playing with kydex and a bk24

beachmaster

beachmaster

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Oct 3, 2014
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Hey guys, I decided to make my dad a kydex sheath for Christmas for his bk24 that I talked him into getting ;-)

I am using .080 kydex sheets, which I think is a bit thick for this size knife, but my homemade press works very well.

I am using 1/4" eyelets/ grommets, and my question is, what do you guys use to flair your grommets? The harbor freight pliers that i have are NOT cutting it.

My first sheath was a failure. I need to fine tune my retention etc, and I might have gotten the kydex too hot, as my edges are COMPLETELY fused together. But once I get something for the grommets, I will get to experimenting. So my dads Christmas present will come a bit late...

Anyways, here is a pic of my failure.



The shape actually came out quite well! But with this thick of kydex, and my current friction points, the hold is a tad... extreme lol
 
Try either Tandy Leather or Hobby Lobby. Both carry eyelet/grommet setters. Never worked with kydex but the setters work for leather just fine.
 
Awesome, thanks!
Yeah, the material shouldn't matter too much, as I will drill the holes to size before setting the grommets.
 
Walmart and many hobby retailers carry a cheap set of setting dies, that is what I will use until I get good at making sheaths.
 
There are a lot of good YT vids on the subject; I would suggest you start there. From what I can see, you need to start with a bigger piece of Kydex, then eyelet, then cut off the excess. Doesn't even look like you have room to put the eyelets in. Tape the blade (blue painter's tape works well) before molding, and make sure that there's enough kydex past the guard; that's where your retention comes from. For setting the eyelets you will need something specifically for them; cheap ones work but are very difficult to get good results with as they tend to split the backs. Anyway here are two of my sheaths along with one made by trailbum (northeastkydex). For the wood handled 11 I had to bring the sheath up around the swell on the scales to get any retention.

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Be prepared to fail and make some pretty ugly stuff on the first few go-rounds. I am pretty sure no one knocks it out of the park on their first attempt.
 
I did pretty well on my first sheath. The fact that you can re-mold if you get it lined up wrong (prior to drilling holes!) helps a lot. Having worked with leather and metal a lot before helped, too.

The grommet pliers you have might work okay if you tap jaws with a mallet, instead of relying on squeezing. Try to use them as setting dies, not pliers.

If you are set on making this one work and it is too small for grommets (which need to have at least 1/8" clearance from the edge of the blade), consider small regular rivets or even a bunch of little holes and stitching it up with thin nylon cord. Otherwise, start over. Or just what you made as the liner for a leather sheath.


For finishing, sanding drums in a drill press or the little one in a Dremmel make shaping fast and accurate. The brown scotchbrite pads do a fantastic job of finishing the edges evenly.
 
I have read articles on making kydex sheaths (cant watch YouTube), so what you see is not what was meant to be the finished product, but basically what I had to do to cut the knife out of the kydex.
I had a larger sheath molded (I did it a few times), and had holes for grommets, but no way to crimp them. I had so much retention from all of my edges completely sealing that i had to literally cut the knife out, leaving what you see in the picture.
Thanks for the advice on tapping the pliers. The ones I used (like pliers) bent like they were made of butter, while doing almost nothing to the grommet.
For shaping I have a dremmel, and for drilling I have a drill. For pressing I made a press. Once I get something for the grommets, I am hoping that yall will see some new rad sheaths around.
 
Sounds like you got the Kydex WAY too hot if the edges nearly fused. They will stick some, but more like the way plastic rap sticks to a plate.
 
Yeah... my edges %100 fused, so much so that there is no discernable difference between top and bottom layer.
Is getting the kydex this hot a problem?
 
beachmaster said:
Yeah... my edges %100 fused, so much so that there is no discernable difference between top and bottom layer.
Is getting the kydex this hot a problem?
Click to expand...

The obvious problem is the edges fusing. Aside from that, those temps tend to greatly distort the kydex, leaving it an inconsistent thickness. Kydex is a thermoforming product - you're going right through plastic to liquid. And it is probably hard on your foam.

Not to belabor what might be obvious, kydex works because the layers separate. Leather has traction but no stiffness, kydex is slick but can flex. If the seams can't separate it won't work because it won't snap over whatever feature it overlaps. There's no point in using kydex if you don't have a feature to snap over and the separation to flex. If the kydex is fused, stretched, thin or otherwise deteriorated it won't work reliably or last very long.

I don't think all of the above is obvious and people look at kydex as a replacement for injection molded products. But it really works like a metal spring clip. With kydex and the right knife shape you can make fold over sheaths with no hardware at all. No one does this because of the possibility of losing the knife, but it is entirely do-able. The goal is to make something that relies minimally on hardware and rigidity, instead it is all about trapping the shape of the knife.
 
beachmaster said:
Thanks! I had my temp at 325, but my oven runs hot, so maybe ill back it down to 290
Click to expand...

It isn't a question of temp but time. Even a fairly low temp may cause the kydex to absorb too many calories of energy and lose its solidity. The key is to observe the kydex and remove it from the oven when it is properly pliable. Some folks set the kydex over a shape in the oven and watch for the way it drapes over. I watch the edges for when they start to get wavy.

Too hot is too hot, but too long is the problem. 325 would work fine if you're watching.
 
Thanks for the info guys. When I make my next attempt, hopefully it will be successful, and ill post it up :-)
 
For some great information about temps and stuff, check out some of the pdf's here.

Some of pages apply to sheath making and some don't.

I would recommend just browsing thru some in the General Information section and the Forming section first.

Hope that helps you out a little.
 
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