Who actually likes plastic sheaths?

Do you like plastic sheaths?

  • No

    Votes: 19 40.4%

  • I don’t care

    Votes: 5 10.6%

  • Yes

    Votes: 23 48.9%
  • Total voters
    47
I prefer to stay away from terms like 'Bad' or never, forever, always. So much ends up an opinion, depends, is in flux on a sliding scale and balance. So many factors! Not just longevity but costs, looks, weight, weatherproof or not, fads, location. It is nice to hear a variety of thoughts and reasoning why. We use a lot of plastics and plastic derivatives in knife handles. Plastic in our tools, buffing compounds. I had a customer once, insisted he only accepted 'natural.' No dye, stabilizing (Hmm I forgot to ask if he liked heat treated steel). No not this no not that, and when he was done? He wanted to pay me with plastic. When he asked why I was smiling, I never said a word. Where would I get if I said, "I like natural too, where''s my gold!"
 
my opinion is that a sheath must be designed appropriately for the knife and person who plans on using that knife. If the sheath functions perfectly, it doesn't matter to me what it's made from. I like doing leatherwork, so that's how I make my sheaths, but if I had a press and the materials I'd use plastic as well or better yet a combination
 
I think they are fine. EsEE makes a good one. I think before you start demanding certain kinds of sheaths you need to figure out what makes the majority happy. Plastic sheaths are usually right in the middle, a workable sheath without greatly increasing the price point. If people don't like it they can go whichever additional direction they want.

I can tell you as can many, all kydex and leather benders aren't of the same quality, especially if you want them to make them fast enough to keep the price down. Personally I'd rather have a good knife and be able to choose my own bender and cost afterwards.
 
A well made, wet formed leather sheath can hold a knife upside down on a trampoline, but it is time consuming to make.
I make knives by hand and I see a knife/sheath as a total package.
My joy is to make somering beautiful and do the best I can.
Sales are second to that.

I must admit I never worked with kydex nor do I own a kydex sheath. It just doesn't appeal to me
 
I'm a kydex fan simply because of quick release. Retention is key for self defence carry. I don't like having to find a snap or loop ect...if I need my knife asap. Hunting and bushcraft are different. I much prefer good leather to keep the blade safe and for comfort as well. I am currently on tje hunt for a kydex for a walther p99 knife for my daughter.
 
A Well designed properly fitted plastic sheath No matter how tactical or “ugly” might it look, I still see the needs of one. Not preferred and seldom used by me but I still have them. Long term time in field conditions(2 weeks plus) has been common for me in multiple environments. While in the southwest and spending some 18 days Straight in the field in Southern California, leather was fine and worked well and lasted pretty much forever with just a wipe down and conditioning. But now having to go through swamps, rivers, heavy amounts of rain leather no matter how it’s treated will get wet and here it molds over, stitching rots, knives rust/tarnish and leather gets soft when wet. Paired with the fact that high quality leather sheaths failed me here I had to resort to some for of plastic. If it makes noise you need to either get a different one or modify the one you have. There’s duct tape, 100 MPH tape and electrical tape all over my equipment holding straps, buckles, sling loops, and a bunch of other stuff tightly secure from adjusting itself and free from rattle and reflection. And there are times where I just don’t want to run my nice leather sheaths through that. Same as a person wouldn't take their brand new mustang off road, I’m not taking my leather sheaths into an environment or condition where failure rate of said item is highly increased just because I prefer it over plastic.
 
Stellite, Titanium, Ceramic, and Gold (King Tut) knives can be stored in leather sheaths and left out in the rain. My steel and stainless steel knives are stored outside their sheaths.
 
I voted, "I don't care". I like both Kydex and leather, but I prefer leather. I have the equipment and hardware to make Kydex holsters and sheaths, but I have not made one yet. Normally knives come with a Kydex sheath so I just make myself a leather sheath for them, if I want to.
I can appreciate the advantages of both types of sheaths. And I decide which type of sheath I use according to where I am going, and what I will be doing.
 
I have both leather and kydex sheaths made by professionals and by amateurs myself included. I like the idea of leather more than the actual thing, nothing really wrong with it but I get into messy conditions and I hate to do that to a nice leather sheath. Kydex is tough and easy to maintain and fairly cheap for me to make. A kydex sheath is less expensive to make and much quicker too. As for longevity they both are pretty comparable , I have re-made a damaged sheath into a smaller sheath from both materials so recycling isn't an issue in my mind.
 
