Why does CS go on with the crappy Secure-ex sheaths?

The Secure-EX sheath "problem" is simply forum and Youtube driven hysteria, nothing more. The truth is that any material sheath that comes in contact with a blade can dull the edge. That's why none of these hysteria-hustlers, when they test the Secure-EX sheath, use the scientific method and test a wide range of materials to compare how much dulling goes on. It is also driven by urban hipster hysteria over lack of knife sharpening skills. That's why so many are whining incessantly if their knives aren't the very latest supersteels, because a lot of younger men don't know and don't want to learn how to sharpen their blades. So they want knives that need the least re-sharpening. By comparison, back in the day, my father and grandfather, who came from suburban areas of New York and Maryland, knew how to sharpen their knives and so did all of their buddies.

I only started hearing the screams about the Secure-EX sheaths after a couple of Youtube and forum posts in the recent past that did not use comparative testing. Prior to that, soldiers and wilderness rescue teams carried legions of SRKs and Recon Tantos into battle and into wilderness survival scenarios in their Secure-EX sheaths and loved them. Same with the Navy SEALS BUDS classes using the SRKs with Secure-EX sheaths.

It is all of this whining that has driven all the great, once affordable US knives into the stratosphere price-wise. Sheaths not good enough, 1095 (including Cro-Van and Mora's 1095), AUS8, Sandvik, 5160, AUS10, 420HC, 01, not good enough. All replaced with safe-queens that cost 2-4x the price that use brittle, hard to sharpen steels that chip easily. I say this as having owned nearly every knife steel on the planet, including custom and semi-custom blades. For some applications, harder steel is useful, but only if it is easy to re-sharpen (52100, 01, etc). Otherwise, all steels dull and need to be re-sharpened on a semi-regular basis if used hard. I prefer steels that with minimal tools and minimal effort, can be brought back to hair-shaving sharpness. 1095, 5160, the old Carbon V, AUS8, 420HC, 01, Sandvik, and 52100 are all great for this. The Stainless Super-Steels and Semi-Stainless Super-Steels are not.

Rant over, lol.
 
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coloradowildman said:
The Secure-EX sheath "problem" is simply forum and Youtube driven hysteria, nothing more. The truth is that any material sheath that comes in contact with a blade can dull the edge. That's why none of these hysteria-hustlers, when they test the Secure-EX sheath, use the scientific method and test a wide range of materials to compare how much dulling goes on. It is also driven by urban hipster hysteria over lack of knife sharpening skills. That's why so many are whining incessantly if their knives aren't the very latest supersteels, because a lot of younger men don't know and don't want to learn how to sharpen their blades. So they want knives that need the least re-sharpening. By comparison, back in the day, my father and grandfather, who came from suburban areas of New York and Maryland, knew how to sharpen their knives and so did all of their buddies.

I only started hearing the screams about the Secure-EX sheaths after a couple of Youtube and forum posts in the recent past that did not use comparative testing. Prior to that, soldiers and wilderness rescue teams carried legions of SRKs and Recon Tantos into battle and into wilderness survival scenarios in their Secure-EX sheaths and loved them. Same with the Navy SEALS BUDS classes using the SRKs with Secure-EX sheaths.

It is all of this whining that has driven all the great, once affordable US knives into the stratosphere price-wise. Sheaths not good enough, 1095 (including Cro-Van and Mora's 1095), AUS8, Sandvik, 5160, AUS10, 420HC, 01, not good enough. All replaced with safe-queens that cost 2-4x the price that use brittle, hard to sharpen steels that chip easily. I say this as having owned nearly every knife steel on the planet, including custom and semi-custom blades. For some applications, harder steel is useful, but only if it is easy to re-sharpen (52100, 01, etc). Otherwise, all steels dull and need to be re-sharpened on a semi-regular basis if used hard. I prefer steels that with minimal tools and minimal effort, can be brought back to hair-shaving sharpness. 1095, 5160, the old Carbon V, AUS8, 420HC, 01, Sandvik, and 52100 are all great for this. The Stainless Super-Steels and Semi-Stainless Super-Steels are not.

Rant over, lol.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't go quite that far, since CS thought enough of the "problem" to adjust the sheath design...see link in post 13.
 
