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Cutting off sheath strap

T

Tio

Joined
Feb 1, 2003
Messages
33
I finally bought my bear-slasher knife, a Becker Knife and Tool, BK10. It came with a nylon sheath. It will see camp, utility use.

This is my concern, and I assume that it pertains to sheath-knives in general: Once the retaining strap is unsnapped, and one begins to draw the knife from the sheath, the strap automatically falls into the path of the blade. The strap, which normally curls around the grip, has taken a set, and remains in position. One must manually hold the strap back with the off-hand , when drawing or replacing the knife in the sheath. This is more easily done when the sheath is worn on the weak-side, rather than the strong-side, but is still a major inconvenience. With active use, I foresee drawing and sheathing the knife, dozens of times. Each time, one must be slow, deliberate, and careful, or risk cutting the off hand, or cutting off the strap.

What do the experienced users do? What is the work-around?

Darrel
 
Hi Tio,

I haven't found it to be a real problem with my BK-9, which has seen a lot of bush time. After a few years, I can say that the edge of the strap has shown visible fraying on a few occasions, but it has been easily resolved by lightly melting it with an open flame. I suspect that it would take at least a few (more) years of regular use before the action of drawing and sheathing the blade truly compromised the ability of the retention strap to function. At that point, I'll simply replace it with a new one. While the blade does drag along the strap, there is no pressure on the strap at the time of drawing / sheathing, so most of the dammage appears to be superficial.

That being said, I have experienced this sort of problem with fixed blades in the past (particularly my Grohmann no. 4), and I can understand your concern. At least the retention strap in this case is nylon, as opposed to leather!

I'd be curious to hear other suggestions,

- Mike
 
I have a nice custom I made that has this problem. I make my blades screaming sharp and the edge can practically push cut through that strap as easy as paper. It slices into that strap with so little resistance that just the weight of the strap itself is enough to cut through. I havent found any way to avoid this other than being extra careful and coating the strap in the contact point with a thin layer of leather glue to make it harder.
 
Hey there, I was having the same problem with my Brute so what I did was just fold the retaining staps back into the belt loop and buttonning it so its out of the way for frequent drawing, but it is still there when I want to secure it. Not sure if that will be of any use to you but you might want to try it. Take it easy.

-Lindey
 
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