Well, now Viper1357's story has me questioning my sheath chronology. I thought the fold-over style was first, but now I need to research that. I have an early ad that calls out the availability of the Kydex sheath. I'll have to find it to see what year it ran and which version of sheath is depicted. Unfortunately, I can't access my magazines at the moment, so the answer will have to wait. I'll post back here when I figure it out.
Well, it took me a while, but I finally tracked down my magazines and looked up the first ad for the Ki Quick Draw Sheath. Here it is in its inaugural appearance in the February 1986 issue of
Soldier of Fortune.
As you can see from the close-up, the rivet pattern matches the fold-over version.
So, while the first version made available commercially as the Ki Quick Draw Sheath was the fold-over style, it was not Cold Steel’s first model. That ad had to be supplied to
SoF’s advertising department in September of 1985 to make the February ‘86 issue, which means the Ki sheath was available mid-to-late 1985. But
V
Viper1357
purchased his promotional dealer’s sample model with the sewn-on Kydex belt clip in September 1984, thus making that version the first by roughly a year.
I think it’s amazing that Lynn was experimenting with Kydex at least as early as 1984. Not only was Cold Steel the first production manufacturer to offer Kydex sheaths for its knives, but it was doing so when the technology was still in its infancy, even among custom knife makers.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
-Steve
