Most common budget knife to make sheath of

K

kaizo

Joined
Oct 17, 2014
Messages
798
Hi I recently picked up leather crafting as a hobby and I am thinking of making knife sheaths out of exotic materials like shagreen (stingray skin) and cordovan (tanned horse membrane).

The question is what is the most common cheap knife that a lot of knife enthusiasts have and are willing to buy sheath of? I am very new to blades (in fact I just bought my first bushcraft knife this week) and from my limited research I have Mora companion knife as a good candidate but would you think making a sheath for this is a good idea? The reason I am asking for a cheap blade is because I need to buy one to test the sheath as I would only like to sell items that are tested properly.

If you are an administrator please advise me on selling rules on this forum.

The money I raise here will mainly be fed back into my raw material cost (so I can keep doing leather crafts) and to buy better/more tools.

I know this may be an unusual question but it would be very nice if you could help me by answering the above questions.

Thank you for your help and please leave any words of advice if you have any. :)
 
Buck 119 maybe? Very common and the one I have rattles all over inside the stock sheath. I'd buy a custom sheath for it if I found one I liked at a decent price.
 
Hi thanks for the fast response! I've looked into the buck 119 after you told me about it and i think i can get a second hand one for quite cheap. Do you think people are interested in sheaths made of exotic materials or is that a niche market? If its shagreen or cordovan it will be a lot more expensive than calf by its very nature.
 
spikebot587 said:
the esee izula and bk14 are also very popular
Click to expand...

^this and with them being as short as they are they carry well scout style, or horizontally. Straight leather, or leather kydex are both nice looking.

For tips shoot PMs to 710 and Azwelke, they are custom sheath makers and all around great guys.
 
Thanks all very much for your help! :)

I'll look into all of those knives!

I know I am already asking a lot and you have all been more than helpful but would yo have any names of admins I could PM and ask for forum sales advice?
 
The bk-14 would be a good candidate. Good knife but I have heard complaints about the stock sheath. You can get one for around $30.

One concern is many people won't want to spend $15 on a mora and then drop $100 on a fancy custom sheath. If you want to start with cheap knives you might want to start with cheaper materials and keep the cost down. After you establish a good reputation you could move to more expensive knives and more expensive sheaths. The key to this is making good quality sheaths. If people don't like the ones you make for the cheaper knives they won't buy the expensive ones.
 
timbo813 said:
The bk-14 would be a good candidate. Good knife but I have heard complaints about the stock sheath. You can get one for around $30.

One concern is many people won't want to spend $15 on a mora and then drop $100 on a fancy custom sheath. If you want to start with cheap knives you might want to start with cheaper materials and keep the cost down. After you establish a good reputation you could move to more expensive knives and more expensive sheaths. The key to this is making good quality sheaths. If people don't like the ones you make for the cheaper knives they won't buy the expensive ones.
Click to expand...

Hmm that's a very sound logic... what would you pay for if you were to buy a sheath for a BK-14 or mora (of any material)?

and sorry one more thing if you were to pay let's say 150USD for a sheath what common knife would that be and how much does a second hand one go for?
 
Just for reference cordovan looks like this. Sorry for the unflattering edges I haven't received the gum and polishing tool yet.

10670236_10152736666211083_3582856110131294547_n.jpg


and here is the type of sheath that I am hoping to emulate (with my first knife):

10482374_10152736666526083_2694533740989759689_n.jpg
 
They general idea is the sheath should cost what the knife does from my limited experience.
But that might also give you a one up if you are filling a niche market- Ive had some cowboy buddies that spend $800 on boots, $300 on a belt and would bet they would spend $150 on a high quality sheath for their $30 buck 110s.
 
WuGod said:
They general idea is the sheath should cost what the knife does from my limited experience.
But that might also give you a one up if you are filling a niche market- Ive had some cowboy buddies that spend $800 on boots, $300 on a belt and would bet they would spend $150 on a high quality sheath for their $30 buck 110s.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I just need to sell 3 or 4 to buy more leather so I think it might appeal to those audiences. I'll make one for my knife (which I want to make anyway) and post a picture when I do. Please give me some feed back!! :)
 
So I know quite a bit about leather, and perhaps an equal amount about knives. If you're going to be using shell cordovan (cordovan itself is just a color, shell refers to the very dense leather of the horses ass), materials will be a not-insignificant amount of money. I disagree that there is going to be an appreciable market for sheaths costing over $100 for ~$30 knives. The people willing to spend a lot on a sheath are also going to have nice knives. If I were you, I would look at the exchange in the production fixed blade section, and get a feel for what knives sell well and what price point they are at. Also check out http://www.skystormleatherworks.com/index.htm. One great brand to make sheaths for would be swamp rat knives, as they don't come from the factory with a sheath, but they are good sellers with dedicated 'fans'.
 
kaizo said:
Thanks all very much for your help! :)

I'll look into all of those knives!

