cutting kydex safe or a rip me?

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Nov 12, 2007
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Hi everyone. Curious to hear your opinions. I wanted to shave off a corner of a kydex sheath but was reading that it could be hazardous and not really safe. Hoping to hear your thoughts. I am completely open to "minimize you're too stupid to own a butter knife" opinions too. So have at it! Thanks!
 
Or running it on a grinder without PPE.
 
minimize said:
What do you mean? Whats ppe ?
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Personal protective equipment, commonly referred to as "PPE"
He means a respirator or negative draft ventilation hood near the grinder.

I use this even when grinding the blades. There are some components to these super steels that you don't want to inhale as well. Not to mention the grit from the grinder.
 
Google "kydex sds" or "kydex msds". May cause irritation if inhaled. Same could be said with almost any particulate dust.
 
minimize said:
Hi everyone. Curious to hear your opinions. I wanted to shave off a corner of a kydex sheath but was reading that it could be hazardous and not really safe. Hoping to hear your thoughts. I am completely open to "minimize you're too stupid to own a butter knife" opinions too. So have at it! Thanks!
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By your description "shave off" I would not recommend using a knife, the fibers in the sheath will dull the knife big time.
Sanding is going to generate the dust that is not good to breath; honestly one little exposure is going to be less lung damaging garbage than walking down town during a good windy day. Think automobile brake dust . . . soaked with all manner of carcinogenic liquids crawling out of all those automobiles. People get all about avoiding carcinogens but then surround themselves with one of the worst carcinogen dumps there is . . . from the exhaust to the interior plastic to the fluids that are constantly dripping from the awful things because they can't afford to maintain them to the people who maintain them who can't be bothered to install gaskets and seals correctly.

Not that I have much of an opinion on the subject.

I think one reasonable option would be to use wet or dry very coarse, used wet, and then don't come in contact with it when it is dry; toss it out while wet.
 
Thanks everyone! Looks like I was reading too much into it. Was just going to use a dremel to file down a corner and looks like I am good to go. Will throw a bandanna over my face for good measure.
 
minimize said:
Thanks everyone! Looks like I was reading too much into it. Was just going to use a dremel to file down a corner and looks like I am good to go. Will throw a bandanna over my face for good measure.
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I hope it turns out nice.
 
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panoz77 said:
I tried to find information on what a secure-ex sheath is made from, definitely not plain old Kydex. I'm guessing it is glass filled nylon or other glass filled polymer mix.
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Yes I was just over on the Cold Steel web site. I am surprised they don't talk about it and what they designed it to do etc. at least I couldn't find the spiel.
The way it dulls knives it MUST have something gritty in it.

Well one good thing came from this I learned that overheating stuff like this can release nasty stuff like Hydrocloric Gas vapor.

Sounds yummy.
Read here : https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/kydex-health-warning-read.158769/
 
When I put this dimple in this Secur-ex sheath I had to get it pretty darned hot with a good industrial quality heat gun to get it to move. The material would get close to getting a bit of sheen like it was melting just a little higher heat than required to move it.
Scary strong for plastic.
The reason I dimple the sheath was I reground the blade much thinner and had to tighten up the sheath. I know . . . I should have made a new one from Kydex.
IMG_3919.JPG


Dulled my 3V too quickly so I went to this Cold Steel sheath and no problems.
I guess it grips more of the handle and the edge isn't brought into such a firm contact with the sheath. Mostly the belt clip was what I was after; can snap it over a belt or pants with no belt.
IMG_3916.jpg
 
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