Making a Lined Kydex Sheath

AVigil

AVigil

Adam Vigil working the grind
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Feb 17, 2009
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I was in the fabric store and picked up some "Ultra Suede" aka "Faux Suede". Wife had a coupon so I got a yard of it for $8.

I will go through how I made a lined kydex sheath with it.

Cut your kydex to size.
Cut 2 ultrasuede fabric large enough to cover each side of the kydex sheet.

When you go to press your kydex first you will make a sandwich of kydex, ultrasuede, knife, ultrasuede, kydex.

This will form the kydex to the knife and give room for the liner material.

Once the kydex is cooled remove from the press and shape and drill your kydex.

Now comes for the fun part.

Sand the inside of the kydex with 50 grit sand paper.

For adhesive I use Super 77 which can be bought at hardware stores.

Tape off anything you do not want the glue on. I taped off the top edge at the mouth of the sheath.

Spray the kydex and allow glue to become tacky.

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Lay the liner material on the kydex and form it to the kydex and let dry completely.

Repeat for the other half.

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Once completely dry trim off the excess.

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You will need to now remove the material in the holes, I used and exacto blade and a chop stick to to open them up. A countersink in a hand drill help remove any excess fibers.

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Choose your mounting hardware. I used Chicago bolts all the way around to enable disassembly for cleaning.

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The knife slides in nice and smooth and is totally quiet.

Hope this helps anyone who was thinking of making a lined sheath.
 
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valknut said:
Very sweet. Not a fan of kydex but i really like this idea. But do you think the suede will hold moisture and possibly cause rust?
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It really is not going to be any different then a leather sheath getting wet.

This sheath is for a blade of AEB-L so that really is not a concern.

For a carbon blade I would either Scotch Brite the fabric to make it water proof and I am going to try on some of the fabric spraying it with WD40 Corrosion inhibitor and letting it dry.

Also you can easily take the sheath apart and let it dry out if it gets wet.
 
Neat idea but between moisture and dirt I would not do it. Definitely looks cool though
 
I’ll have to try this, thanks for sharing Adam. If you’re worried about moisture and stuff wipe your knife down before putting it away. You’re probably not going to use this setup on a camp knife setup anyway, at least that’s what I would think.
 
jll346 said:
Neat idea but between moisture and dirt I would not do it. Definitely looks cool though
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That is one of the reasons I avoid actually carrying a leather sheath in the field. They hold moisture, dirt and are almost impossible to clean out once dirt and sand contaminate the inside.

I really like kydex for a field knife because you can wash it out. But even a spec of dirt will scratch the shit out of a blade even while still on the bench. We all have experienced putting a new blade in a new kydex sheath and BAM, a scratch out of now where, the damn thing had not even left the bench lol

For city carry, the lining is going to be great for the quietness of it and it does help reduce scratches because a spec of dirt will get pushed into the lining as oppose being stuck between 2 hard surfaces of kydex and blade.

I have inserted and removed the blade a bunch of times and not a scratch.

Many times I have to tweak the kydex a bit to get it to allow even more space because it will still leave a mark even after taping the blade.

This is going to go on all of my concealment blades for city carry from now on I think.
 
Leather does absorb but mostly not a tight friction fit like kydex. Understand your point as well. It is very cool.
 
Thanks for the tutorial Adam; I'll have to give this a try.

How thick is the ultra suede?
 
I have a few Winkler Knives that are kydex with leather outside and that are lined and they really are nice sheaths ... I prefer leather in most cases with exception of my large blades ...

looks good and nice giving us a run down on the steps you used to make it.
 
jll346 said:
Leather does absorb but mostly not a tight friction fit like kydex. Understand your point as well. It is very cool.
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I guess it depends on the amount it gets wet, I have been wading while fly fishing and had leather sheaths take couple days to dry out.

A properly kydex sheath should not have friction on the blade, it should hang suspended by the throat, but there is less room for contaminates that is true.

I contemplate making a kydex sheath lay out like a leather sheath and only shape and press at the throat while leaving the sides flat.
 
Mitchell Knives said:
Thanks for the tutorial Adam; I'll have to give this a try.

How thick is the ultra suede?
Click to expand...

The stuff I have is .011".

The way I laid it out is one way, another would be to trim it to the shape of the blade only and adhere that to the kydex. You could actually use double stick tape to the blade, on top of the tape, then press.
 
Hey there - old thread but great tutorial! Thanks!

I just got a beautiful mirror polished Micro Mini Bowie from Himalayan Imports and while the knife itself is awesome, the sheath is useable but lacking for me. I’m used to kydex sheaths and have made several now, but I’m sure a pure kydex would scratch it up so I was thinking of leather lined. Really like that last ideas of just lining the blade portion...
 
Glad you found it useful.

I posted how to do it because when I asked a knifemaker, who does it, for some tips he said he could not talk about it because he was sworn to secrecy.

It is really easy to do, and it is not a secret LOL
 
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