I posted this to another forum about a year ago, but I thought that it might give you guys a few ideas.
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Here's the 3rd generation of my PVC sheath concept.
The knife is an old Western W66 Skinner with a tempered 4-3/8" long, 3/32" thick, 1095 carbon steel blade. It's a very handy little knife which takes and holds an edge quite nicely. I much favor the older 1095 carbon steel Western knives over the newer 420HC stainless ones. I also like the full tang W66 Western Skinner and it's hardwood slab sides vs it's L66 cousin which has a 'rat tail' type tang and a leather washer handle.
The knife needed a sheath. I was about to put one together out of some leather I had laying around when I noticed that I had some 1" PVC pipe and some extra charcoal laying around, so I figured that I would give it a try.
The sheath is hand molded from one piece of white 1" PVC water pipe that I heated over a charcoal barbecue grill.
After it was shaped and a drain hole drilled in the tip, it was then covered in primer spray paint for plastic and multiple, alternating coats of OD Green automotive spray paint and clear acrylic lacquer. The only place where the paint has come off is where the handguard tightly scrapes the inside neck of the sheath. The paint job elsewhere on the scabbard body has proven to be quite durable. There are also a couple of places in the 'notches' that I filed a bit after the paint had dried as the paint had built up and I wanted the frog to have an abrupt edge of the notch to firmly secure it.
The notches were filed in the sides to facilitate the 'frog' which holds the scabbard and attaches it to your belt and/or gear.
A pouch can be attached to the front of the sheath by lacing paracord or running some nylon webbing between the belt of the frog and the scabbard body.
The sheath firmly holds the knife in all positions tightly and the knife crisply and cleanly clips into and out of the sheath and is held in place with no rattle or looseness.
****************
Here's the 3rd generation of my PVC sheath concept.
The knife is an old Western W66 Skinner with a tempered 4-3/8" long, 3/32" thick, 1095 carbon steel blade. It's a very handy little knife which takes and holds an edge quite nicely. I much favor the older 1095 carbon steel Western knives over the newer 420HC stainless ones. I also like the full tang W66 Western Skinner and it's hardwood slab sides vs it's L66 cousin which has a 'rat tail' type tang and a leather washer handle.
The knife needed a sheath. I was about to put one together out of some leather I had laying around when I noticed that I had some 1" PVC pipe and some extra charcoal laying around, so I figured that I would give it a try.
The sheath is hand molded from one piece of white 1" PVC water pipe that I heated over a charcoal barbecue grill.
After it was shaped and a drain hole drilled in the tip, it was then covered in primer spray paint for plastic and multiple, alternating coats of OD Green automotive spray paint and clear acrylic lacquer. The only place where the paint has come off is where the handguard tightly scrapes the inside neck of the sheath. The paint job elsewhere on the scabbard body has proven to be quite durable. There are also a couple of places in the 'notches' that I filed a bit after the paint had dried as the paint had built up and I wanted the frog to have an abrupt edge of the notch to firmly secure it.
The notches were filed in the sides to facilitate the 'frog' which holds the scabbard and attaches it to your belt and/or gear.
A pouch can be attached to the front of the sheath by lacing paracord or running some nylon webbing between the belt of the frog and the scabbard body.
The sheath firmly holds the knife in all positions tightly and the knife crisply and cleanly clips into and out of the sheath and is held in place with no rattle or looseness.
