what do you think of this sheath/knife?

[ecos]

i tried something new with this sheath and was wondering what you all thought about it. it is a kydex sheath that is covered with red ostrich leg leather, the same leather is used in the knife handle.

i adhered the leather with epoxy (more to stiffen the leather than make it stick) then attached it with rivets...i have the feeling im going to have to also use some black lace along the edge for fear that the edge of the leather will peel up....we shall see, i made myself a test sheath to see how it does.

i like the way leathers look but i like the way kydex functions....trying to get the best of both worlds. the sheath also comes with a black kydex belt loop that isnt pictured.

if others seem to like it i will start doing this more often.

thanks for looking!

(click on a thumbnail for a fullsize image)

 

[Soap]

I love the sheath, love the blade profile, but not that crazy about the hollowed out paracord wrap.

 

[ecos]

thanks daniel,
i agree with you about the paracord wrap. originally this going to have a plain kydex sheath and be sold as an inexpensive/low profile using knife....i did the sheath overlay on a whim and i wish i had used a silk or satin cord and done fancier wrapping with a turkshead knot...even a nice exotic wood handle would be an improvement. i also switched epoxides and this new stuff wasnt as thin as my old...makes it look too plastic. thats what i get for being impulsive

one other thing im not fond of is i left a little bit of the flat at the spine area and textured it...i think its too many lines with the texture, hamon, then polished edge.

 

[JShirley]

I could be in the minority, but that edge looks scary sharp. I hate to think of vigorous use without a guard!

Love the basic lines of the knife, though.

John

 

[hso]

ecos,

First, nice looking sheath. I've not seen anyone do that before and it looks very interesting. Not kydex lined, not all kydex, not all leather, but something different that looks good. Well done.

The temper lines look great!!! I assume you used an oil quench.

Flat parcord's so inferior looking to such a great looking blade and sheath. Plane kydex, simple temper line, sure, but that's too nice looking for paracord. I don't agree that you need the turks head. Do her in a proper wrap material and you'd have trouble keeping enough of them on your table.

 

[ghost squire]

I could be in the minority, but that edge looks scary sharp.

Definately its sharp looking, its got a nice deep hollow grind and a "deep" secondary bevel, I don't know what its technically called but when you look at knives that the edge you lay on the sharpener is very deep back towards the spine they tend to be extremely sharp.

PS where should I look for the hamon I don't see it Its probably in plain view but I can't tell where.

What steel did you make this out of? What RC?

 

[ecos]

thanks guys,

jshirley,
with a guardless design like this its always a good idea to do slices and not stabs...lose concentration doing a stab and your hand could slip onto the blade. i cringe to think of what damage that would do. the cord wrapping really does help in keeping your hand from slipping around...even so i avoid stabbing with designs like this. i make models similar to this with guards and better shaped handles but it ruins the lines of the knife. im not one of those makers that give up function for appearance but if i did each knife with with only function in mind they would all end up flat ground recurved droppoints with identical textured composite handles..lol...thats my favorite functional design but i would soon bore with making the same thing every time. so i just have high hopes my customers are careful and buy it with its intended function in mind.

hso,
i used a water quench..currently i water quench all my carbon knives.ive read its supposed to give finer grain, higher hardness, etc...but i do it for two main reasons...i hate oil fumes and im determined to get close to a 100% success rate with water quenching (for those of you that dont know, water quenching is a more violent quench that will crack/warp blades more often than a oil quench) when i first started with water i cracked about 50% of them..last batch i did about 15 knives, cracked 0, warped 2 because i ground them a litle too thin. its kind of a personal challenge.

if i had known i was going to put that much effort into the sheath i would have used better cord lol. i use hollowed out paracord for my cheaper using knives that sell in the $40-100 range which is what i intended this one as initially.

ghost squire,
its made from 1080, rc around 58. the knife is actually flat ground to the spine, that line going down the center of the blade is a straight hamonline

the knife is quite sharp (shaves, slices paper like water etc) i just tried a cutting test idea i got from Tai Goo today....he rolled up a phone book page, taped it at the ends and sliced through it. i thought it looked pretty easy but its harder than it looks...you need a sharper knife doing this than cutting through water filled waterbottles/popcans. give it a try, its fun

 

[ghost squire]

Haha it was in plain view then! Thats a fantastic optical illusion I really did think it was hollow ground. Thats definately a nice distinctive hamon then.

Wow, slicing through a rolled up telephone book page, I don't know if I have a single knife that can do that... and I own an Opinel.

Nice job.

 

[hso]

rolled up a phone book page, taped it at the ends and sliced through it.

You WHAT? You did that like tameshgiri!?! With that little thing!!! Good Oogli Moogli

 

[Optical Serenity]

Very nice! I like the size especially!

 

[mp510]

Definitely is a nice knife, but dosen't really fit my style. Beautiful though!