This is the press I use  to set the rivets when building Kydex thermoplastic sheaths.

A friend helped me modify an old Herters  bullet reloading press (found on a street corner on trash day-Thanks, Nathan!) to accept the rivet dies.

Works like a charm.

This is the press I use to form the Kydex when making thermoplastic sheaths.  I found the main framework at my scrapyard, then modified it to fit my needs.  It works very well.

This is the basic process I go through when I construct a sheath from Kydex type material. In the future I hope to add photos to make this more of a tutorial, but for now I am posting this written process for people who might be interested.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions if you are confused or you think something needs clarification.

(to see a larger image, click on the picture)

First, decide if a slab (two-piece) or pouch (fold-over one piece) is best for the knife.

POUCH SHEATH

Draw a line down the center of a piece of paper or card stock (old manila folders are perfect), dividing the paper in two roughly even portions.

Lay the knife on its back (spine) with the blade edge up and the spine covering and parallel the line drawn on the paper.  Gently role the knife down so it is resting on its side.   Generally, the side of the knife that should be facing up now will be whatever side that will be away from the body when the sheath will be worn, i.e. if the sheath will be worn on the right hip, point down, blade edge back, the “right” side of the knife will be facing up on the pattern.

The line drawn on the paper should now be just visible above the spine of the knife.

Trace the outline of the blade and the handle onto the pattern paper.  It is not really necessary to trace the back of the handle or the spine of the blade, as they will hopefully be tight against the fold of the finished sheath.

Set the knife aside.

Trace a second line along the edge but spaced 5/8” from it.  This will roughly be the edge of the sheath.

Add another rough-sketched line ~1/2-1″ from the sheath edge line.  This will be the cut-out line for the Kydex.

Cut out the pattern to the cut-out line.  Leave excess around the handle area, depending on how you want to make the belt clip (a one piece belt clip integral to the sheath will require excess Kydex around the handle area, while a separate clip will require less).

Position the pattern on a sheet of the preferred color of Kydex, trace the pattern and then cut out the sheath.

Pre-heat an oven to 275-300oC.  Make sure an accurate thermometer is used, not the built-in one.

If necessary, tape off the blade of the knife, and any other parts where a tight fit is not desired, with masking or blue painters tape.  Try to do an even job as any unevenness will telescope through in the forming step and be visible in the surface of the sheath.   It is simplest to run the tape the length of each side of the blade, trimming off any excess.  Alternatively, trace an exact profile of the blade of the knife on cardstock or poster board and cut out two of these patterns.  Tape one of these patterns to each side o the blade.  These will functionally make the blade thicker than it actually is, so when the sheath, when formed the sheath will be slightly thicker than the thickness of the blade, so frictionbetween the blade and sheath will be reduced.

On the back side of the Kydex, or the inside of the sheath, trace a few index lines for positioning the knife.  Useful lines include a center line for the spine of the knife, tip location, etc.

When the oven has acclimated, place the Kydex in the oven.  Heat the Kydex until it feels like limp rubber and is floppy, usually about 5-7 minutes.

Once the Kydex is ready, remove it from the oven (cotton gloves can help).

Wrap the Kydex around the knife, being careful of the edge and noting the index marks made earlier on the inside of the Kydex.  Make sure the spine of the knife is tight against the fold in the Kydex.

Place the folded Kydex around the knife into the press base, carefully adding the upper part of the press on top.

(Go to FORMING)

SLAB SHEATH

Lay the knife in the middle of piece of paper or card stock (old manila folders are perfect).  Generally, the side of the knife that should be facing up now will be whatever side that will be away from the body when the sheath will be worn, ie. If the sheath will be worn on the right hip, point down, blade edge back, the “right” side of the knife will be facing up on the pattern.

Trace the outline of the blade and the handle onto the pattern paper.

Set the knife aside.

Trace a second line along the first line of the knife profile but spaced 5/8” from it.  This will roughly be the edge of the sheath.

Add another rough-sketched line ~1/2 from the sheath edge line.  This will be the cut-out line for the Kydex.

Cut the pattern out on the cut-out line.  Depending on how you want to make the belt clip, leave excess around the handle area (a one piece belt clip integral to the sheath will require more excess Kydex around the handle area, while a separate clip will require much less).

