I'm a mountain biker and often, we ride with machets (called cutlasses here) to clear vines etc, along the way. The standard cutlass case they have is cardboard wrapped in tape. I believe only one guy has a leather case but, his blade is small.
Those cases didn't make any sense to me at all so here's my solution :
The case is made from PVC pipe. I softened it over the stove and flattened it with a coffee bottle. Before completely flattening it, I attached the nylon straps with rivets. Of course, the wider end is the top.(duh!) The buckle is from an old belt.
Instead of using an additional strap, I intended to adjust how tight the cutlass was held by the case by how flat the case was however, during the 'rolling process' the case developed a bend which held the blade tight enough, so I left it like that.
The case is designed to attach to my back. The top strap goes over my shoulder while the bottom strap passes though the waist strap of my hydration pack. That way, the cutlass is almost immovable.
Practically, it works VERY well, much better than the other cases as I don't need help taking out or putting back the blade back in the case and getting wet is not a problem. Cleaning is also a breeze and it does not take up valuable space in my pack.
There are a few drawbacks though.
1) We stop often to move logs, clear vines etc. To take off my hydration pack is a PITA when the case strap is attached to it. In order to avoid that headache, I just strap it arround my shoulder. The problem with that is that the blade shifts about expecially a the bottom end. This becomes a problem when the case drops too low exposing the hydration pack strap to the cutting edge when I'm taking it out.
2) I can't attach it to my waist when hiking and the hiking bag's waist strap is different so I can't loop it arround that. (Yet) I'll have to figure out some method for that in future designs.
What do you think?
BTW, Hi everybody!
eebowler
Those cases didn't make any sense to me at all so here's my solution :
The case is made from PVC pipe. I softened it over the stove and flattened it with a coffee bottle. Before completely flattening it, I attached the nylon straps with rivets. Of course, the wider end is the top.(duh!) The buckle is from an old belt.
Instead of using an additional strap, I intended to adjust how tight the cutlass was held by the case by how flat the case was however, during the 'rolling process' the case developed a bend which held the blade tight enough, so I left it like that.
The case is designed to attach to my back. The top strap goes over my shoulder while the bottom strap passes though the waist strap of my hydration pack. That way, the cutlass is almost immovable.
Practically, it works VERY well, much better than the other cases as I don't need help taking out or putting back the blade back in the case and getting wet is not a problem. Cleaning is also a breeze and it does not take up valuable space in my pack.
There are a few drawbacks though.
1) We stop often to move logs, clear vines etc. To take off my hydration pack is a PITA when the case strap is attached to it. In order to avoid that headache, I just strap it arround my shoulder. The problem with that is that the blade shifts about expecially a the bottom end. This becomes a problem when the case drops too low exposing the hydration pack strap to the cutting edge when I'm taking it out.
2) I can't attach it to my waist when hiking and the hiking bag's waist strap is different so I can't loop it arround that. (Yet) I'll have to figure out some method for that in future designs.
What do you think?
BTW, Hi everybody!
eebowler
Yours is a much more thorough way of making a case than mine. COOL! Can you take pictures, I'd like to see it.
)