Skystorm's Giveaway Sheath Has Arrived

[wasatchdan]

Alright, boys and girls. This is where I wax fanboyish about the giveaway sheath I won in Skystorm’s 1,000-ish Post Creativity Contest a couple of weeks ago. The design I submitted was one of my own, and was intended to be a simple, easy to carry rig that would be secure and concealable for a big knife, specifically the Machax and BK-9. It holds either knife. I wanted an easy on, easy off capability, as well as the capability for safe and simple resheathing.

Well, what I designed is what Skystorm delivered, and he delivered with bells on.

Behold.

Not only did Sky perfectly match my design, but he made it unbelievably gorgeous on top of everything. I wanted the sheath in dark brown, and since this design hearkens back to the days of the Wild West and earlier, he antiqued the sheath as well. I can honestly say that I’ve never owned a more beautiful piece of leather. This thing is perfect.


A few more pics, this time with the King.

The stud mounted to the sheath prevents the sheath from sliding down your pants. The hook-like welt of leather on the back side is exactly that—a hook. It is there to prevent the sheath from being drawn along with the knife, especially when drawing fast. When I got the sheath this afternoon, one of the first things I did was some fast draws, just to see if I could dislodge the sheath from the belt. Nope. The hook does it’s job. And yet, if you want to pull the sheath out of your belt, all you have to do is press on the hook and pull up. It comes out effortlessly. When you want to sheath the blade, just pull out the whole thing and safely sheath the blade with two hands. No fuss, no muss.

The sheath can be carried either strong side or crossdraw, inside the waistband or between the belt and pants. Hell, you could shove it into a gunbelt or drop it into your sweatpants if you wanted. You could even shove it into your backpack belt when you go hiking, whatever you want. For most circumstances, though, I would probably carry it between the belt and pants. It’s easier to adjust and can pivot up and down with the body easier than it can IWB. This is a very low profile sheath. Look how little of the sheath can be seen from under an untucked polo shirt.

Strong side

Crossdraw

Very low profile for a big knife sheath. :thumbup:


Carried inside the waistband, the sheath virtually disappears. Here’s me packing the Machax IWB. Now when I go camping, I won’t scare the sheeple when I head back to town to buy the inevitable half dozen things I forgot when I was packing for my trip.

Another nice thing about several of Skystorm’s designs, and this one in particular, is that the user can carry either the 9 or the 4, depending on the circumstance. Mount the factory Machax sheath to your pack via the MOLLE attachments and you can swap between the 4 and the 9 at will.

The sheath stays tucked in tight against the body, and doesn’t flop around at all, as belt sheaths for big knives sometimes do. The factory Machax sheath, for example, flops around and bangs me in the leg a lot when the snaps are undone, unless I tie it down. And I hate tying a sheath to my leg. It bothers the crap out of me. This sheath makes floppiness a non-issue.

I’m wearing the sheath right now with my 9 inside-the-waistband, and it just occurred to me that I’ve been wearing it for the last half hour, and didn’t even notice. I just jumped out of my computer chair to see if it would snag on the arms as I got up. Nope, still tucked in nicely. Again, low-profile, concealable, and comfortable.

As you can tell, I’m excited, and I think justifiably so, about this sheath. It does everything I need a big blade sheath to do, and it does it in style. I’m going to be showing this thing off to anyone and everyone. You guys will probably get sick of seeing pics of it, I’m sure.

Excellent work, Skystorm. This thing is as perfect a sheath as I’ve ever seen. Your work is amazing. This is only the first of several Skystorm rigs I will own, I guarantee it.

Thank you, bro.

BTW, Sky, what are you calling this thing?

And a few more pics, just cuz I can.

:thumbup::thumbup:

 

[DJG097]

Thats a nice one. I'm jealous

 

[thrillbilly]

dayum.



I likes it, I hope Senor Skyler saved the pattern? Hmmmm?

Great review BTW.....nicely done

 

[pugs75]

Very very nice on that.

 

[KP]

Beautiful work Sky! I've been looking around for a sheath for my 9 and now that I got a 4 on the way, this is a no-brainer. I think I found my next sheath.

 

[Skystorm]

Thanks for the review!

I liked doing this one because it was something new and different, retention was fun to get just right with 6 layers but it is a damn tight fit in there with the 9. With this style, making the retention work with the 4 also would be very difficult, the 4 does fit and work with it but the retention was not modeled for it.

I went with antiquing on this one since it was a throwback to a western style sheath design and I am not quite sure if I like the finish or not but I am sometimes over critical of my stuff.
I have no name for this one because it is one off and your design, If I make another in this style I would alter the design slightly to fit in with the rest of my lineup.

I have to admit I did not think about all the versatility with this sheath design, there are a multitude of carry options with it. I didn't even consider the IWB carry. Conceal carrying a 9 is a neat trick!

Glad your happy with it, thanks again for the design and review!

 

[namida]

What an elegant sheath. Elegant in that it is very simple in form with no clutter and managed to solve all of the situations it was designed for. Amazing work wasatchan and sky! :thumbup:

 

[secondechomatt]

very nice work and a great design!

 

[elof_alv]

The sheath rocks! No question about that.
But 3 folders? and 2 in one pocket? Really? Are there more in cargo pockets?

 

[Eero]

This turned out great. Good work Skystorm and nice design wasatchdan. I love the antiqued look of the leather.

 

[wasatchdan]

Thanks for the compliments, fellas. I'm happy as hell with the sheath. And Sky, I'd love to see the kinds of mods you'd make to the design. I'm probably going to start begging you for one of these for my BK-5 in a few weeks.

The sheath rocks! No question about that.
But 3 folders? and 2 in one pocket? Really? Are there more in cargo pockets?

Lol. You mean other than the BK-14 on my belt? Heh, heh. Yep, sometimes there's also a Leatherman when I need pliers and screwdrivers.

It always seems excessive to folks, but I carry multiple knives for a reason. I always carry at least two folders, one accessible to each hand. I starting doing this after an incident when I found myself hanging upside down from a tractor-trailer by my right arm and right foot, and the only blade I had on me was a SAK in my right front pocket that I couldn't access very easily. Once I managed to wrestle it out, I chipped a tooth trying to get the stupid Swiss Army Knife open with my teeth so I could cut my snagged foot free. The next day I bought a pair of Spyderco Enduras, one for each side, each capable of being opened with one hand, and I've been carrying a pair of Spydies ever since. That was 20 years ago.

The two knives in one pocket in that pic are my work knives, a Superknife and a Byrd Cara Cara 2. I use the Superknife for opening boxes and cutting cardboard. Nothing dulls a normal knife faster than cardboard, so I like the razor knife that allows me to switch blades at will. The Superknife knife can't cut stretch film for crap and gets chewed to hell by poly banding, which I have a do a dozen times a day. The Cara Cara is a cheap combo-edge that gets used and abused cutting stretch film (with the plain edge point) and popping poly banding (with the serrations). When I'm not working I replace these two knives with a Spyderco Chinook 2.