Position the pattern on a sheet of the preferred color of Kydex, trace the pattern and then cut out the larger back portion of the sheath.  Trace and cut out the somewhat shorter front portion of the sheath.

Pre-heat an oven to 275-300oC.  Make sure an accurate thermometer is used, not the built-in one.

If necessary, tape off the blade of the knife, and any other parts where a tight fit is not desired, with masking or blue painters tape.  Try to do an even job as any unevenness will telescope through in the forming step and be visible in the surface of the sheath.  It is simplest to run the tape the length of each side of the blade, trimming of any excess.  Alternatively, trace an exact profile of the blade of the knife on cardstock or poster board and cut out two of these patterns.  Tape one of these patterns to each side o the blade.  These will functionally make the blade thicker than it actually is, so when the sheath, when formed the sheath will be slightly thicker than the thickness of the blade, so friction between the blade and sheath will be reduced.

On the back side of the Kydex, or the inside of the sheath, trace a few index lines for positioning the knife.  Useful lines include one for the spine of the blade, tip location, etc.

If necessary, attach the drain form to the tip of the blade.

When the oven has acclimated, place both pieces of Kydex in the oven.  Heat the Kydex until it feels like limp rubber and is floppy, usually about 5-7 minutes.

Once the Kydex is ready, remove it from the oven (cotton gloves can help).

Place the large back piece of the sheath onto the base of the press, position the knife on top of that, add the front piece the sheath, check the drain form, carefully add the upper part of the press.

(Go to FORMING)

FORMING

Apply pressure, either by standing on top of the press, adding weight or hydraulic pressure.

The sheath should be cool enough to remove from the press in 10-15 minutes.  Ideally let the knife and sheath remain in the press for 20-30 minutes to insure complete cooling and forming.

Once the sheath has been removed from the press, carefully remove the knife from the sheath, being aware of the sharp edge.

Using the pattern, trace roughly where the edge of the sheath will be and cut off some of the excess with a band saw or scroll saw.

Clean out the inside of the sheath of any dust.

Using the knife, carefully test the fit and retention.  It will help to use a few clamps to simulate the rivets along the edge of the sheath.

Use a heat gun, saw, sander, etc. to adjust the fit until it seems close.

Measure and mark all rivet locations with a countersink.  A compass and ruler or dial caliper can help with rivet layout.  Don’t locate any rivets very close to the mouth of the sheath.  Placing the first rivet 1-1 ½” from the end of the handle will allow the spring of the Kydex to retain the knife but still allow ease of drawing or resheathing.

Clamp the edge of the sheath and slowly drill each rivet hole with an appropriate sized brad-point drill.  It may help to insert a few rivets in finished holes as you drill to aid in keeping the two  sides of the sheath lined up as hole are drilled.  Drill slowly and carefully, as the holes should be straight and true, and drilling fast can melt and damage the holes.  Use a countersink to hand de-bur the holes.

Finish sanding the edges, do any sculpting desired.

Polish edges with 220 grit sandpaper dry, 220 grit sandpaper wet and then a lightlydamp piece of denim cloth.  Final polish can be done with 000 steel wool with a little water, oil or WD-40 for a shiny edge.

Clean out the sheath with a dry rag.

Clamp the edge of the sheath or install a few Chicago bolts and do any final stamping or adjsutign of fit with the heat gun.

Set the rivets carefully.  Place the factory side of the rivet in the front or most visible side of the sheath.

Build or add the belt loop device.  Separate belt clips are the easiest to do (and to replace if it breaks later), but integrals can look much nicer.

This is the current shop. This shop is made up of three rooms: the main Cutlery Shop, a separate Grinding Room and a separate Woodshop. When we purchased the land, house and this building (which is a two bay garage with two rooms on each side), I had to start by rebuilding the entire south wall because it was rotten and had a fairly thriving population of termites making their living there. After installing three windows and four doors, building three walls, putting in a 60 amp subpanel and wiring the three rooms with dedicated lighting, multiple 220v and 110v circuits, insulating the ceiling and walls and sheathing the entire thing, it ended up being a fairly nice place to work. I did all the designing, framing, wiring… well, everything, myself (well, I did get some help from my wife) so I am kind of proud of it. The rooms may be small, but they are easy to heat with radiant oil and cadet heaters so they work fine for now, and this shop is much more than I ever had in the past, so I am happy. Almost all of the “furniture” in each room I salvaged from dumpsters, for free. I built all the bench tops and the bench in the Grinding room. Of course the shop will probably never be completely finished; lots of little things that still have to be done, but we should be here for a while, so I should have plenty of time to work on it. I have included a few pictures of what it looked like when I started.

