What Upstets Me About Knife Makers!

What pisses me off is when I buy a car, they never come with the $5000 custom rims and tires that I want on with them. Sure, they come with good tires, and the car is amazing, but....

OP, if this is your biggest problem with custom knives........ WAAAAAAAAAAAH! Buy a custom sheath for your custom knife. There are tons of folks on BF that make amazing sheaths.

OR..... quit your whining and make your own knives and sheaths. Or maybe you can't do that as well as they can, so you should be happy there such amazing artists that make the stuff you love, and quitcher bitchen!
 
No need to get sarcastic with BabyJWuu. Some posters who are knifemakers claim they like to make sheaths for their knives. Some knifemakers don't. (Why aren't you guys I.D'ed as Knifemakers btw? :confused:)

For big heavily coated blades, kydex is a great choice. I don't even mind a cheapo leather sheath like comes with the USMC Ka-Bar fighting knife.

No sheath is a little bit of a chore for us "casual" knife buyers. I don't like hunting down sheaths either. Give me something cheap to at least have time to commision a quality sheath, so I can carry/protect my new purchase until that time. Just sayin...
 
Some of the best knife makers in the world are not skilled sheath makers and they admit it.

I have no problem at all with that.
 
BabyJWuu said:
They should all offer a kydex sheath with a tek-lok with it, otherwise, I have to go looking for sheath maker and the price jumps!
Click to expand...

If they do offer a kydex sheath with the knife then they should give me the option to delete the sheath and get the cost of the sheath refunded. A kydex sheath just means I have to go looking for a sheath maker and my total cost is more. I'd rather the knife come with no sheath instead of kydex 99% of the time.
 
yablanowitz said:
When you buy a handgun, does the holster it comes in figure into the purchase?

No sheath is going to make everyone happy. Your perfect sheath may be my ugly piece of crap that's gotta go. (Since you apparently prefer Kydex, this is most likely true.) As long as the supplied sheath keeps the knife from cutting its way out of the shipping package, it can be cardboard and duct tape for all I care. I'm going to customize the sheath to suit me anyway.
Click to expand...

He's in Canada...they won't let him buy handguns. :thumbdn:

I never wear a fixed blade knife on my belt. I keep a folder in my pocket and my fixed blade is in a pocket of my pack unless I happen to be in bear country. In that case I zip tie my biggest fixed blade to my pack strap...not only does it keep the bears away but it also cuts down on those annoying conversations with hikers I meet going the other way:D

So I don't really care much about sheaths. Mostly they are just covers to keep the blade from stabbing me or cutting through my pack. Leather or kydex doesn't really matter all that much to me. Besides, buying knives without sheaths (like Busse or Scrapyard) gave me an excuse to practice making crappy sheaths like this one:

SAR5.jpg
 
To me it is a safety issue. I believe every fixed blade should at the very least be supplied with a functional sheath, even an ugly one.

I am all for supporting makers of top quality custom sheaths and keeping the cost of the knife down as well as not burdening a skilled knife maker with a task he may or may not excel in.

As far as a choice in whether it be kydex, leather, or what ever else, either be willing to pay extra for it and hunt is down if the knife maker doesn't make custom sheaths, or take what it comes with.

But my point is a sharp fixed blade without some kind of functional sheath (and I mean something more substantial than cardboard) is incomplete and unsafe for carry as is.

I find sheathless fixed blades to be irritating when you don't particularly care about hunting down a fancy sheath or any sheath for that matter since you most likely will have to send your knife out to be fitted.

One thing knife makers can do is maybe team up with a sheath maker or makers and enable them to have sheaths available for the knives they make by giving them the specs of the knives they make. This option should be readily available and easy to find and get when the knife is ordered. I find too often that sheath options are not readily available on the websites of knife makers and you have to call and ask.

If the above is done that would make both people who want a generic low to average price sheath supplied with their knife and those who prefer to make their own sheath or get one customized somewhere else happy.

Also lower priced ugly generic sheaths mean that you cannot expect to subtract a small fortune from the price of the knife it you decide to pass on an unappealing purely functional sheath.
 
Last edited:
A knife-maker should make a sheath or as stated above, be teamed up with some one else who makes it. Any one who can make a knife can learn to make a kydex sheath very quickly and add it as an option.

If they don't want anything to do with sheaths just choose a different maker.
 
I am of the school that knives are the primary thought in the purchase the sheath is gravy.

Some knife companies do a good job with the included sheaths...

ESEE and TOPS come to mind.

