Finally got my ESEE Izula!

[joepa150]

I finally got my ESEE Izula after wanting one for about 2 years. I think the size is perfect for EDC. It came sharper than my other small (more expensive) fixed blade knife.

I have paracord coming in the mail today. I looked at the Izula wrapped thread and it looks like some of the wrapped Izulas paracord look flatter than others. Are these paracords pulled tighter or gutted? Wouldn't gutting them take away the inner strings which you may need?

Also I got the Venom Green and love it. I wish it were a bit brighter but it still looks great. I have black, neon orange, and OD green paracord coming today. I just can't decide what color will look the best with it.

 

[stevomiller]

Wrong forum, this one happens to be only traditonal folders and fixed blades. I'm guessing that either the General or Maintenence/Tinkering forums is where you need to be.

 

[Peregrin]

Congrats on getting your Izula. Let's move this to the General Knife Discussion forum.

 

[joepa150]

Wrong forum, this one happens to be only traditonal folders and fixed blades. I'm guessing that either the General or Maintenence/Tinkering forums is where you need to be.

Congrats on getting your Izula. Let's move this to the General Knife Discussion forum.

Sorry. I thought this section is for fixed blades and isn't the Izula a fixed blade??? Or is this section for traditional fixed blades? If so I think the wording should be reworded.

 

[rg02]

Congrats on the new steel! Izula is awesome! If you want a custom sheath made for it---- contact the710customsheaths.com

This thread needs a pic or two----

 

[BladeScout]

Congrats on your IZULA.
Its a nifty little knife.
A word of caution in regards to paracord:
You didnt specify to which use, you will put the knife to.
If its just for carrying as an EDC, which will be used sparingly for light duties, paracord is fine.
How ever, if you plan to beat the snot out of the knife and use it a lot for various work, Id recommend going with the handle slabs.
Either factory or custom made.
I was into the Whole paracord idea and wrapped my ESEE IZULA right away. Used it for a bit and went with the slabs instead.
Paracord is hard on the hands when working the knife hard. It bites into the hand and is not nice to work with for extended periods.
Cord gets very messy if using the knife for gory work like skinning a deer.
You DONT want a knife with bits of gore caught in the cord.
In order to keep it clean, you have to take off the cord, wash and re-wrap.
That gets old fast.
a length of inner tube over the cord helps a bit to prevent 'cord bite,' but isnt a solution if used for skinning for example, as the rubber tube gets very slippery and thats a safety issue.
Handle slabs is the way ahead.

Cord is fun to experiment with and the IZULA is easy to wrap. Its just a bother to remove and wrap after each use, if knife is used for messy work and then you have to remove it and clean - especially if knife is used for other duties like food prep



Cord can get messy. Not an Izula, but you get the drift (MISSION MPU)


Paracord bites into the hand, if knife is used for hard work. No fun after a brief while. Yes, I know - the IZULA is of course not ideal for such work, but to illustrate a point etc



Bicycle innner tube will protect the hand against 'cord bite,' but not much. Further more, the tube is not good if knife is used for the above messy work, as the innner tube WILL get slippery.


So in conclusion; Paracord is fun to experiment with, but handle slabs is the way ahead, if knife is used hard. Thats of course just my opinion after using my IZULA with both paracord and slabs (not at the same time! ;-) )

 

[joepa150]

Congrats on the new steel! Izula is awesome! If you want a custom sheath made for it---- contact the710customsheaths.com

This thread needs a pic or two----

I am still looking for a good way to carry the knife. I pocket carry another knife in a square pocket sheath. The plastic sheath that came with the izula causes too much movement in my pocket.

I may like to carry it horizontally on my belt but need to find a way to do so.

Is that sheath a pocket sheath? I looks nice. I may go that route too. Thanks for sharing.

Congrats on your IZULA.
Its a nifty little knife.
A word of caution in regards to paracord:
You didnt specify to which use, you will put the knife to.
If its just for carrying as an EDC, which will be used sparingly for light duties, paracord is fine.
How ever, if you plan to beat the snot out of the knife and use it a lot for various work, Id recommend going with the handle slabs.
Either factory or custom made.
I was into the Whole paracord idea and wrapped my ESEE IZULA right away. Used it for a bit and went with the slabs instead.
Paracord is hard on the hands when working the knife hard. It bites into the hand and is not nice to work with for extended periods.
Cord gets very messy if using the knife for gory work like skinning a deer.
You DONT want a knife with bits of gore caught in the cord.
In order to keep it clean, you have to take off the cord, wash and re-wrap.
That gets old fast.
a length of inner tube over the cord helps a bit to prevent 'cord bite,' but isnt a solution if used for skinning for example, as the rubber tube gets very slippery and thats a safety issue.
Handle slabs is the way ahead.

Cord is fun to experiment with and the IZULA is easy to wrap. Its just a bother to remove and wrap after each use, if knife is used for messy work and then you have to remove it and clean - especially if knife is used for other duties like food prep



Cord can get messy. Not an Izula, but you get the drift (MISSION MPU)


Paracord bites into the hand, if knife is used for hard work. No fun after a brief while. Yes, I know - the IZULA is of course not ideal for such work, but to illustrate a point etc



Bicycle innner tube will protect the hand against 'cord bite,' but not much. Further more, the tube is not good if knife is used for the above messy work, as the innner tube WILL get slippery.