Where to start...
I am 60 years old. I have been buying,using,collecting knives since around age 6 or 7.
I do know how to sharpen a knife and I could care less about trends,super-steels or YouTube bs.
I've been buying Cold Steel knives since the early eighties and own or have owned literally hundreds of their models.
All that being said, I discovered this problem for myself before I ever read or heard anything about it.
If I remember correctly, I first time I noticed it was with another brand, a Becker BK2.
I bought one new, I sharpened it and sheathed it. It was a day or so later that I started to notice that the edge wasn't pulling like it had after the sharpening. I figured it just needed to be stropped.
I did so and thought that cured the problem.
Through trial and error I then discovered that after I unsheathed it a few more times, the edge was gone and stropping didn't help.
It was dull.
Moving ahead I started noticing other brands that had sheaths with this issue. The Chaos Tanto may have been the first CS model that had I this happen. Later on it was with the SRK and Recon Tanto in sk5.
I may have the timelines reversed but these are the models that I first noticed.

This all happened before I heard anyone else comment on it.
In my experience, some have this issue and some don't. As previously stated, the DF models have had no problems. I own every DF model,multiples of some, none have this issue. I had a DF Wasp that had a blunt edge out of the box but the sheath didn't cause the problem.

I've tried the suggested method of unsheathing with the same results.
This has all happened by my own experiences and I'm not a novice.
As I stated, if you haven't had the issue, good for you, but the problem does exist. If this was a matter of operator error, I'd be having the issue with all my CS sheaths. I personally think it's a fit problem more than an issue with materials.

To say that it's all hysteria, whining etc. is a bold statement and doesn't reflect my experiences. You seem to be an authority on this matter and others so everyone else must be wrong. Speak for yourself.

Rant over.
 
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Cedric and Ada tested this, it as scientific as anything I've seen. It does dull the knife, but it takes a number of repetitions to dull appreciably. Most of us probably retouch the edge more often. For me, it's nothing to worry about. If you just can't get over it, take your dollars elsewhere. I doubt this is high on GSM's priority list.
 
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coloradowildman said:
The truth is that any material sheath that comes in contact with a blade can dull the edge.
Click to expand...


Right, and if the Secure-X from Cold Steel are being made in such a way that they regularly contact the edge of many models during the draw or sheathing, maybe there's a problem with that. Like maybe the sheath designs could undergo just one more round of CQI so that they actually perform like any other sheath.

I don't know what you gain from pretending a manufacturer can't and shouldn't try to do any better, but it's pretty dumb and belligerent of you.
 
If anyone came to me and said "My Cold Steel is getting dulled by the sheath!" I'd just say "make a Kydex one.", and if they said "Oh I'm not set up to make Kydex sheaths", I'd say "Okay, I'll do it for you." Of course the cost of shipping the knife back and forth would likely be prohibitive for people considering most Cold Steel fixed blades are fairly low priced, but the sheath itself that I make would be decently priced, and give ZERO dulling issues. Kydex (or Boltaron actually, lately) is inexpensive, so I can afford to be generous with pricing.

You know, if anyone ever said that to me... that's what I'd say.
 
David Mary said:
If anyone came to me and said "My Cold Steel is getting dulled by the sheath!" I'd just say "make a Kydex one.", and if they said "Oh I'm not set up to make Kydex sheaths", I'd say "Okay, I'll do it for you." Of course the cost of shipping the knife back and forth would likely be prohibitive for people considering most Cold Steel fixed blades are fairly low priced, but the sheath itself that I make would be decently priced, and give ZERO dulling issues. Kydex (or Boltaron actually, lately) is inexpensive, so I can afford to be generous with pricing.

You know, if anyone ever said that to me... that's what I'd say.
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Nice!😁
Now that I think of it, I've never had this issue with any aftermarket kydex sheaths I've owned. Not one of the dozens I've had made, which further points to a design flaw in my opinion.
 
I personally like the sheaths they come with. Never had an issue with my SRK sheath. Now the Esee sheaths.. I hate those sheaths, they rub on the blade all day long. If the CS sheaths rub, I haven’t noticed.
 
