Stag or Wood knife handles in Kydex sheaths. Your thoughts?

[misque]

Normally, it goes against my grain to pair natural handle materials like stag or wood or fossil ivories with a kydex sheath. It just seems to me that Kydex pairs well with man made handle material like G-10, Micarta, Carbon fiber and so on, aesthetically speaking. Natural handle materials just look better in leather sheaths.

Well recently I've been seeing more natural handle material in kydex sheaths.
Buzzbait just posted pics of a Dozier knife with stag scales in a new Kydex sheath over in the "Next knife a Dozier" thread. I looked it over for awhile and found myself starting to like what I was seeing.
It occurs to me that the Dozier Pro Guide I bought at the Guild Show has Desert Ironwood scales and is in the standard Dozier vertical Kydex sheath. It looks pretty dogone good to me also. It took me awhile to warm up to it, but now it works for me.

So, now to my questions:

How do you feel on this issue?
Should natural handle materials be paired with Kydex sheathing systems?
Does this work aesthetically?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

 

[Quiet Storm]

Well...I personally think that natural materials don´t fit together with artificial stuff, I prefer the latter. I still understand why people like scales made from wood or something like that or leather sheaths.
But I don´t think Kydex and stag would make a beautiful combination, definitely not for me and IMO probably not for many other folks as well.

 

[Buzzbait]

Bob Dozier also does brown Kydex, which could even further blend a natural handled knife with a Kydex sheath. With that said, I usually prefer leather sheaths with naturally handled knives. Bob's Wilderness sheaths are almost an anomoly.

Now if you want the best of both worlds, there are people like Jens Anso, covering Kydex with natural materials. Awesome stuff!!!

 

[Normark]

Hi misque...

Well,, interesting topic...

I think synthetics have their time and place. However....

Just because a knife has natural materials, doesn't mean it can't belong in a synthetic sheath.

For instance.

This Bauchop Alley Cat.

The knife is a fighter, and in this case needs a sheath that can do many different kinds of carry, and be thin and flat enough to still carry concealed, while still being fast to draw. Sure it could be done in leather, but in this case wearing leather against the skin, probably not the best idea. Slabs are of Olivewood BTW..

Same goes with this Black Jack Arch Angel

Or this Audre Draper with Walrus Ivory

It all depends on the knife and the situation, and how the knife is to be used. If its a working knife, I don't have a problem wrapping Concealex around it.

It's not for every knife, thats for sure.


ttyle

Eric...

 

[Grapevine]

I'm a natural materials man myself, but I do think that synthetics have their place. Personally I don't go for a mix of man made and natural materials. With all due respect to the thinking and justification behind the knives/sheaths combination that have been posted above, I still don't think they look right.

Actually, I'll go one step further by saying that while some knives scream for natural materials, certain knives shouldn't have natural handles in the first place, much less natural sheaths. That Bauchop Alley Cat that Normark posted for example...sorry...but just judging from its shape and length in the sheath I think it just looks wrong with that wooden handle. I think the sheath fits it though. There's a knife that should have all synthetics.