So in conclusion; Paracord is fun to experiment with, but handle slabs is the way ahead, if knife is used hard. Thats of course just my opinion after using my IZULA with both paracord and slabs (not at the same time! ;-) )

I am just going to use it for EDC. Wish I hunted but I don't (for now). I can see that the cord would get messy in those situations. The slabs look nice too. I may pick up a pair also.
Besides the stock ones, do you know of any good aftermarket makers?

Thanks

EDIT: The knife connection has some scales. They look nice but WOW the price is more than I paid for the knife!!! I probably will go with the ESEE scales.

 

[alex1577]

Courtesy of the knife connection

The cost is a bit pricey: 41.99, but it fills a niche for the izula/izula 2. They make a lot of different colors options too. I'll be getting that color of g10 with this blue izula soon. The blue is the same color as the american flag which is amazing. Those are the only aftermarket scales i know of though.

 

[BladeScout]

I am still looking for a good way to carry the knife. I pocket carry another knife in a square pocket sheath. The plastic sheath that came with the izula causes too much movement in my pocket.

I may like to carry it horizontally on my belt but need to find a way to do so.

Is that sheath a pocket sheath? I looks nice. I may go that route too. Thanks for sharing.



I am just going to use it for EDC. Wish I hunted but I don't (for now). I can see that the cord would get messy in those situations. The slabs look nice too. I may pick up a pair also.
Besides the stock ones, do you know of any good aftermarket makers?

Thanks

EDIT: The knife connection has some scales. They look nice but WOW the price is more than I paid for the knife!!! I probably will go with the ESEE scales.

I only know of the ones pictured - the factory and the Knife Connection slabs - but any competent knifemaker should be able to make a pair of slabs for the Izula.
As you mention, after market slabs are not exactly cheap.

 

[GODSPEED TACTICAL]

To your original question, I like the orange idea but you'll need to decide how dirty the wrap is going to get and how fast... with a darker color like OD Green or Black it will show much less.

I really like the TKC scales for the ESEE-3&4 but they suck for the Izula and Izula II... the one thing they do for the Izula is they give your pinky some scale to grip on to but they're so thin at the finger-guard that they turn a scalpel into a hammer because all of the grip/control is towards your bottom fingers (ring finger and pinky). I have a hard time closing my hand enough to have any control with my index finger.. the stock ESEE scales are almost three times as thick at the top so if you don't like the cord-wrap I'd consider them.

A knife maker could make you a nice pair of scales for sure and I'd take a look at Kryptoglow too (vendor here) he has some scales in a bunch of different colors:
http://www.kryptoglow.com/izula-rc1-smooth-texture.html


rgo2 is right, this thread does need some more pics. There are countless ways to carry the Izula, a taco sheath (rg02's pic) will do the same thing in your pocket that the stock sheath did, basically allow it move around too much. I'd at the very least go with a pancake and you could also run paracord through the top eyelets and use carry it as a neck-knife too.

If you do end up getting a taco sheath look for one that gives you an ergonomic thumb-push and not one that is pointy and digs into your thumb as you use it to assist in removing your knife... the idea is to remove the knife from the sheath one-handed and not like a sword where you have to hold the sheath in one hand and remove with the other...... like this:

Pancake w/mini-firesteel:

Standard Pancake:

You can add a drop-belt-loop to give it the big knife treatment and get it out of your pocket altogether:

My favorite (and edc) setup for the Izula/Izula II right now is what I call an EDC sheath that has a metal clip on the back so it can be reversed and clipped towards the top of your pocket or carried on a belt: (pics of my sheath)

I've always had more than one sheath for any knife I've had and I do this a lot for my clients, piggybacking a smaller knife like the Izula onto a larger knife: (two of these have paracord wrapped scales so they don't have a thumb-push but still come out with ease)

Congrats on the new Izula and be sure to post some pics of it's final configuration too.


Eli

 

[joepa150]

Nice Sheaths Godspeed Tactical!

I looked at your website but I didn't see an estimate lead time on your sheaths (I may have missed it).

I am not sure yet if I am going to get another sheath. I want to test out a few options with the stock sheath.

If I ordered a pancake sheath for the Izula, would you be able to make it more square and maybe a tad bit larger so I can slip it into my front or possibly back pocket and have it not slide around much?

Thanks for the photos.


I plan on posting a few photos but I don't like posting crappy photos so I will bust out the better camera when I can.
Most of my knives are black or silver and just plain looking. With the Izula, I wanted something that was different so I went with Venom green.

 

[joepa150]

Besides Godspeed Tactical (which are nice), are there any other sheath options out there?

 

[GODSPEED TACTICAL]

Nice Sheaths Godspeed Tactical!

Thanks!

I looked at your website but I didn't see an estimate lead time on your sheaths (I may have missed it).

I missed your post, I added lead times to the site (basically up to 2 weeks).

I am not sure yet if I am going to get another sheath. I want to test out a few options with the stock sheath.

That makes perfecet sense.... "if it ain't broke".

If I ordered a pancake sheath for the Izula, would you be able to make it more square and maybe a tad bit larger so I can slip it into my front or possibly back pocket and have it not slide around much?

A pocket "specific" sheath is an easy setup to make, I make one that's like the leather multi-sheaths where you can carry a couple of different items: flashlight, lighter etc.

Thanks for the photos.

No problem, I've got a bunch more with different setups so if you want to see anything specific let me know.

I plan on posting a few photos but I don't like posting crappy photos so I will bust out the better camera when I can.
Most of my knives are black or silver and just plain looking. With the Izula, I wanted something that was different so I went with Venom green.

To your next question, there are a ton of sheathmakers out there.

Eli