After having a customer comment that whether a sheath hangs on the
left hip or the right hip makes a difference in their decision to buy a
knife and after following a thread on rec.knives in which desirable
features in sheaths included adjustable belt loops, 'built-in' hilt
retainers (no snaps), and some protection for the handle, I came up
with the 'SinDex' (Sinister / Dexter) sheaths. The basic idea is to
make a sheath that fits the blade and to make a separate hanger unit.
The Mark I is a 'Tulip' sheath, i.e., the leather is shaped to fit
around the guard and handle. An example is:
The leather has been soaked in a hot bees wax/linseed oil mixture. As a result the knife is held securely but can be removed or replaced using one hand (though in some examples, a thumb against the back top of the sheath helps). The Mark II replaces the enlarged upper section with an auxiliary strap of leather glued and sewed onto the mouth of the sheath. This strap has riveted to it a lock strap. The lock strap pivots on the rivets and when swung upwards, it hold the blade in the sheath. The Mark II looks like: 
In both cases, the sheath slides into a hanger unit which is tightly fitted to the sheath. The hanger unit is composed of two parts, the hanger proper, and the belt loop. Typically, it takes a hand on the hanger and another on the sheath to remove the sheath & blade unit from the hanger. The hanger is attached to the belt loop with a combination of nickel-silver washers and a large copper rivet. The rivet is set tightly enough that the hanger is difficult to rotate but can be moved. To reverse the sheath, all the user must do is withdraw the sheath/blade from the hanger, rotate the hanger, and re-insert the sheath/blade. It doesn't get much simpler than that. If the users wants to sit down (say in a car), he/she can also just slip the sheath/blade out of the hanger and doesn't have to take the hanger off their belt. The last feature is the belt-loop. To address the question of adjustability for different width belts, I extended the loop downward and riveted it together just above the rotation point. The forward and back straps of the loop have matching holes and there is a block of leather and a brass bolt/nut combination that can slide up or down between the straps to form an opening from 1.5" to 3". Since I've ripped off ideas from enough other knifemakers,I can't patented this idea but would appreciate it if you mention where the idea came from if you use it. Steve Bloom, IronFlower Forge |
