High Praise for Small Sebenza sheath

[stjames]

I want to take the opportunity in this public forum to pass along a good experience I had dealing with a fellow forum member. As some of you may be aware, Gary W. Graley (G2), a regular contributor on this forum, produces custom knife sheathes. You cane see his work on his web site http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Cabin/7306/blades.html .

Recently, Gary was fortunate enough to purchase a CRK Small Sebenza, new style handle, and has designed a sheath for this style knife. It is basically a scaled down version of the sheath that he has for the large, old handle style Sebenza. He produced one for me last weekend, and I received it early this morning.

As a devout member of the anti-clip faction, I like to have a choice in sheathes to go with my knives. This vertical style sheath is a very classy edition to the collection. The one I asked for is done in a dark burgundy finish with an Indian Head design embossed on the leather. It has a form fitting, secure fit on the knife, and rides right along the belt line with a clean look and comfortable feel. The hold on the knife is very secure, and allows quick and easy access to your blade.

The highest praise that I can pass along is that when I walked in the door after work today, the first thing my wife said was “That’s nice. Is it new? I like it, you should wear it this weekend at Church for Mothers Day.”

What more could one ask for? I have to say that Gary is a pleasure to do business with, he produced the item in no time and gave me a call to make sure it had arrived safely. I plan on sending my Large Sebenza to him for fitting, as he has an old style handle version and the sheathes he makes are form fitted to the specific knife style. If you like the looks of his work, I would not hesitate to do business with him.

It is always a pleasure to meet someone of such quality on these forums, and I just felt it was worth sharing with all of you. I have also done a lot of purchasing from forum members, and have had uniformly good experiences. I have placed posts in all the “for sale” threads that have led to these purchases, just to publicize that the seller was a man of his word and that my experience with them was favorable. Hopefully this will allow future purchasers interested in buying through the forums to find some helpful information about that person’s history regarding this matter.

So my thanks once again to Gary for the terrific sheath, and thanks to all that help make this community the interesting and informative place that it is today.

Best wishes to all

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James


[This message has been edited by stjames (edited 08 May 1999).]

 

[Paul Davidson]

James,

I'm also getting some stuff done by Gary and have gotten to know him a little bit in the process. He has gone out of his way to make what I asked for though it was a little unusual. When I get my stuff from him I am going to try to find a way to put a pic on a website so that I can link to it. Check out the thread titled "chisel ground edge" in this forum to see a nice tanto that he made. After viewing the knife it's hard to believe that he has made only a handful of knives. He wasn't too happy with the handle so I think he rewrapped it. Maybe we can get him to post a pic of that also.
Take care,
Paul

http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Cabin/7306/blades.html

[This message has been edited by Paul Davidson (edited 08 May 1999).]

[This message has been edited by Paul Davidson (edited 08 May 1999).]

 

[Paul Davidson]

OK here is a link to the actual thread that has the picture of Gary's tanto.

http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000400.html

Check it out!
How many knives have you made Gary? I think you told me 4, but my memory is not as sharp as my knives (or maybe I should say butter knife?). What was I writing about?

------------------
Paul
Keep Em Sharp

 

[Kodiak PA]

I too have a custom made sheath done by Gary. I have a horizontal large Sebenza sheath. The workmanship is fantastic and is the stitch pattern. The color tones are very attractive and people ask me all the time "what store did you buy that from"? I like the CRK Sebenza sheath, but this is less bulky and easier for me to use. It is very well made and even though this is a horizontal sheath I have no concerns at all that the knife isn't secure. Gary is a true gentleman and a man of his word. Gary is going to make the sheath for the knife that fellow BF member Matt Lamey is making for me, too. Now I have two things to look forward to.

Saint....Gary is up in the links section in case you didn't know that so you can go rate him.

Thanks for all the great work G2!

K2

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~Greg~

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Wow, I didn't expect such words of praise, taken by surprised to say the least!
Thank you for them and I am glad to be of service to make carrying a knife an
Easier chore, though I take the opportunity to wear two knives this way, one on the belt and one clipped in the pocket.

St James, I'll have to get my wife to speak with yours, I can only sneak wearing a knife into Church at night, when it's less formal.

Paul, I've made about 10 knives, love the tool steels, A2 and D2 mostly. I met with Chris Kravitts of TreeStump leather once and he told me to stick with sheaths, less competition. Chris makes some fantastic sheaths as well, and I agreed with him, I've several friends that are knife makers/bladesmiths and it is tough!

And yes Paul, I am re-wrapping the handle on that 11 ½" blade tanto, after a visit with RJ Martin and looking at the Kozuka #4 that I got, I couldn't live with the excess epoxy that I used on that handle! It took some doing to get it off, I'll get a photo of it posted when finished.

Again, thanks!
G2