All About Pocket Knives

Since you mentioned our slips, I'll give you a look at a belt sheath we are almost ready to bring to market. We are hammering out the last details of the prototype. I have been wearing it for a couple weeks, and I absolutely love it. It is thin, functional and very stylish. A few more tweaks....

very nice heavy duty belt sheath

how many grams does your standard pocket sheath weigh?

I read in your product description that cheap leather is not vegetable tanned like the saddle leather you use.

Is the use of garment leather not recommended for a knife sheath because it is chrome tanned and will cause the knife to corrode? Should I stop using my cool lightweight garment leather and deerskin pouches?

Interesting design Derrick. Looks like it mounts on the pants belt horizontally? What are the dimensions?

jon_slider wrote:very nice heavy duty belt sheath

how many grams does your standard pocket sheath weigh?

I read in your product description that cheap leather is not vegetable tanned like the saddle leather you use.

Is the use of garment leather not recommended for a knife sheath because it is chrome tanned and will cause the knife to corrode? Should I stop using my cool lightweight garment leather and deerskin pouches?

Any chrome tanned leather can react with steel. Usually, for short periods it is not an issue. Not sure how much it weighs. I will try to weigh it tomorrow.

Pigskin can make a good soft pocket pouch and kangaroo skin is particularly good because it is thin, supple and very strong. I'm guessing though that you might not be able to get that over there.

Now Jon, I like those two black pouches!
Where did you get those, how much and what sizes are the available in?

^me too^

The black leather slips were made by a friend at an upholstery shop. Machine stitched, split grain cowhide. It took several tries to come up with a pattern that fit. I am not in the business, but encourage people who are, to make more. I think Ostrich would be cool too

If you want to go to an upholstery shop and have them make you some, the open leather dimensions are 3" wide, 4.5" long, and the seam ends .75" below the top. This fits a single blade Charlow very closely. For a 2 blade you will want to go to 3.25, or possibly 3.5" wide before folding and stiching.







Some deerskin slips I made, hand laced.

For inside-the-pocket sheaths, why not buy a pair of deerskin or elk working gloves (about $12 at my local ranch supply store) and cut off the fingers? You would then have 10 pocket slip sheaths in 5 different sizes. Just a thought.

A. G. Russell sells several different styles of knife pouches.

I assume they are not made in the U.S.A., so shop according to your preferences.

He makes this style for small folders and also for small and large folding hunters.

I think these are very attractive, functional and they retain the knife securely.

Charlie Noyes

Pima Pants wrote:For inside-the-pocket sheaths, why not buy a pair of deerskin or elk working gloves (about $12 at my local ranch supply store) and cut off the fingers? You would then have 10 pocket slip sheaths in 5 different sizes. Just a thought.

Ahhhh a man after my own heart!

Pima Pants wrote:For inside-the-pocket sheaths, why not buy a pair of deerskin or elk working gloves (about $12 at my local ranch supply store) and cut off the fingers? You would then have 10 pocket slip sheaths in 5 different sizes. Just a thought.

thats what I did years ago,any pocket sheath just doesn't work for me but they sure are purty

more options, william henry knife sheaths
http://www.countryknives.com/store/dept ... 01&depth=3

cowhide


Ostrich!


and non clip versions made of cowhide


and also stingray,


reasonably priced
I hope somebody buys some and reviews them

Small William Henry RaySkin pouch for 3 to 3.25" knife with GEC 3.5" single blade Boys knife on left, peanut on right. The small RaySkin pouch weighs 10 grams and is 3.5" long and 1.25" wide.



Peanut in RaySkin



Empty



Opinion
The small RaySkin is too short for a GEC #15

A peanut fits well, but the material is stiff so the mouth holds open.

The RaySkin slip is very well made and attractive.

I might try a larger one for my charlow. They list one clip sheath for 3.5 to 3.75 in ostrich
http://www.countryknives.com/store/prod ... dept%5Fid=

I don't know if the clips are easily removable.

