Made a Kydex sheath for my Ranger's Edge. [Archive]

cvriv

01-30-12, 13:11

Decided to try and make a sheath for my Ranger's Edge and it turned out pretty well in my opinion. Took me 2 days to make. Didnt make any belt clip or anything. Just stuck with paracord only because you can use it to harness the knife how ever you want,... belt, molle etc. Has a really nice feel to it pulling the knife out. A bit firm but not to firm. Slides in with a very nice click as well. When the knife is in it just jiggle around or anything. I opted out for a nice sanded or even polished look because in my opinion its going to get banged up anyways. Not worth the work involved.

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Also made some belt adaptors for the HSGI Taco pistol mag carriers so that you can use these Taco's on your belt for CCW or even carrying a flashlight, pocket knife etc. tooks me about a whole week to make these. I made 144 of them, thats why. They are relatively easy to make but making a ton of them is a different story. Cut and burns all over my fingers. LOL. Thats love. Let me know what you all think. Thanks.

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ra2bach

01-30-12, 14:15

very nice. can you give some more info as to how you did this?

cvriv

01-30-12, 14:53

First and foremost,... patience. Its made from black 1/8" Kydex. Started out with 2 rectangles just big enough to make the sheath. I outlined the knife onto a piece of plywood. The outline is kind of tricky. For the portion of the blade where there's an edge, the outline was exact. Right after the blade where there is no edge I added about 1/16" to each side of the outline to widen it a bit. For the handle I added 1/8" to the outline on each side. this allows for the Kydex to wrap around the knife. If you don't do this you will seriously pinch the Kydex.

The plywood is exactly half the thickness of the knife. So I made each half separately one right after the other. Once I finished the mold I went to the kitchen. I brought with my the knife, mold, gloves, clamps, 2 flat pieces of wood, and a hair dryer with a cold setting. I then heated up 1 piece of Kydex to nearly its melting point in the oven. For this type of work Kydex works best if extremely hot because it's more flaccid and gummy. Will take shape better.

Once the Kydex was hot enough I took it out of the oven and placed it on the mold. I placed the knife over the cut out and applied some pressure with a clamp. Not to much because I didnt want to thin out the kydex. Using the two flat pieces of wood I press around the knife to flatten out the Kydex. I used the hair dryer on its cold setting to cool off the Kydex. I pull it from the mold once it was cool. I did it again to make the other half.

After that it was just a bunch and shaping with a dremel, oscillating table sanded, razors, etc. I had to work the inside of the sheath as well because the inner shape was to harsh and would let the knife go:) So I had to do some fine tuning. I used steel insert ntus and I heated up and pressed into the kydex using a soldering iron.

rob_s

01-30-12, 14:59

what are those rivets? where'd you get them?

cvriv

01-30-12, 15:25

Those aren't rivets. Button head screws used with insert nuts.

ra2bach

01-30-12, 15:26

First and foremost,... patience. Its made from black 1/8" Kydex. Started out with 2 rectangles just big enough to make the sheath. I outlined the knife onto a piece of plywood. The outline is kind of tricky. For the portion of the blade where there's an edge, the outline was exact. Right after the blade where there is no edge I added about 1/16" to each side of the outline to widen it a bit. For the handle I added 1/8" to the outline on each side. this allows for the Kydex to wrap around the knife. If you don't do this you will seriously pinch the Kydex.

The plywood is exactly half the thickness of the knife. So I made each half separately one right after the other. Once I finished the mold I went to the kitchen. I brought with my the knife, mold, gloves, clamps, 2 flat pieces of wood, and a hair dryer with a cold setting. I then heated up 1 piece of Kydex to nearly its melting point in the oven. For this type of work Kydex works best if extremely hot because it's more flaccid and gummy. Will take shape better.

Once the Kydex was hot enough I took it out of the oven and placed it on the mold. I placed the knife over the cut out and applied some pressure with a clamp. Not to much because I didnt want to thin out the kydex. Using the two flat pieces of wood I press around the knife to flatten out the Kydex. I used the hair dryer on its cold setting to cool off the Kydex. I pull it from the mold once it was cool. I did it again to make the other half.

After that it was just a bunch and shaping with a dremel, oscillating table sanded, razors, etc. I had to work the inside of the sheath as well because the inner shape was to harsh and would let the knife go:) So I had to do some fine tuning. I used steel insert ntus and I heated up and pressed into the kydex using a soldering iron.

so I know you got some left over Kydex. you giving any thought to, uh, making these for other people?.. :cool:

rob_s

01-30-12, 15:33

Those aren't rivets. Button head screws used with insert nuts.

what size(s)?

cvriv

01-30-12, 16:33

so I know you got some left over Kydex. you giving any thought to, uh, making these for other people?.. :cool:

I wouldnt mind making stuff for other people but it's kind of expensive. I mean it took me 2 days just to make this one sheath here. Also,... I would need your knife to make the sheath so you would have to mail it to me. Most just want to pay what it would cost for for something mass produced. To bad that arent really any mass produced sheaths:) The belt adapters I'm selling though.