If you want a knife that's held tightly on your belt and that you can just grab and pull quickly, a kydex sheath with a tek-lock is pretty good.
 
Leather looks a lot nicer than kydex. In my experience fighting forest fire and high rigging Kydex has better retention and creates more carry options for better access. In critical situations a knife that can't be easily deployed and re-sheathed one handed can cause problems. It's even more useless if it's gone. I'm pretty interested in making some best of both worlds hybrid leather/kydex sheaths. Looks do count but if it's a choice between looks and functionality I'll take functionality.
 
jbonny said:
Leather looks a lot nicer than kydex. In my experience fighting forest fire and high rigging Kydex has better retention and creates more carry options for better access. In critical situations a knife that can't be easily deployed and re-sheathed one handed can cause problems. It's even more useless if it's gone. I'm pretty interested in making some best of both worlds hybrid leather/kydex sheaths. Looks do count but if it's a choice between looks and functionality I'll take functionality.
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Either type of sheath can be made more secure by adding a retention strap to it with Pull-the-Dot snaps on it. That way the snap will only unsnap when it's it's pulled in one direction. If the retention strap gets pulled on or snagged on something in any other direction, it will not unsnap - or it should at least take quite a bit of force to unsnap it.
 
000Robert said:
Either type of sheath can be made more secure by adding a retention strap to it with Pull-the-Dot snaps on it. That way the snap will only unsnap when it's it's pulled in one direction. If the retention strap gets pulled on or snagged on something in any other direction, it will not unsnap - or it should at least take quite a bit of force to unsnap it.
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For a lot of people a retention strap is going to be good enough. You ever try to unfasten a strap hanging in a harness 100' in the air with your other hand full of half deployed gear? In a situation like that there's a moment when you're undoing the strap and your hand is not securely on the knife. Even if it's on a lanyard dealing with a dropped knife (or anything else) really sucks. And refastening the strap one handed when you're in an awkward position is never easy. The other problem I've had with retention straps is when you're climbing or wriggling through a tight spot and it snags and releases. Even if it only releases one direction it'll be a problem if you snag it that direction. This is just my experience though. If leather works better for you I'm kinda envious because it sure looks and feels better to me.
 
I am a fan of the nylon/kydex combo and I feel like I don't see enough of this config these days. A well-designed kydex sheath on a nylon mount with all the trimmin's, mmm mmm. I guess it's the style of the old school survival knife rigs, which are out of fashion. To me, function IS fashion.
 
jbonny said:
For a lot of people a retention strap is going to be good enough. You ever try to unfasten a strap hanging in a harness 100' in the air with your other hand full of half deployed gear? In a situation like that there's a moment when you're undoing the strap and your hand is not securely on the knife. Even if it's on a lanyard dealing with a dropped knife (or anything else) really sucks. And refastening the strap one handed when you're in an awkward position is never easy. The other problem I've had with retention straps is when you're climbing or wriggling through a tight spot and it snags and releases. Even if it only releases one direction it'll be a problem if you snag it that direction. This is just my experience though. If leather works better for you I'm kinda envious because it sure looks and feels better to me.
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That's the point, you set the snap so it only unsnaps in the direction that you want it to. The strap is just extra protection, but the sheath needs to hold the knife well enough so that it won't just slide out on its own. I don't like sheaths that a knife can just slip out of easily.
 
Boombats said:
I am a fan of the nylon/kydex combo and I feel like I don't see enough of this config these days. A well-designed kydex sheath on a nylon mount with all the trimmin's, mmm mmm. I guess it's the style of the old school survival knife rigs, which are out of fashion. To me, function IS fashion.
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That's the great thing about making your own sheaths. You can make them however you want to. :)
 
tiguy7 said:
They could also be recycled. Leather can be composted. The combination in post 2 above might last hundreds of years, by which time people will have forgotten what the original purpose was.
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Articles are hitting the Internet that plastic is not really recyclable. It is cheaper to make new plastic than to recycle the old plastic, and the industry has known this. A lot of it goes right into the landfills, unfortunately.
 
So leather and plastic sheaths both wind up in the dumpster, but the plastic ones have a longer service life.
 
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