Kydex Sheath Molders....Help

B

bcampos

Joined
Oct 27, 2005
Messages
9
Hey,
Trying out some kydex molding, waiting for the supplies to come in. I never worked with this stuff before, but I have a vague idea. I was wondering if someone could tell me how to install these eyelets to secure the sheath together???? Is there a punch type tool, or is it a bigass press that I have to buy. I'm only doing a few to try it out. What is the best, and the cheapest way to get the job done?

Camp
 
Camp,
The rivets I use are the same size for both sides. I took an old Phillip's head screwdriver and ground the grooves out of the point, so that it still tapers to a point, but doesn't have the grooves in it. I use it to open up one of the pair of rivets just enough to get the rim of the other one inside the rim of the open one. I put the opened one through the holes in the sheath, put the unalterred one in place on top of it, and give it a firm smack with a ball pein hammer. Oh, I do the rivet setting on top of my forging anvil, but any solid surface should work just fine. You can get a press made especially for this from www.knifekits.com for $129.95. The flaring dies are $29.95 each. The info says that it will put a permanent end to split rivets, but I haven't had any problems with that, yet anyway. There are probably other methods out there that work better than the way I do it, but I don't use a whole lot of Kydex, so this method works fine for me.

Todd
 
Also you can contact Tandy Leather Co. They sell an eyelet setting tool which is just a correctly shaped punch. I got mine for like 99 cents. I used it for years before upgrading to a set of set dies and an arbor press.
 
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