carabiner or something similar, because the width of the webbing strap keeps the knife flat against my side and doesn't allow it to rotate while dangling or swing about too much. But a webbing strap still offers plenty of flexibility for moving the knife and sheath when it gets in the way. And a snap-buckle is just great for easy attaching and removal.
So, I shipped the knife off to Kiah with a few requests for the sheath I wanted made. Many of my requests were based off an existing sheath I have from Mike Billman of Grindstone Cutlery, also known on various forums as "mbhanzo." That sheath is a well designed and constructed fold-over design which has served me excellently for a few years already, and which I don't doubt will satisfy for a number of years to come. I've reviewed the sheath before here in this subforum, so I will not discuss that sheath further in this thread save to illustrate the features I wanted Kiah to incorporate into the F1 sheath.
Here are the more relevant requests I sent Kiah, excerpted from email, with regards to the features I appreciated in the Billman sheath:
There were a few things I wanted included in this sheath as improving tweaks.
First, I wanted a pancake style sheath. Kiah's pancake sheaths really snap your knife into place, and his rivets and slot cutouts allow for versatile mounting with both screws and straps. In general, I have no complaints about a fold-over sheath: it retains the knife just fine, and it's slimmer than a pancake design. But I wanted to go a different route with this sheath, especially considering that the F1 is a relatively small knife with a not overly wide blade; a little bit of added width to the sheath wasn't a big deal to me. I think it's a good trade off for added mounting functionality (I also happen to like the symmetrical look), especially considering the next feature I wanted.
Second, I wanted a hard-mounted pouch for an altoid's tin to the sheath. I like to carry a few handy things with the knife (dry tinder, mini-bic, etc.), so the good ole altoid's tin works well for that task. A while ago, I discovered the Maxpedition Compass/Strobe/GPS Pouch is the perfect size for an altoids tin with a little bit of wriggle room, if you want to stuff in an extra item or two. I know ESEE makes and sells pouches geared for altoids tins as well, but I had an extra maxped pouch already, and I wasn't sure if the pre-made holes on the ESEE sheaths would work for Kiah and this custom F1 sheath.
When I first got my Billman sheath, I used the ranger band he had provided on the sheath to hold the altoid's tin on the front, as you can see in these pics:
That got old after a while, as removing and replacing the tin under the band really started to take a toll on the rubber. So upon discovering the Maxped pouch was a perfect fit for the tin, I took the ranger band off the sheath and used it on the tin itself. Then, with the aid of the cord wrapping Mike had done, I mounted the maxped pouch to the Billman sheath with every-handy zip ties
I liked the arrangement so much, I knew I wanted a pouch to be hard mounted onto my next sheath. I left it up to Kiah to devise the best way to mount the pouch.
The last feature I wanted was a decent sized drain hole. Sometimes, when hiking, scrambling, going off trail, using the knife, or simply sitting and lying about outside, grit and pebbles can work their way into a sheath. Being able to wash a sheath out and not have stuff get caught in a small drain hole is a nice thing.
So, finally, onto the pics of my Kiahdex Sheath Systems sheath for my new Fallkniven F1.
First, some side by shots of my NWA Sierra Scout with Mike Billman sheath and Fallkniven F1 with Kiah Stinson sheath:
Kiahdex Sheath and Fallkniven F1:
Once again, I am VERY pleased with his work :thumbup::thumbup: Let me just quickly highlight a few things of note in closing:
1) Kiah took the pouch concept a step farther than I had discussed with him. Not only did he securely mount the pouch to the sheath with hardware, he also made the pouch and mount easily removable by way of a T mount, as you can see in the pictures above. I may remove the snap buckle from the maxped pouch at some point since it's a little redundant with the velcro closure. But for now I'll leave it on, it probably comes in handy if you ever want to stuff the pouch for any reason.
2) The hardware and kydex attachment pieces for the extras are really well designed and constructed, down to the rubber spacers.
3) I like the thinner (in terms of thickness, not width) webbing he used on the dangler. It isn't bulky and should allow the dangler to ride even more unobtrusively on my belt than my Billman sheath.
4) The thumb area is perfect! Just the right slope and length for a comfortable push with the thumb when drawing the knife.
5) I like the option of removing stuff to expose the slots on the sheath, if I ever wanted to strap the knife to anything. I wouldn't be surprised if I could attach a teklok to this sheath as well.
6) The buckle he used is sturdy; the lock is crisp and the engaging barbs are sharp and square, not rounded.
