Kydex sheath - leather welt...?

Seen em before, most with stitching, sometimes with rivets, sometimes with kydex or other material for the welt. Its an old idea but a great one in any venue. :)
 
Maybe it's because I'm used to leather but it crossed my mind on my first kydex sheath. Didn't do it because the design didn't require a welt at all. Only reason I see for not doing it (design aside) is that leather will retain water just as on a full leather sheath. A lot of folks dig kydex because it's impervious to water. If you just want to do something different I can get behind that. Good luck. :)
 
My thought was that kydex would dull the blade quicker than leather, and by adding a thin welt would help elliminate that
 
WEB2 said:
My thought was that kydex would dull the blade quicker than leather, and by adding a thin welt would help elliminate that
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That makes sense, it was my train of thought as well, but what I found is that a welt is just unnecessary. Bearing in mind that I've made a whopping 1 kydex sheath... I *think* that if you get the mouth/retention right then the edge needs not contact the plastic at all, but I'll leave the general design comments for those that know better.

How were you planning on mating the welt to the plastic? If I were to try I'd find the most compatible adhesive then use standard grommets. Anyway, one thing I like about the idea is that you could add a splash of color along the welt. I prefer to use colors where I think it's appropriate and kydex alone doesn't give you a lot of options in that regard.

Clearly some guys are doing super cool work using hybrid materials. Let's see what ya got. ;)
 
Havent got anything yet. I have a blackjack tac ops 4 that has a tight fit in the sheath and i am pretty sure it is dulling the blade some when it is drawn and sheathed. Drill out one side of rivets, insert thin welt with weldbond contact cement and then drill holes for stitiching. Possibly i could stitch between rivet holes left in kydex, then punch holes in leather for chicago screws. I would then be able to keep it attached to the esee 3 molle back that it is on now. I could trim off the top of the kydex and leave the knife to be secured only by the handle strap on the molle back
 
Sounds like a good plan. I'd have the welt cut and ready to go for when you actually mold the plastic but outside of that I'm afraid I'm no help. I've been working on what I call a sueded welt which is just a process of dyeing a few times, burnishing, then light sanding. It's actually a lot of work, but I think it would look particularly cool between kydex. Burnishing is awesome looking but I'm very hard on my sheaths and they get the snot beat out of them. A burnished edge goes to hell quickly on my hip much like a mirrored polish looks like crap on a user knife pretty quickly.

From the little knife making experience I have I've found that you must be careful sanding two different materials at the same time simply because one material will sand faster than the other. This is evidenced when sanding, say, metal handle pins that are epoxied in a softer scale material like g10/micarta/whatever. Might help your sandwiched plastic/leather edging if you block sand as opposed to soft sanding using fingers as a backer. Or just use a belt sander to get your edges even. Heat builds very quickly though and burns go deeply in leather.
 
Hey there,
I've worked extensively with kydex and leather and sometimes both at the same time. I don't know if you are seeking advice still but I can tell you that the knife will have no issues of becoming dull if you do this : build up the edge with painters tape. It will give the blade the stand off necessary to make a clean draw yet retains the retention and clean lines of a good mold. I hope this gives some insight.
 
P.S - I can also expand on the sanding leather and kydex. I find no issues with it. I've riveted leather and kydex together, bandsaw cut it, and then sanded it to a clean fine edge together with no issues. I wet sand everything as well with no issues. I've also sanded the kydex to a smooth edge and then riveted the leather to the kydex and afterwards burnished the leather edge, that is possible as well.

Just food for thought.
 
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