Hey Spanky Does the Cold Steel Sheath Dull Your knife ? Try this here.

Wowbagger

Wowbagger

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Sep 20, 2015
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I was considering how fun it would be to continue using my Cold Steel SecureEx sheaths with all the glass rocks (fibers) that cause my blades to dull fast.



I finally became determined to do SOMETHING about it.



This is 1.0
I had decided plastic was the way to go because I would still be able to wash out the sheath (there is a drain hole in the tip of this sheath but it is so well done it hardly shows. ) I had considered a layer of leather or cloth but decided on plastic, black plastic, and since I didn’t turn up any black plastic and since I had this nice neoprene in about the right thickness (1/8 inch 3mm) I pounced on that. Touched up the skinny blade on the SAK Mini Champ because it could follow the curve. Lubed with oil and cut out my edge protector spacer.



How to cut out the hollow rivets ? If you have ever tried to drill or ream these out you know you get part way and then they just spin and you cuss.

Viola !

Enter the “bagger systems approach. A drill bit on both sides; one to bite and hold the rivet and the other turned by hand cuts the ring off one side. Note the belt in the foreground removed from the drill press so the spindle is easy to turn. I just put the belt in the photo to remind you to remove it.

Takes some doing to line up everything and keep it working but no real problem. By the way I have a quill lock on this drill press so I can lower the chuck and lock it so it does not raise. That was handy. If you don’t have one get some one to help hold the sheath or stack up some stuff to keep it from rotating while you cut out the rivets.





I hadn’t planed ahead as far as ordering longer hollow rivets. I have some the same length as what came out of the sheath but that's not helping. I may put in the copper rivets shown with some head mod but for now I just used screws with nuts. If this spacer sucks I can easily disassemble and start over.

So far so good. Note the little triangular tab at the mouth of the sheath on the edge side. I can hook my thumb on that, pull the flexible spacer open and slide the knife in. When I release it the knife is securely held. The sides of the sheath near the spine of the knife still grip the handle but the mouth is spread open on the blade side.

Once I sort out the spacer and it keeps the knife edge from dulling I can reform the mouth with heat so it locks the knife as when stock (I hope) and grind off the triangle.



 
Last edited:
I meant to add but got called away to dinner under threat of murder if the steaks got cold because I wouldn't stop typing in the knife chat room.

So I'm back.

What I needed to add is that there are two pins that index the halves of the sheath on the side that I opened and to get the neoprene spacer to slide in they need to be cut off/removed.

thas all.

PS: I used the end of a 32 tooth hacksaw blade. I spaced open the halves on both sides of a pin before I cut it off. Without the spacers it is hard to sense when you have cut off the pin and easy to scar up the mating faces of the sheath.
 
Nice!

My BK 11 FRN sheath also used to dull my knife and had to be scrapped.

I've run into this in other instances, even with Kydex marring up the slide on my handguns. Open the rivets and insert a piece of split grain or other thin leather that's been treated with hot wax and shaped to the object in question. Once it hardens you can slip it back into the shell and peen some rivets in place. This is a great way to go with carbon steel knives as well, it virtually eliminates the possibility of rusting yet still has good retention.

Currently I use the same method for many of my knives, only I form it with a new sheet of thin Kydex instead or repurposing the old one.
 
I dare say : Success (!)

I carried the knife for three days banging around in my pocket; on my feet and moving ALL DAY and the edge is still sharp ! I used the knife so pulled it in and out but only cut very forgiving stuff, plastic packaging, soft clean rubber and a little food prep.

At one point, the first day, I dulled the knife . . . I slid it into the sheath with the sheath turned the opposite to the way the blade should slide in and the edge got dulled on the spine side of the bare SecureEx . . . DOH !

A little time with the Spyderco Ultra Fine triangle and we were sharp again and grabbing the heck out of my thumb nail.

Two days later; constant carry at work and at home and light cutting and . . . it is still grabbing the heck out of my thumb nail with no further touch up.

Locks well enough into the sheath to belt carry; wouldn't guarantee it wouldn't fall out if carried on a neck chain but as I said in the previous post : a little time with a good heat gun should / would fix that. I think I like it as it is . . . so far. I just put the knife in the sheath and the sheath in my strong side front pocket. Carries very well that way; I like it fine. I tend to carry my keys in my opposite front pocket and don't use them much at all.
 
That is a nice fix for the issue. What would really be nice though is if Cold Steel would change up their sheaths so there wouldn't be an issue to begin with!
 
That is a nice fix for the issue. What would really be nice though is if Cold Steel would change up their sheaths so there wouldn't be an issue to begin with!
Click to expand...

The Moms (mine and my best friend's) had some sayings when I was growing up :

"If wishes were horses then beggars would ride."
and
"Now you're dreamin'."
 
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