Anyone doing Kydex Sheaths?

[tippit]

I've been wanting to do some Kydex sheaths for small hunting knives I throw in my pack.  Anyone doing them?  Suggestions, hints, etc would be appreciated...tippit

[tomsm44]

Can't really give any hints or tips since I've only done two and that was about 4-5 years ago, but my experience with it was a rather pleasant one.  Kydex is pretty easy to work with (much easier than leather in my opinion) and makes a tough, reliable sheath.  I just think they are ugly and prefer leather for the types of knives I build.  Especially now that I've figured out how to make leather look half way respectable.

Matt

[gudspelr]

You might want to get in touch with Ed Caffrey. I went up and took a class from him about a year ago and we made a kydex sheath for the knife I finished out. We used a toaster oven to heat it up, then into his press. I have a friend who used the hinged type of plates for his kydex press, but it didn't seem to get the pressure desired on the hinge side. Ed's is a ratchet press attached to his bench, so it's even (and significant) pressure evenly distributed, so there's better conforming to the knife.

The knife is laid on the hot kydex, it's folded over the top side of the knife, then pressed till cool. Took it to a bandsaw and cut out the general shape, drill holes for rivets (arbor press) and attach your desired carry system later. The toughest part was going slow when grinding the mouth of the sheath. Not enough and the knife doesn't want to come out. Too far and it doesn't want to stay in. Just right and it clicks right into place.

It was actually fairly easy, all things considered, and a great alternative for some knives/applications. There are a few more particulars to it if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them if I can. Hope that helps.

Jeremy

[gables]

I wanted to shoot some photos in the shop last night but ran out of time so maybe this will help.I have built only neck sheaths out of kydex like Carter shows in the below Youtube links.

First, I started here:
 

 

I got my press foam here:
 http://usaknifemaker.com/mold-foam-for-kydex-concealex-neoprene-1-x-11-5-x23.html

I cut the foam in half and then used contact cement to glue it to 3/4" plywood backers. I simply sandwich the blade and kydex between the foamed boards and stand on them to press them.Being a "big guy" has some advantages.

Steps:
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees and gather work gloves, a small 1/4" dowel if making a neck sheath, knife, foamed mold boards, kydex, rivets, pencil, drill bit to match rivets and at least one brick
- Cut a strip of kydex that is plenty wide and twice the length needed.
- Heat kydex, watching closely for it to get limp and flexible, pull out kydex, fold in half with smooth side on inside and press between a flat surface and brick
- When cool, place knife on top of kydex and mark a center line and two positions for holes that the tip of the knife will slip between. Drill holes and rivet. These two rivets give you a target when inserting knife in next steps. They also keep the kydex folded and square when heated. Kydex will unfold and bow when heated.
 

- Put riveted kydex back in oven and lay your boards and knife on the floor or next to your clamps/vise.
- When supple, pull out kydex, insert dowel in loop above rivets to open up your neck strap channel, lay on board, insert knife and position tip of blade in between and in line with rivets, then clamp the boards together. This is where I just stand on the boards.
- Let it cool for a few minutes, then remove and see if blade is straight and the molded shape is crisp.
- I use an adjustable square and ruler to mark my other holes. As previously mentioned, the rivet placement and the shaping of the opening is critical to get the knife to snap in place
- If I ever got into producing the same sized blades over and over, I think you could heat and fold kydex then drill and put in all of the rivets before molding. When the kydex is then heated the pouch would bow open for knife insertion. It is much easier to drill holes when it is all flat, versus after molding.