Sheath for a Mighty AP Digger

[mastereagle22]

Well I finally got the Kydex and got my nerve up to experiment.

Now let me say a few things here first:

1. I am not an artisan or a craftsman.
2. I have two left thumbs.
3. I have a minimal tool set with which to work.

Here are some picutres I took of the finished product.

It might not look like much, it took me an hour of labor to achieve what you see here and I learned some tricks working with the Kydex. While I am not saying I have the best looking finished product it works and it protects the blade, also it makes it easy to cary. I did drill a few extra holes in the back at the very bottom to allow water to drain out and left one hole to fill with something decorative I'm working on.

The zip/cable ties are for proof of concept only. I'm trying to figure out a way to mount the belt loop to the Kydex sheath (first lesson learned should have made the belt loop first and mounted it before shaping the Kydex.

Anyway I will gladly answer any questions you may have.

After being asked for the steps I took by numerous people I will post them here.

1. Cut Kydex sheet into two equal pieces.
2. Cut 1 half of kydex sheet for front of blade making sure to leave approx 1.5 - 2 inches extra material (material shrinks a little when heated)
This is where I messed up and would do it differently if I could go back
3. Heat the back piece of kydex bending a belt loop into the material and drill holes and rivet.
4. Take the two pieces of kydex and rivet them at the bottom of the sheath.
5. Heat the kydex using heat gun or toaster oven, I prefer the heat gun method.
6. Place blade inside the heated material and use whatever you are going to use for a press and hold until Kydex cools.
I used a really flimsy car window heat blocker for my press material and my hands. As you can see it turned out pretty good and I was happy with the results.
7. Drill the kydex and place the rivets. WARNING WARNING WARNING be very careful where you place the rivets. After I tightened my rivets up good I could NOT pull the blade out very easily. I will reheat the Kydex and reshape it a little to eliminate that problem.
8. Once you have it riveted, use a band saw or jig saw and remove excess material.
9. Use a piece of sandpaper, grinder, dremel to to finish up the edges . You SHOULD wear a mask when doing this as this stuff can be very nasty and you need to protect your lungs.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Treasure of Victoria Peak - Grab it through Amazon!

[Mighty AP]

Sweet Larry!!! I'll take 24 of em!

Looks good & functional, I bet makin the curve like the blade was a b****!

 

[mastereagle22]

Actually it was very easy. The only tools I used were a heat gun and hammer (for the rivots) and a sun blocking sheild for a car window.

It works quite well but it looks like crap. LOL. Oh well as long as it protects the blade and makes it easy to carry that's all I need. I wished I was really skilled because a tool like yours AP deserves the best.

The sheet of Kydex was $8.00 and I used 1 sheet for the whole project. I'll bet someone out there could make a much better one with the same amount of material.

If a person was going to need to make a bunch of them you can get a discount on bigger pieces of Kydex. The Kydex is also available in Cammo patterns and different colors.

 

[Cynangyl]

in camo and different colors even?! I can see I am going to have to find out more about this! I would love to have a sheath for mine! Somehow I doubt it comes in pink and purple camo with sparkles but I am sure I could come up with something...even camo would be neat! lol

 

[Mighty AP]

Hey Larry, how thick is the material you used & where did you get the Kydex? Online or from a local retailer? I watched a video of a knife maker making a sheath on Youtube...........turned out real nice & Id like to try!

 

[mastereagle22]

I got mine on Ebay because I was in a hurry and didn't want to wait for it. I paid $8.50 for a 12X12 sheet plus a little for shipping.

You can get on sheath per sheet, unless you are way smarter than I am.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kydex-plastic-s...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item563d70843b

Is the person I dealt with. VERY good to deal with too!!!!!

Easy to work with, heat it with a heat gun until it is flexible then shape it the way you want. Wear gloves while doing it, heavy gloves to protect from heat because you have to get the Kydex to around 180 degrees to get it really pliable. A couple of cheaters/pointers I will provide.

