Time for an update!!!
Lorien
very graciously took on this project for me, and I couldn't be happier with the results! The sheath turned out absolutely fantastic! Much better than I could have hoped (and to be honest, I had nearly unrealistic hopes, lol). I am absolutely flabbergasted by how thin and compact Lorien was able to get the setup.
Simple carbon steels have been popular in the field for ages because of how easy they sharpen (and in some cases, their toughness). One of the biggest complaints I hear from detractors of steels with higher edge retention, is that you'd never be able to sharpen it in the field. With the rise in popularity of diamond and CBN sharpeners, I kind of feel this argument is pretty much moot now. There are plenty of sheaths that will fit a small sharpening stone, but for whatever reason, I haven't seen many sheaths catering towards people who want to carry something like a DMT sharpener with their knife. Well, sometimes you want what you want.
The sheath has VERY good retention without being too difficult to remove the knife. I can't think of any type of situation that would cause the knife to come out of the sheath unintentionally, it's really in there! The thumb ramp is very well placed, and is set at the perfect angle. A firm push of the thumb very smoothly releases the knife and feels very natural. When putting the knife back into the sheath, you get that wonderful audible click.
The leather is very obviously high quality and feels very nice. I live in the Pacific Northwest and it rains a
LOT here, so the sheath has been very heavily waxed, which is very much appreciated.... As is the heavy duty thread. This thing is going to see some WORK!
The ferro rod holder works very well and holds the FireROD very snugly, while still being easy to remove. The belt loop dangler is well placed on the sheath and leaves the knife sitting at just the right height on my hip. The DMT pouch is awesome! I really love that Lorien made it removable. When I'm just messing around the campsite, I'll be able to remove the sharpener for a more compact package... And just throw it back on when I go for a hike. There is also enough room behind the sharpener pouch for a few #4 hooks, a few split shots, 20 yards of Sufix Superline. I'm also able to squeeze in four Micropur tablets for when I don't want to carry the Sawyer Mini. All in all, it's a damn near complete package in a very convenient size.
I'm gonna spend some more time with it, and then I'm sure I'll have some more feedback. I'm really loving it so far though! Two enthusiastic thumbs up!
Removable sharpener pouch!
From the back
Sheath, Kephart, FireRod, cotton TinderQuick, FireCord lanyard, DMT Coarse/Fine sharpener.
Naked!
Thanks again
Lorien
!
