Leather on kydex

Hey Anso.
I did a sheath up for a knife I made for my father this way, (doesn't like the "tactical" look of kydex).
I first went ahead and did the kydex molding to the knife as usual and left five inches of kydex untouched for a beltloop. Oh yeah, this is a pouch type sheath. One big piece folded over. After molding I did touch-up work around the throat of the sheath to ease up release. Nothing will be done with that belt loop untill the verry end. Don't worry about cleaning up anywhere else on the kydex, it will taken care of when the leather is applied. Don't put any rivets or screws in the sheath either. That comes later also. So what you have now is a raw sheath. Now get a piece of leather 1/8" thick by whatever the deminsions of your sheath will be. Soke it in hot water untill she's soft and moldable. Take it to the raw sheath, put your knife back into the kydex, slap it all together in whatever you use to mold your kydex and leave it till the leather dries. After that measure down the leather how far your belt loop of kydex will go and make a cutout so you can tuck the last inch of kydex up under the leather. However don't tuck it up there yet. Now take some good ol' rubber cement and coat the outside of the kydex and inside of the leather. Leave the area where the loop will go untouched on both materials or else you will never get that last inch of kydex under the leather.
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Once it gets tacky be VERRY CAREFULL when you go to put the pieces together and make shure the throat of the sheath (leather and kydex) are even with each other and press it all together. Put the knife back in the sheath and put the whole shebang back into your molder to really "set" the cement. Now it's time for the beltloop. You will have to wet the area on the leather where the loop will be tucked under to get the soft kydex to go under the leather. Shape the loop how you want it an let it harden. Then leave it alone till the leather dries. After the leather has dried goahead and shape the "sandwhich however you want it. You can either sew it together or rivet it. It's up to you!
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Hope this helps.
Cheers!


P.S.
Visited your site and I must say I'm verry impressed with the quality of your work considering your lack of space and equipment. VERRY NICE WORK!!!

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The spirit grows, strength is restored by wounding
 
No problems with it yet Ruppe. I think that because of the semi ruff outer surface of the kydex and the ruff "unfinished" inner surface of the leather combined with the presure I used to sinch it all together, the rubber cement got one hell of an impressive bond to both materials!
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I just used your plain ol' black kydex and tan leather (which I dyed black) I sealed, waxed and burnished all the edges. You can't really tell where the kydex ends and leather begins.
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The spirit grows, strength is restored by wounding
 
Anso, I agree with Bob26. Your website and knives are great. I love the curvature of the handles. It looks like they are begging to be picked up and put to work. Best of all, for me, is the leather work. What do you use to obtain the nice, dark color you get on them? Also, do you have an adress where I can get some of the half-tanned leather?
 
I don´t know any address in the States for the halftanned leather but I think that the stuff called orthopedic leather is some what similar. I stain my sheats with black and redbrown dye. On some of them i have use a black that doesnt really get down even and then apply red after that

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Jens Anso, ansoknive@usa.net
(check out my homepage)
http://home6.inet.tele.dk/ansoe/ansoknives
 
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