I know I am already asking a lot and you have all been more than helpful but would yo have any names of admins I could PM and ask for forum sales advice?
Click to expand...

If you want to sell items here that you have made you will need a Craftsman / Knifemaker membership first.
All the info you would need is in my sig block. Moving to Sheathes and Such.
 
Welcome to the Sheath forum kaizo. :)

Rev nailed it, before you get too much further you would be well advised to get the craftsman membership out of the way first.

Looks like your on the way to getting set up, well done so far. :)
 
Thank you all very much for your help. I am quite moved by the generous amount of support that I received. When I first posted I had my worries but I now feel that I am heading in the right direction. I'll definitely get the craftsman membership once my paycheck comes through and do more homework before I get ahead of myself. Thank you all very much for the warm welcome.

direstrats220 you are quite right I was using the term cordovan loosely the colour you mentioned is the iconic shade of burgundy that shell cordovan is usually associated with (also known as No.8). The shell cordovan I would eventually like to work with is burgundy (No.8), black (which has a rich obsidian look) and whiskey (the colour of the card case I posted). Thanks for letting me know about skystorm as well.

Thank you all again for your help.
 
bk2---standard sheath is bad. people love them and love to customize them for bushcraft.
cold steel hawks---^^^^
spyderco delica---lots out there, no sheath. falls in with buck where a basic pouch sheath will fit multiple knives

just my 2 cents. best of luck
 
kaizo said:
Hi thanks for the fast response! I've looked into the buck 119 after you told me about it and i think i can get a second hand one for quite cheap. Do you think people are interested in sheaths made of exotic materials or is that a niche market? If its shagreen or cordovan it will be a lot more expensive than calf by its very nature.
Click to expand...

Kaizo,
Hi. I'm new here and I don't know near as much as the rest of these guys, so please take this as just one guy's opinion. I have carried a knife every day for nearly 30 years, so I guess that's something.

Anyway, I think you will find it hard to sell a $200 exotic, inlaid sheath to someone who is only willing to spend $30 on a knife from a department store. It's like me going down and buying the cheapest, nastiest beer I can find and then spending a few hundred dollars on hand-cut crystal goblets to drink it in.

For a budget knife, I would be looking at making a sheath that has increased functionality in some way, superior comfort, superior durability or all of the above. I would not try to embellish the thing too much and price beyond what someone who buys a Buck 119 will pay. That's just me.

I think if you're going to use higher-end materials, you will need to make the sheath for a higher-end knife. If someone just paid $500 for a nice knife, why wouldn't they pay another $200 for an attractive sheath that will protect it from loss or damage?
 
ColdDeadHand said:
Kaizo,
Hi. I'm new here and I don't know near as much as the rest of these guys, so please take this as just one guy's opinion. I have carried a knife every day for nearly 30 years, so I guess that's something.

Anyway, I think you will find it hard to sell a $200 exotic, inlaid sheath to someone who is only willing to spend $30 on a knife from a department store. It's like me going down and buying the cheapest, nastiest beer I can find and then spending a few hundred dollars on hand-cut crystal goblets to drink it in.

For a budget knife, I would be looking at making a sheath that has increased functionality in some way, superior comfort, superior durability or all of the above. I would not try to embellish the thing too much and price beyond what someone who buys a Buck 119 will pay. That's just me.

I think if you're going to use higher-end materials, you will need to make the sheath for a higher-end knife. If someone just paid $500 for a nice knife, why wouldn't they pay another $200 for an attractive sheath that will protect it from loss or damage?
Click to expand...

Thank you both for your reply :)

Following the advice on this thread I basically chose to go with what you said I will use calf (and perhaps lamb for embellishment, I've got a nice piece of tan lamb hide in stock) for the sheaths that I would try and sell. I've just ordered my first custom knife (Black polished G10 grip, 440C traditional tanto style with my crest on it) so I will probably use the fancy material for that to make for fun! I'll post it when I finish making it :)

hccbo thanks for the suggestion I've made a list of the knives everyone suggested here and I'm going to go bargain hunting soon!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top