"An ounce of prevention ... "
Not too long ago I bought a Gerber LMF 2 for $60 when it went on-sale at Canadian Tire for 50% off the regular price. I like it ... a lot of knife for the money ... but there are a couple of issues.
First, the sheath is far too big and (for me) too tactical ... it was as if the designer was being paid to use as much nylon webbing as humanly possible. I must concede though ... that the knife and sheath were really and truly designed for American armed-forces aircrew ... and so Gerber probably designed it to cover "as many bases as possible".
Secondly, I'd read that the rubber Kraton handle would start to separate from the non-conductive "casing" that surrounds/envelops the metal blade-tang within the handle (to prevent electrical shocks when cutting live wire). This separation/delamination occurred at the hilt, and was caused by the stress of pushing the knife-handle into the tight clamp-like opening of the inner Zytel sheath. Several online-reviewers commented on it, mostly as a cosmetic issue.
And ... sure as shooting ... a centimetre-long gap/separation appeared on my new knife within a week ... just from "admiring" it. I didn't have any shoe-goop handy so I used silicone-seal (probably a mistake) and clamped it yesterday. Here's hoping ... and fingers crossed ... but today I realized that I could have made one easy modification to the sheath that likely would have prevented that tension-caused separation.
I'd already removed one of the two retention straps (with snaps) that held the knife's handle close to the sheath. The Zytel inner sheath clamped the knife so securely that them two straps on the thick nylon backing seemed completely redundant. And (on an unrelated note) I'd horizontally duct-taped the oversized (5.5") belt hanger (way too floppy) to provide a snug two-inch slot for my 2" Uncle Mike's nylon gun belt ... at the point where the sheath would ride as high (and tight) as possible on the belt. (My friend, a saddle maker, will sew it properly when I get to town tomorrow. I'll maybe cut-off the excess upper 3.5" section.)
I should have kept removing more webbing, however. The extremely tight clamping action (which caused the handle's separation/delamination issue after many insertions) was caused by the intentionally-bulged shape of the moulded Zytel on the outer side of the "hole/opening" ... and ... heres the kicker ... by a layer of totally superfluous nylon webbing (threaded vertically through two slots on the side of the inboard Zytel) just above the inner-side of the "hole/opening". That vertical nylon webbing didn't appear to be doing anything important (except adding unnecessary tightness), so I removed the Zytel from the beefy nylon backing/hanger and cut/removed the offending chunk of webbing from where it was sewn to the heavy nylon hanger/backing and re-attached the now-naked Zytel to the backing with the two remaining still-very-adequate blade-height horizontal straps.
Bingo! The knife is still secure and cannot be shaken out, but (with the removal of that useless vertical webbing from the upper Zytel) the effort to re-sheath it is significantly reduced ... enough (I am hoping) so that my half-fast repair job on the knife's hilt will "hold".
Bottom line - If I had done this minor mod at the very beginning, I'm thinking that I would not have had that hilt damage/delamination issue.
Edit: I also smeared a little sticky chainsaw lube onto the relevant parts of the Zytel. The silicone goop was a mistake, and did not hold. So I cleared it out completely and roughed-up the interior of the crevice with a small emery nail-file and then sealed it with fresh Crazy Glue. I left it clamped overnight and then cleared off the excess glue in the morning with same emery file. Tidy and neat and still going strong after several weeks ...
Not too long ago I bought a Gerber LMF 2 for $60 when it went on-sale at Canadian Tire for 50% off the regular price. I like it ... a lot of knife for the money ... but there are a couple of issues.
First, the sheath is far too big and (for me) too tactical ... it was as if the designer was being paid to use as much nylon webbing as humanly possible. I must concede though ... that the knife and sheath were really and truly designed for American armed-forces aircrew ... and so Gerber probably designed it to cover "as many bases as possible".
Secondly, I'd read that the rubber Kraton handle would start to separate from the non-conductive "casing" that surrounds/envelops the metal blade-tang within the handle (to prevent electrical shocks when cutting live wire). This separation/delamination occurred at the hilt, and was caused by the stress of pushing the knife-handle into the tight clamp-like opening of the inner Zytel sheath. Several online-reviewers commented on it, mostly as a cosmetic issue.
And ... sure as shooting ... a centimetre-long gap/separation appeared on my new knife within a week ... just from "admiring" it. I didn't have any shoe-goop handy so I used silicone-seal (probably a mistake) and clamped it yesterday. Here's hoping ... and fingers crossed ... but today I realized that I could have made one easy modification to the sheath that likely would have prevented that tension-caused separation.
I'd already removed one of the two retention straps (with snaps) that held the knife's handle close to the sheath. The Zytel inner sheath clamped the knife so securely that them two straps on the thick nylon backing seemed completely redundant. And (on an unrelated note) I'd horizontally duct-taped the oversized (5.5") belt hanger (way too floppy) to provide a snug two-inch slot for my 2" Uncle Mike's nylon gun belt ... at the point where the sheath would ride as high (and tight) as possible on the belt. (My friend, a saddle maker, will sew it properly when I get to town tomorrow. I'll maybe cut-off the excess upper 3.5" section.)
I should have kept removing more webbing, however. The extremely tight clamping action (which caused the handle's separation/delamination issue after many insertions) was caused by the intentionally-bulged shape of the moulded Zytel on the outer side of the "hole/opening" ... and ... heres the kicker ... by a layer of totally superfluous nylon webbing (threaded vertically through two slots on the side of the inboard Zytel) just above the inner-side of the "hole/opening". That vertical nylon webbing didn't appear to be doing anything important (except adding unnecessary tightness), so I removed the Zytel from the beefy nylon backing/hanger and cut/removed the offending chunk of webbing from where it was sewn to the heavy nylon hanger/backing and re-attached the now-naked Zytel to the backing with the two remaining still-very-adequate blade-height horizontal straps.
Bingo! The knife is still secure and cannot be shaken out, but (with the removal of that useless vertical webbing from the upper Zytel) the effort to re-sheath it is significantly reduced ... enough (I am hoping) so that my half-fast repair job on the knife's hilt will "hold".
Bottom line - If I had done this minor mod at the very beginning, I'm thinking that I would not have had that hilt damage/delamination issue.
Edit: I also smeared a little sticky chainsaw lube onto the relevant parts of the Zytel. The silicone goop was a mistake, and did not hold. So I cleared it out completely and roughed-up the interior of the crevice with a small emery nail-file and then sealed it with fresh Crazy Glue. I left it clamped overnight and then cleared off the excess glue in the morning with same emery file. Tidy and neat and still going strong after several weeks ...
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