But, that is never a deal breaker for me, I wish Eagle Industries would come out and make sheaths available to the public w/o purchase of a knife.

Since we are on this I also hope Spec Ops opens up their line to include knives with more than 1 3/4" width.
 
Maybe the OP was referring to Knife Manufacturers rather than knife makers. Then his original post would make more sense. I personally hunt a lot and like nylon sheaths like the Blackhawk ones. They are quiet (unlike kydex), usually have an accessory pouch for small folder or multi-tool, and have a kydex insert for blade/sheath protection. To each his own.
 
BabyJWuu said:
They offer very nice fixed blade knives and then they offer cheapo sheaths. They should all offer a kydex sheath with a tek-lok with it, otherwise, I have to go looking for sheath maker and the price jumps!
Click to expand...

As it's been explained to me, the problem for the knifemaker is that if he offers a really good sheath, it raises the price considerably and the buyer may not even like or want that kind of sheath. As you can see, some folks like Kydex, some prefer leather...then you have to factor in what style, etc. Many makers opt to keep the cost down by either not including a sheath or including an inexpensive one that doesn't increase the overall cost much.
 
My decision on a custom knife choice revolves much more around the knife than the sheath. As a previous poster said, as long as it comes with a half-decent funtional sheath , I can go from there. Maybe I'll like it or change it later.

Here's an example. I ordered a Skookum bush knife from Rod Garcia years ago. A lot of the people in forums I read ( before buying) said the sheath sucked. To me this what not the case. The sheath was very well executed except for one thing; it was designed for neck wear , which does not suit this knife. Ten minutes with a zip-tie and paracord and now it fits on my belt. no biggie. Make things work for you.

It would be nice if makers provided a kydex/leather choice but this may not be economically feasable for them to do. They provide what works for the average person and is cost-effective. I have some old knives with MIC sheaths of leather that are beat to hell but still do the job of protecting the user from edge and allowing decent carry. I'm a big kydex fan too and wish all my knives had kydex pants , but since that's not possible for me, I've had to live with some leather sheaths. Over time, I've actually come to prefer them for some knives.

If you're going to limit what you buy due to makers not providing kydex , I think you are closing the door on a lot of great knife possibilities , Imo. ;)
 
Last edited:
I've found that Kydex always scratches terribly, and sometimes traps dirt where the edge sits. The first time I sheathed a knife in Kydex and found it had rolled a portion of the edge, I swore off using that stuff forever.
I usually make my own leather, but the cheap cordura sheaths work wonderfully as well.
 
kydex scratches the crap out of blade and handles - not such a hot idea for a treasurable custom job

I like J Neilson's sheaths
 
Beats me my handguns don't get carried slipped into my waist save for my .45 on occassion. You can't do that with a fixed blade, you know Mexican carry I think it is referred to. I just don't like when I am thinking of buying a knife from some maker on the forums the ad will say something like a leather generic pouch sheath is 35 bucks extra or kydex X amount extra. So if the knife is 200 and the sheath is an extra 50 bucks which being a knife a should come with a sheath anyways! cause you can't just carry it loose cause it is unsafe just advertise the knife at 235 or 250 with sheath. That is my point. Also hand guns ain't sharp objects, big difference me thinks. keepem sharp
 
Dorito Monk said:
Oh, look, another BabyJWuu topic. :rolleyes: Moving right along...
Click to expand...

I just checked BabyJWuu's thread's started - looked innocent to me? :confused: I must have missed something.

Anyway as mentioned, I'd prefer any kind of junky sheath to prtect me and my new knife if possible until I could get a proper sheath. Like kydex for heavily coated knives like ESEE and leather for fine, satin finish blades. :)
 
Use the search function. You will find at least one (possibly more) sheathmaker who specifically designs his kydex sheaths to minimize knife scratching.
 
Noddy said:
kydex scratches the crap out of blade and handles - not such a hot idea for a treasurable custom job

I like J Neilson's sheaths
Click to expand...

Thank you! J Neilson's knives are delivered with one of my sheaths. They come in many levels of customization depending on what J, working with his customer decide. Each knife is sent to me prior to delivery and the sheath is custom fitted to that specific knife. This does not add more than a very few days to delivery time as J can attest.

This is just one example of a maker working with a sheath maker. I haven't counted but I would guess I have at least 30 such arrangements with other makers.

Finally when one pays from $500 to $5000 or more for a fine custom knife the cost of the sheath is very small indeed.

Paul
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top