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Friday, April 16, 2010

Solving unique problems uniquely

I've made a great deal of sheaths in the last decade. Many of them using a variety of belt or neck attachments, but always with an emphasis on being compact, accessible, secure and comfortable.
Thus, I've eschewed using the typical foibles that most other knifemakers use such as TekLoks, which I frankly find to be unbearably huge and in most cases, outright uncomfortable.
Sure, they do have their uses and they are inarguably a very solid system, but for concealed carry of a knife, they are just too large.

Now, recently, a friend needed a knife and being a woman, she has unique requirements compared to most guys.
One, she wears scrubs on her job, but goes fairly casually dressed the rest of the time. So, she needed a solution that would work both in her scrubs, which are pocket less, and with jeans and a belt and everything in between.

I wracked my brain for a bit and came up with what you'll see in the pictures below.
The knife is one of my Sliver designs, a compact little knife, ideally suited for concealed carry.
The sheath is meant to allow carry of the knife horizontally on the belt or waistband.
The clip is titanium and entirely custom. It has a great deal of tension and combined with the rubber material affixed to the back of the sheath, this helps keep the sheath in place and limits horizontal displacement.

First up is the knife. Right about 5 inches long with the blade coming in right at 2.75 inches. Not a bad handle-to-blade ratio. Materials are G10 bonded to 6AL4V titanium with a carbidized edge.


And here's the sheath. Bog-standard kydex, with a custom titanium clip and foamed rubber friction appliques.



As you can see, the holes in the sheath allow for ready conversion to neck carry. I may also at a later stage, add the holes necessary for using it with my bungie belt attachment.
I should also point out that yes, after these pictures were taken, I did make holes in the foamed rubber as well...
Generally, I'm pretty happy with how this all turned out. Overall, it's probably one of the most elaborate sheaths I've ever made. So, a unique solution to a unique problem.

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