All my DF sheaths work great.
Some of them have some rattle but no issues otherwise. I've never felt the need to replace any of them with aftermarket versions.

I've used Kabar replacement leather sheaths on several CS models with great results. The Leatherneck full size models fit perfectly.
The Recon Tanto works decently also.
 
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not all are a problem. some dont touch, some do no matter how ya try to sheath and unsheath it.

you'd have to own enough samples to see the problem. if ya havent run into yet yourself, the complaints make little sense.

some fit so tight its impossible to get in and out one handed. ive only ran into one like this so far. I have an osi that doesn't fit its sheath. fits the oss. but not the osi.


some wont fit the same knives in different steels. have a san mai srk doesn't fit right in its sheath. if I put a sk5 or vg1 in that sheath, fits fine. i suspect one place makes the sheaths...and different makers do the various same models in different steels, and the tolerances aren't always right.

in the end they have not been great unless ya got one that was. many haven't.
 
jbmonkey said:
not all are a problem. some dont touch, some do no matter how ya try to sheath and unsheath it.

you'd have to own enough samples to see the problem. if ya havent run into yet yourself, the complaints make little sense.

some fit so tight its impossible to get in and out one handed. ive only ran into one like this so far. I have an osi that doesn't fit its sheath. fits the oss. but not the osi.


some wont fit the same knives in different steels. have a san mai srk doesn't fit right in its sheath. if I put a sk5 or vg1 in that sheath, fits fine. i suspect one place makes the sheaths...and different makers do the various same models in different steels, and the tolerances aren't always right.

in the end they have not been great unless ya got one that was. many haven't.
Click to expand...
That has been my experience too.
 
Tenbeers said:
Nice!😁
Now that I think of it, I've never had this issue with any aftermarket kydex sheaths I've owned. Not one of the dozens I've had made, which further points to a design flaw in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Obviously designing the sheath such that the edge doesn't make contact would be ideal, but may not always be possible in high volume production...not only are there tolerances in the sheaths, but also in the knives. So then the next thing to look at is the material. The complaints seem to focus on the Secure-Ex sheaths being made of GFN, which may dull more than kydex due to the glass.
 
Spyderco H1 knives paired with GFM sheaths often had the same issue. Every one that I owned, which included two Aqua Salts, a Jumpmaster (first gen) and an Ed Schempp Rock Salt. I made Kydex sheaths for each of them, which removed the edge dulling issue on sheathing and unsheathing.
 
I have often wondered if most people(not on here, the general public)with the problem sheaths noticed it. If so did they blame the knife itself as inferior at holding an edge? I also think(especially the more martial ones)a lot of people never actually use the knife and find the sheath problem.
 
nephron said:
I have often wondered if most people(not on here, the general public)with the problem sheaths noticed it. If so did they blame the knife itself as inferior at holding an edge? I also think(especially the more martial ones)a lot of people never actually use the knife and find the sheath problem.
Click to expand...
I hadn't considered that possibility.
I definitely agree with you. I'd bet that happens in some cases.
There are a lot of "knife testers" that are quick to say "fail" for the slightest problem, real or otherwise.
 
The sheaths work OK for me. Easy to add a Spyderco G Clip to them. I’ve never had any issues with any sheath dulling a knife, though they do scratch them up good once you fill them with silt or mud. YMMV
 
nephron said:
I have often wondered if most people(not on here, the general public)with the problem sheaths noticed it. If so did they blame the knife itself as inferior at holding an edge? I also think(especially the more martial ones)a lot of people never actually use the knife and find the sheath problem.
Click to expand...
I suspect that most people won't notice the difference if they don't use the knife often enough.

I switched from my old 1997 Carbon V Recon Tanto to my new SK5 Recon Tanto as my primary knife for yard work and other tasks in order to test the SK5 version (botht he steel and the grind, and now I suppose the test involves the sheath) but since I started in the late summer I haven't really had much use for it. I'm testing through actual use.
 
Last week I noticed that cold weather effect the retention of the Magnum Tanto, possibly due to the unusual guard. It makes it difficult to remove from the sheath. Not that I'll normally be carrying one outside in the winter, but that is just something to note.
 
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