I look forward to hitting the trail with this one! This will be my new backpacking fixed blade set up
Just a pic of a few pieces of work Kiah has done for me in the past:
So, I shipped the knife off to Kiah with a few requests for the sheath I wanted made. Many of my requests were based off an existing sheath I have from Mike Billman of Grindstone Cutlery, also known on various forums as "mbhanzo." That sheath is a well designed and constructed fold-over design which has served me excellently for a few years already, and which I don't doubt will satisfy for a number of years to come. I've reviewed the sheath before here in this subforum, so I will not discuss that sheath further in this thread save to illustrate the features I wanted Kiah to incorporate into the F1 sheath.
Here are the more relevant requests I sent Kiah, excerpted from email, with regards to the features I appreciated in the Billman sheath:
- Webbing dangler with fastex type snap buckle attachment. I'd like the dangler to be long enough such that the butt of the handle would ride level or slightly below my belt when wearing the sheath. That way wearing the knife doesn't interfere with wearing a backpacking pack with a full hip-belt.
- Firesteel loop for LMF army sized firesteel. I'd like it to be short enough so I can loop a piece of shockcord around the end of my firesteel to secure it in the loop.
- Solid area I can push against with my thumb while drawing the knife from the sheath
There were a few things I wanted included in this sheath as improving tweaks.
First, I wanted a pancake style sheath. Kiah's pancake sheaths really snap your knife into place, and his rivets and slot cutouts allow for versatile mounting with both screws and straps. In general, I have no complaints about a fold-over sheath: it retains the knife just fine, and it's slimmer than a pancake design. But I wanted to go a different route with this sheath, especially considering that the F1 is a relatively small knife with a not overly wide blade; a little bit of added width to the sheath wasn't a big deal to me. I think it's a good trade off for added mounting functionality (I also happen to like the symmetrical look), especially considering the next feature I wanted.
Second, I wanted a hard-mounted pouch for an altoid's tin to the sheath. I like to carry a few handy things with the knife (dry tinder, mini-bic, etc.), so the good ole altoid's tin works well for that task. A while ago, I discovered the Maxpedition Compass/Strobe/GPS Pouch is the perfect size for an altoids tin with a little bit of wriggle room, if you want to stuff in an extra item or two. I know ESEE makes and sells pouches geared for altoids tins as well, but I had an extra maxped pouch already, and I wasn't sure if the pre-made holes on the ESEE sheaths would work for Kiah and this custom F1 sheath.
When I first got my Billman sheath, I used the ranger band he had provided on the sheath to hold the altoid's tin on the front, as you can see in these pics:
That got old after a while, as removing and replacing the tin under the band really started to take a toll on the rubber. So upon discovering the Maxped pouch was a perfect fit for the tin, I took the ranger band off the sheath and used it on the tin itself. Then, with the aid of the cord wrapping Mike had done, I mounted the maxped pouch to the Billman sheath with every-handy zip ties
I liked the arrangement so much, I knew I wanted a pouch to be hard mounted onto my next sheath. I left it up to Kiah to devise the best way to mount the pouch.
The last feature I wanted was a decent sized drain hole. Sometimes, when hiking, scrambling, going off trail, using the knife, or simply sitting and lying about outside, grit and pebbles can work their way into a sheath. Being able to wash a sheath out and not have stuff get caught in a small drain hole is a nice thing.
So, finally, onto the pics of my Kiahdex Sheath Systems sheath for my new Fallkniven F1.
First, some side by shots of my NWA Sierra Scout with Mike Billman sheath and Fallkniven F1 with Kiah Stinson sheath:
Kiahdex Sheath and Fallkniven F1:
Once again, I am VERY pleased with his work :thumbup::thumbup: Let me just quickly highlight a few things of note in closing:
1) Kiah took the pouch concept a step farther than I had discussed with him. Not only did he securely mount the pouch to the sheath with hardware, he also made the pouch and mount easily removable by way of a T mount, as you can see in the pictures above. I may remove the snap buckle from the maxped pouch at some point since it's a little redundant with the velcro closure. But for now I'll leave it on, it probably comes in handy if you ever want to stuff the pouch for any reason.
2) The hardware and kydex attachment pieces for the extras are really well designed and constructed, down to the rubber spacers.
3) I like the thinner (in terms of thickness, not width) webbing he used on the dangler. It isn't bulky and should allow the dangler to ride even more unobtrusively on my belt than my Billman sheath.
4) The thumb area is perfect! Just the right slope and length for a comfortable push with the thumb when drawing the knife.
5) I like the option of removing stuff to expose the slots on the sheath, if I ever wanted to strap the knife to anything. I wouldn't be surprised if I could attach a teklok to this sheath as well.
6) The buckle he used is sturdy; the lock is crisp and the engaging barbs are sharp and square, not rounded.
I look forward to hitting the trail with this one! This will be my new backpacking fixed blade set up
Just a pic of a few pieces of work Kiah has done for me in the past:
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