1. If you want to put a special detail in the material in one spot, I needed one to allow room behind the blade for some type of material to connect the two pieces. Heat the material in one spot, shape it, and then rub ice on it. It hardens immediately and will hold the shape you need.
2. Pot holders that you put on your hand will work if you don't have gloves. LOL

 

[Mighty AP]

Im gonna buy a sheet & try it out. The guy on youtube used a toaster oven. Think I will cut an oversized blade to use as a template, lay sheet on blade in the oven to form around the curve of the blade. If I can get that right I can just rivet a flat piece over the front. It always looks real cool & easy to do in my head..........we'll soon see.

I did not know about this material until your post Larry, this might prove to be a very viable, cost effective way to make sheaths for my tools! The members here are so ingenuitive & crafty, Thank you Larry for some great info that I hope to use!

 

[mastereagle22]

Using a heat gun was really easy. I will WARN you of one thing.

THIS STUFF STINKS WHEN YOU HEAT IT UP. I would reccomend doing it outside or in a large work area with good ventilation.

Once you get it and work with it the first time you will learn very quickly how easy this stuff is to work with, and you are WAY more skilled than I AP. So let me know how it turns out for you.

 

[Mighty AP]

I just ordered a sheet, I'll take some scotch & a 12 pack over to my buddies garage.........he's got a toaster oven & lots of rivets! I'll post pics!

 

[Cynangyl]

Sweeet! I can't wait to see it!

 

[mastereagle22]

Don't make me look too bad when you make your sheath........

 

[Cynangyl]

how could you look bad by being the original designer of anything? He might make a new and improved version but the original design is still yours, he would not have known about it without you ya goof!

 

[Mighty AP]

how could you look bad by being the original designer of anything? He might make a new and improved version but the original design is still yours, he would not have known about it without you ya goof!

Exactly. Im simply "stealing/borrowing" your great idea! My first one will look like crap especially if Im hitting the 12 year old scotch..........and I will be!

 

[mastereagle22]

I put an order in last night for this:

http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/product_info.php?products_id=2158

Not exactly like Mighty AP's avatar but close......

 

[EdleBrock]

I have a pistol holster made of Kydex by a company called SideArmor. I've been to their business when they first started out, great guys. They gave me a tour of the production area and also a look at their CAD system they use to design the holsters. They engineer it all up, CNC aluminum blocks for the press mold. They put the Kydex in a huge oven then press it into the molds. It's great material to work with and very resilient. Anyway, got a bit off topic. Mastereagle mentioned re-working the belt loop. Here's a link to their loops so you can get an idea of what they use.

http://www.sidearmor.com/store/inde...oducts_id=29:82b7b61fca4617faf43e6ccaf222c788

The little socket head screws on the holsters are great for adjusting tension etc. Take a look and maybe there's some helpful information there.

Just adding my thoughts. Great idea Mastereagle and great prototype.

Jim

 

[mastereagle22]

I quickly got up to speed on this prior to doing the actual ordering and work.

There are rivets, gromets, Chicago Screws, as the main fasteners. I like the Chicago screws but cost and time to receive them kept me from using them. I like the Hollow Tube type rivets that come in Black but again no time to order them.

I may or may not redo my sheath with different fasteners. I tried a pop-rivet for fun last night and if you use a backing washer that just might work as well. The only rivets I could grab off the shelf were from Hobby Lobby and they are leather working rivets.

If a person was going to go crazy and make a bunch of these sheaths you could buy a commercial made press for under $200. A rivet tool with the dies goes for around $150.00, you see my point it could get really expensive.

What impressed me so much was that I was able to spend $8.50 for a sheet of Kydex, $3.50 for the rivets and I had a heat gun. With an investment of less than $15 I was able to form the material into a serviceable sheath that doesn't look half bad either.

A person could go crazy with all the fun stuff you could do with this stuff.

 

[Cynangyl]

I put an order in last night for this:

http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/product_info.php?products_id=2158

Not exactly like Mighty AP's avatar but close......

Nice!

 

[Ray S ECenFL]

Looks functional to me.

Nice job considering what you worked with.

Thanks for the post. I have never heard of this materail before. Nice to learn something new once in a while.

HH

Ray S ECenFL

 

[Chug And Red]

Looks like ill be busy!!! making one of these very soon because i need to figure out some way of carring this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just arrived in the mail today!!!!

 

[Cynangyl]

YAY!! I was hoping you would have one by now! Congrats!!