I would like to emphasis that it is possible to have a fairly “nice” shop and good tools on a very tight budget. I doubt I would be considered monetarily wealthy, but, I am patient, a fairly good scavenger and am skilled at fixing, modifying and making the best of what others throw out. As I mentioned elsewhere, almost all of the benches, chairs, desks cabinets, etc came from dumpsters and demolitions, a few from garage sales. I keep my eyes open and am not afraid to ask if someone is throwing something out if I can make a deal on it, and they usually just give it to me so they don’t have to haul it to the dump. I think the real trick is knowing your limitations, both in skill and space, and knowing when to go after things that you know you can use, and passing on those that you aren’t sure about. Scrounging can lead one to begin to take anything home because “it was such a good deal”, “hey, I could save a bundle if I could figure out how to fix that” and “I might be able to find a use for that someday…” That is fine, and I have been guilty of it, too. But just try and not fill your shop to the point you start moving it into the house; that may not work out so well.

I have acquired the tools over many years of patience, flexibility, watching sales, visiting used stores and garage/barn sales and spreading the word. It adds up over time. I feel that because I went about it this way, I have grown to appreciate what I have much more than if I had just bought everything new outright to start with (even if I could have).

	Looking toward the northeast corner of the Cutlery Shop: End of sharpening bench; a storage cabinet (old file cabinet with roll out doors); door to Woodshop and my old cheap but effective Harbor Freight drillpress. Note the fire extinguisher and cadet heater.
	Looking southeast in the Cutlery Shop: The drillpress; the door to the Grinding Room and the east end of my main bench.
	The southwest corner of the Cutlery Shop: The west end of the main bench; storage for various parts and material and a wall cabinet for more storage; the machinist chest; desk where I do most of the leatherwork, etc. Note the stereo; got to have tunes!
	Looking toward the northwest corner of the Cutlery Shop: The desk; the subpanel for the shop and garage; the main entrance door from outside; the sharpening bench and a storage shelf.
	A close-up of the sharpening bench, with my EdgePro sharpener on the left, a Norton stone in the rear and a strop in the foreground.
	A close-up of the desk with a custom sheath in progress for an older Al Mar SOG.
	A closer view of the main bench. The bench top is constructed of four layers: the bottom is ½” CDX plywood recycled from a shipping crate, next is a layer of ½” particle board recycled from a remodel, then another layer of new ½” CDX plywood. These layers are all glued together. The surface of the bench top is a sheet of ¼” masonite screwed to the bench top so that it can be replaced when it wears out. All corners and edges are rounded. This bench top is then screwed up from underneath to the metal bench units. All in all, pretty solid. I considered using plastic laminate (used for countertops), but prefer the feel of wood, and find the laminate to be a little slick, although it would last a lot longer.
	Looking into the Grinding Room: The Grizzly, KMG-1, grinding belts on the back walls and the unfinished dust evacuation system.
	Looking back toward the Grinding Room door: Grizzly grinder, Jet 4×6 metal bandsaw and the cabinet that holds my buffs and compounds.
	This is the steel cabinet where I store my buffs and compounds, all sealed in recycled ziplock tortilla bags (yea I eat a lot of tortillas, what is your point?).

	Here are some photos of the small Woodshop, which allows us to work on remodeling our old farmhouse and where I will be building furniture and toys for our child and our daycare. I have several Grizzly tools in here, and highly recommend them if you are looking for some very well made tools at very reasonable prices. Many of their tools are far form low quality imports.

Building Stage

Here are some pictures of my last shop when I lived in Monmouth, OR. This is a very small single-car garage. Sure had a lot of stuff in that small space.

This is the shop I built when I lived in Trout Lake, WA. It was a small lean-to garden shed I extended and added a wall to. It was pretty small, and pretty darn cold in the winter (4-5 feet of snow outside, no insulation). But then I got a little stove crammed in there. That was much nicer. It was a cozy little closet. I don’t know how many times I banged my elbows or hips onto machinery or bench corners in there. The condensation was a bear.