In non clip they don't have for 3.5" knives, but both RaySkin and Calfskin are available in 4"

I think 4" calf no clip would be a good match for a charlow:
http://www.countryknives.com/store/prod ... 5Fid=70201

I just received this William Henry Large Black Slip Case for knives that are 4 to 4.5". It is 4.5" tall, 1.5" wide, and weighs 11 Grams. The leather is thinner than the leather in the GEC version, which weighs 15 grams. Here is a frame of reference on weight. A US Nickel weighs 5 grams, so the GEC sheath weighs 3 nickels worth, and the WH just over 2 nickels weight. The Small KSF weighs about as much as 6 nickels.

I like this William Henry, it cost $20 plus $10 shipping from Country Knives. The leather appears to be vegetable tan. It arrived very stiff and glossy, and after rolling it around in my hands a couple of times its working in nicely. I like that it fits a 2 Blade Sheepfoot Charlow, pictured.

The only feature I do not like is the open hole on the bottom. They did not finish the sticking line. I don't know if that is a feature of all their slips, or a flaw specific to mine. I know KSF uses openings to increase the flex of their leather, and describe it as a positive feature to prevent lint and grit from accumulating inside the pouch.

I do recommend this WH pocket slip for a light, flexible protective skin for a knife that is carried in a pocket with other things including keys and change.







Now for the bad news, dont get it wet.
I decided to soak the sheath in hot water to see how much dye it shed.
the water got a lot of color, and the sheath shrunk to a point of being unuseable. The sheath is now 1/2" shorter, and 1/4" narrower, measured flat
fwiw, Ive given my garment leather sheaths the same treatment and they did not shrink, and did not shed dye as much.
Apparently vegetable tanned leather shrinks a LOT when it gets wet. The sheath lost 10% in length and 15% in circumference. And the leather tore like paper when I tried to pull the flap down.. This concludes our torture testing report

Since Im a slow learner, I decided to soak my GEC knife slip in hot water also, but I put the knife in a plastic bag first, so it would be easy to pull out. Will update after the sheath dries around the knife.

So far, the GEC sheds even more dye than the William Henry:

Ok, so the GEC sheath was reformed to the knife inside with a plastic bag around it. That worked well. Although I would like a slightly tighter fit, I may retry the soak and dry, without the knife in. I don't like the knife to fall out when I hold the sheath upside down.





as you can see, GEC uses rough cut leather for one side of their sheath. I wish they used smooth on both sides, but maybe they were hoping it would grab in the pocket. Its pretty rough and grabby thats for sure.



the hot water soak did a good job of forming the leather to the knife



This time I did the soak with the knife in the sheath, that works better than just soaking the sheath like I did with the WHenry, which allowed it to shrink too much.

I still prefer the soft, flexible, garment leather pouch I had made at an auto upholsery shop, but if you're not in a position to make your own or get one made, I think both the WH and the GEC have usefullness. I would go with the WH over the GEC because the WH has thinner, and less rough leather, on both sides.

Costwise the WH is about $10 more expensive after shipping.

These are my favorites. Looks like 2 different time periods.

I kept passing this thread Cool pouches guys .... here`s my 2 bits

Im not sure how big your knife is but I really like the suede slip pouches made by Case Knives. They come in small will fit a peanut or small stockman, medium like Muskrat or mini trapper, and large like a large stockman. You can by them in singles on xxcutlery.com, or case knife outlet. Ive also been looking at the Sack-ups knife sacks but have not gotten any. Hope this helps.

> suede slip pouches made by Case Knives

Thanks! I did not know about those. I just ordered a set of 5 and will post a review once I get them.

Quite a nice variety being shown, very impressive. I got a couple or so.

Here is a new belt sheath we just had made.

I just received a small Case swede knife pouch. It is 4" long, 1.25" wide, and weighs 8 grams. The flap closes with velcro.

The small pouch is a good width size for a Peanut, but 1" taller than necessary for that knife.

Unfortunately, my Barlow wont fit, even though the pouch is long enough, it is 1/2" too narrow.

It looks like the larger pouches are also long and skinny, so whichever one would be wide enough for my barlow, would be about twice as long as needed.

Thumbs down on the Case swede pouch for use with a barlow.

for some reason IMG codes are currently not allowed, not sure why, here is a picture you can click on

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ohdA ... G_7101.JPG