Cliff Stamp
BANNED
- Joined
- Oct 5, 1998
- Messages
- 17,562
From time to time the subject of leather vs kydex comes up and one of the advantages of leather that is often mentioned is that it will not get brittle in cold temperatures whereas kydex will. I have also heard direct cases of kydex failures, some have been described on the forums before :
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88614
I have worn kydex sheaths for awhile, sometimes in cold temperatures and sometimes they had seen impacts, but never the combination of the two. Anyway, the weekend past I set out to see just how brittle kydex does get.
I first spent some time tossing a Steel Eagle and a #7 Busse Combat Basic off of the front step and onto the driveway (crushed stone). The temp was about -2 . The blades were in the sheaths and were thrown out with no specific pattern and landed about 15 feet from the step. I threw them about a dozen times. There were multiple impacts on all of the surface of the sheaths including straight down on the bottom. The blades were held securely the whole time with no problems. After the throwing there were no cracks and the kydex was just scuffed up.
As it is fairly warm around here now (-5 to 0) I had to simulate cold weather by placing the two blades in the freezer overnight. The next day I repeated the above. On the third throw the Steel Eagle's kydex sheath suffered a significant fracture. A crack ran right across the bottom of the belt loop. On the sixth throw the belt loop came right off. After the 12'th throw the sheath had multiple cracks. There was one 3" starting at the top of the front edge and another starting at the bottom of the front face which crossed over and ran up the full length of the back. The Busse sheath suffered no cracks, it just got scuffed up more.
Since the tops blade is a fair bit heavier than the Busse, I decided to stress the Busse a bit heavier to see if the sheath was as durable under similar impacts. I then stood in the driveway and just tossed the blade directly up in the air. The blade went about 10' or so. I did this about 6 times and it the sheath suffered no failures as a result. I think one of the reasons that it could be more impact resistant is that it will absorb shock much better. There is a significant amount of webbing for two different belt atachments and this will obviously bend and absorb impact energies. The grip on the Basic is also a rubber like material which will soften impacts as well. The TOPS blade is also not as snug in the sheath so there could be multiple impacts as a result (rock to sheath, sheath to blade, blade to sheath etc.) which might act to amplify the basic impact stress.
-Cliff
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88614
I have worn kydex sheaths for awhile, sometimes in cold temperatures and sometimes they had seen impacts, but never the combination of the two. Anyway, the weekend past I set out to see just how brittle kydex does get.
I first spent some time tossing a Steel Eagle and a #7 Busse Combat Basic off of the front step and onto the driveway (crushed stone). The temp was about -2 . The blades were in the sheaths and were thrown out with no specific pattern and landed about 15 feet from the step. I threw them about a dozen times. There were multiple impacts on all of the surface of the sheaths including straight down on the bottom. The blades were held securely the whole time with no problems. After the throwing there were no cracks and the kydex was just scuffed up.
As it is fairly warm around here now (-5 to 0) I had to simulate cold weather by placing the two blades in the freezer overnight. The next day I repeated the above. On the third throw the Steel Eagle's kydex sheath suffered a significant fracture. A crack ran right across the bottom of the belt loop. On the sixth throw the belt loop came right off. After the 12'th throw the sheath had multiple cracks. There was one 3" starting at the top of the front edge and another starting at the bottom of the front face which crossed over and ran up the full length of the back. The Busse sheath suffered no cracks, it just got scuffed up more.
Since the tops blade is a fair bit heavier than the Busse, I decided to stress the Busse a bit heavier to see if the sheath was as durable under similar impacts. I then stood in the driveway and just tossed the blade directly up in the air. The blade went about 10' or so. I did this about 6 times and it the sheath suffered no failures as a result. I think one of the reasons that it could be more impact resistant is that it will absorb shock much better. There is a significant amount of webbing for two different belt atachments and this will obviously bend and absorb impact energies. The grip on the Basic is also a rubber like material which will soften impacts as well. The TOPS blade is also not as snug in the sheath so there could be multiple impacts as a result (rock to sheath, sheath to blade, blade to sheath etc.) which might act to amplify the basic impact stress.
-Cliff
