Sheath Making Question

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warden41272

Joined
Oct 13, 2004
Messages
474
I've always made my sheaths out of leather, but I want to try kydex. How hard is it to make a kydex sheath? More importantly, how hard is it to get good results that I can be proud of putting with my knives? I went to knifekits.com and they have all the equipment for making them (for about $300 total...crap, I'm gonna hafta sell my Kimber :(). I was just wondering (from people who make them, what kind of equipment would I need to get great results from kydex?
 
I am a noobie to this... I have made some leather sheaths and some (as in a few) things out of kydex. Just responding because I was asking the same questions a few weeks ago. Just buy one of the sheath kits from Texas supply, which includes rivets and a preformed loop, along with a few pieces of Kydex. Cost about 15 bucks to try. Turn an old cookie sheet over in the oven and warm it tell it is soft. I put it in on 350 but take it out before it gets there. You can hold it with your hands but it is really hot. then work it over the item like it is wet leather. Leave a small area where the two sides come together in order to place your rivets. After it cools, pop in rivets, do final cutting, finishing edges, etc. I tried a foam that was inappropriate and that was a bad idea. Hand forming seems to leave a smoother look(like leather with no boning). The carbon fiber looking stuff was not nearly as nice to work with as the grained, and it also really likes to stick to itself, though that might have been because I had it too hot. So far, I much prefer working with leather, but look forward to getting the Kydek down pat. It seems that the tools are like leather tools, just having them will not make it all perfect, still requires a learning curve.
 
get some old style camping mats and make a press out of plywood ond the foam. Order some rivets and a rivet setter. Mine is the hand hammer type for leather rivets. Shouldnt be too expensive. Wrap the blades in about 3 layers of duct tape to create a small gap between the blade and the sheath.
 
warden41272 said:
I've always made my sheaths out of leather, but I want to try kydex. How hard is it to make a kydex sheath? More importantly, how hard is it to get good results that I can be proud of putting with my knives? I went to knifekits.com and they have all the equipment for making them (for about $300 total...crap, I'm gonna hafta sell my Kimber :(). I was just wondering (from people who make them, what kind of equipment would I need to get great results from kydex?
Click to expand...

http://www.knifenetwork.com/workshop/school/index.shtml


:D
 
If you want to make some of those tools you can get them for much less. Instead of buying their rivet setter I bought a 1 tonne arbour press and bought the flaring dies that knifekits sells and made my own rivet setter that I can also use for lots of other tasks. Just drill the needed holes and for the top die I drilled and tapped a side hole to use a screw to secure it in place.

For a kydex press I do what Brian mentioned. Buy one of those blue foamies for camping and cut it up to use with plywood press plates that you make, mine I think are 6" by 12". I made a frame to fit a worm gear which is used to press the plates together. For me at least to get a tight fit I needed the worm gear.

How much you want to spend on a heat gun is up to you, I also know at least one person that uses a toaster oven to heat up the kydex. I used a cheap heat gun at the beginning but they never last long, bought a good one over a year ago last is still going strong.

The rivets that knifekits sells are good, I haven't used many different types but have been happy with those ones.

Good luck,
Sean
 
I have found that the foam that knife kits has works better than that of a camping matt. I use the oven to heat the kydex to 250 degrees and I place it directly on the oven rack and I check it often. I cover the blade and part of the handle in blue painters tape. I found that this gives enough "room" so that the knife blade does not rub against the sheath when it is returned to the sheath. The nice thing about kydex is the fact that if you mess up on the initial form then it is easy to fix. All you have to do is reheat the kydex and start over again.
 
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