- Joined
- Apr 20, 2005
- Messages
- 1,044
I just wanted to post my pictures from this evening on making a kydex sheath for my Busse BOSS HG55 Military Overrun.
The kydex is coyote brown purchased from Knife Kits. Rivets are 1/4" for .09 kydex.
First, ya gotta get everything out of the box:
Then make sure you have a few basic tools:
I usually buy sheets of 12"x12" kydex, and then cut off what I am going to use to make the sheath. In this case, I was making a sheath with some different mounting options, so I chose to make a 2 piece sheath. I will be making a taco (or fold-over) 1 piece in the near future. I skipped a few steps in the pictures, so this will be somewhat brief. At this point, I covered the blade in 3M painter's tape, which not only protects you while handling it for molding the sheath, it also allows for a small gap between the kydex and the blade. Keep in mind that when you start installing the rivets, the sheath will tighten up a little!
After cutting out what I needed, I set up my molding foam on top of some 1"x6" board, which will make up my "press" when I stick it in my bench vise. I put the 2 pieces of kydex on top of the foam, and used my heat gun on the high setting to make the kydex pliable. The trick is to keep the heat gun moving, otherwise you will burn/melt the kydex. Once it was nice and floppy, I sandwiched everything together, and stuck it in the vise, and left it for a good 15 minutes to cool. (The foam acts as an insulator, and causes the kydex to cool slower, but this also aids in getting a good mold of what you are sheathing.)
Here is the result after cooling. The clamps are used to keep the 2 halves together until I can get rivets in place.
After installing a couple aluminum rivets (for corrosion resistance) (stainless rivets would be optimal) the pieces were ready for drilling to install the regular kydex rivets:
To install the kydex rivets, I purchased the punch/anvil tool from Knife Kits. I don't make enough sheathes to justify the cost of the rivet press, so this method works for me. In the next photos, you'll see the anvil, punch, and how they all work together:
Then it was just a matter of installing all of the rivets where I had pre-drilled my holes. The holes were spaced according to a large tek-lok, which also uses the same spacing as MOLLE-locks. This way I can wear it on my belt, or strap it to my gear. I also plan on getting a few more snap-straps, which will allow for horizontal belt carry.
After cutting off all extra kydex, and much sanding with a dremel and by hand, the sheath is ready for use. I always run the heat gun around the edge once I'm finished to get rid of any discoloration from sanding.
I hope you enjoyed this post!
The kydex is coyote brown purchased from Knife Kits. Rivets are 1/4" for .09 kydex.
First, ya gotta get everything out of the box:
Then make sure you have a few basic tools:
I usually buy sheets of 12"x12" kydex, and then cut off what I am going to use to make the sheath. In this case, I was making a sheath with some different mounting options, so I chose to make a 2 piece sheath. I will be making a taco (or fold-over) 1 piece in the near future. I skipped a few steps in the pictures, so this will be somewhat brief. At this point, I covered the blade in 3M painter's tape, which not only protects you while handling it for molding the sheath, it also allows for a small gap between the kydex and the blade. Keep in mind that when you start installing the rivets, the sheath will tighten up a little!
After cutting out what I needed, I set up my molding foam on top of some 1"x6" board, which will make up my "press" when I stick it in my bench vise. I put the 2 pieces of kydex on top of the foam, and used my heat gun on the high setting to make the kydex pliable. The trick is to keep the heat gun moving, otherwise you will burn/melt the kydex. Once it was nice and floppy, I sandwiched everything together, and stuck it in the vise, and left it for a good 15 minutes to cool. (The foam acts as an insulator, and causes the kydex to cool slower, but this also aids in getting a good mold of what you are sheathing.)
Here is the result after cooling. The clamps are used to keep the 2 halves together until I can get rivets in place.
After installing a couple aluminum rivets (for corrosion resistance) (stainless rivets would be optimal) the pieces were ready for drilling to install the regular kydex rivets:
To install the kydex rivets, I purchased the punch/anvil tool from Knife Kits. I don't make enough sheathes to justify the cost of the rivet press, so this method works for me. In the next photos, you'll see the anvil, punch, and how they all work together:
Then it was just a matter of installing all of the rivets where I had pre-drilled my holes. The holes were spaced according to a large tek-lok, which also uses the same spacing as MOLLE-locks. This way I can wear it on my belt, or strap it to my gear. I also plan on getting a few more snap-straps, which will allow for horizontal belt carry.
After cutting off all extra kydex, and much sanding with a dremel and by hand, the sheath is ready for use. I always run the heat gun around the edge once I'm finished to get rid of any discoloration from sanding.
I hope you enjoyed this post!
