# Kydex tutorial / lots of pics



## chrisse242 (Sep 7, 2005)

*Kydex tutorial / Updated with clip options*

Kydex Tutorial / Belt attachment thoughts added 12/5/2005

It’s been more than a year that I first promised to write a Kydex tutorial for cpf. I finally decided to take the time and do it. 

I had planned to take pictures of the production process, but the most critical steps require working fast and I had no one to take the pics for me, so I had to skip this step.

This tutorial is meant to be a starter’s guide that shows how to get good results with basic tools. To make a knife sheath, you’ll need a press to achieve good results. For flashlights, a press sometimes is not the best way to go.

I'd suggest to start with easy projects. Any flashlight that has a simple round shape (Like many inovas, or the arc-ls) will be a good object to practice. Fancy heads, like all the latest surefire kl's will be much harder to work with.

There are three parts or chapters of this tutorial:

1.	Needed Tools and parts
2.	Preparations and building the holster
3.	Where to get the parts

Part 1: Needed Tools

Kydex is a thermoplastic so you’ll obviously need heat to form it. You have different options.

First: Your electric kitchen oven. This works and is probably the best method, but it has some drawbacks. Kydex smells really bad when hot and the fumes are not good for your health. So you need to have very good ventilation in your kitchen and there’d better be no wife that gets angry about the pizza tasting funny. :devil: 
If you have an old unused oven or one of those small ovens that are sold for bachelors apartments you’re good to go.

Second: A heatgun. Any model from your local hardware shop will do. This is my preferred method but for the tutorial it doesn’t matter which tool you use.

You need something to cut: I always have an exacto knife and a fine metal saw handy. As long as the kydex is cold, you can either use the saw or scribe and break it. When hot, the kydex is very soft and it’s easy to cut it with the exacto knife.

A drilling machine. In many cases, you’ll want to drill holes to attach a teklok or belt clip.

Cotton gloves: They will help a little in keeping the heat away from your skin.

A dremel or similar tool with a grinder to shape the edges of the holster will help, but sandpaper will work just as good.

Some types of Cyanoacrylate-superglue can be used to glue kydex

Parts: 

Kydex

chicago screws

a teklok or belt clip if you don't want to make your own clip

That’s about it.

Part 2: Preparations and building

This is probably the most critical step. Once you have cut the kydex, there is no way to go back and this stuff is not really cheap. So what I do when starting a new design, is making a template from cardboard first. Think about the shape you want, and make the template. Wrap the cardboard around your light as tightly as possible and check if it looks like you want the holster to look. Once you have achieved the desired design, put the cardboard flat on your kydex-sheet and draw around it with a pencil. You can cut directly as well, but be careful to leave some material around the template for an error margin in either case.

Make sure you have the right side of the kydex facing up. More than once, I had the textured side on the inside of my holsters.

Now you’re good to go. Carefully heat the kydex and have your flashlight nearby. Remove batteries and LED’s/Drivers if possible. It’s best to heat the untextured side, if you overheat the piece, it’ll become ugly, but that’s less of a problem on the inside of your holster.

Once the kydex is soft, you can wrap it around your light. If you want to attach a belt clip or teklok, make sure the back side stays flat. Keep up pressure until you feel the kydex cooling down and becoming harder. It will now keep its shape. You’ll probably need to partially heat it up again for some fine-tuning. Since it is now the textured side that is treated, be careful not to overheat it. 
If you messed something up, you can heat up the whole piece and it will become flat again.

Once you have a tight fit, you can drill holes, screw in the chicago screws, shape and finish the edges.


Some pictures of sheaths:

1: Sandwich: Consists of two pieces, held together by rivets.
Rivets are not needed if you have chicago screws. They often look better than the screws, but you'll need a special tool to attach them. So for a starters kit, I'd do it without rivets.











2: wrapped around the light:













3: Slimline. Made to be as small as possible. Fixed with rivets on bottom, glued at the side.






4: Without screws, simply holding the light by tension.
This is a prototype I made for the arc4 and HDS. It's on it's way to be tested with the HDS EDC.
A good design to start with.
By the way, here you can see what happens when you overheat the kydex.
It became shiny in the lower part of the holster. Some more heat and ugly bubbles would have appeard. 






















For a starters kit, I'd probably order from www.texasknife.com, at least if I where in the US. Some knifemakers will probably sell kydex and chicago screws as well. Knife-Forums like bladeforums.com have some sources too. Everything else can be found in your local hardware store.


Happy kydexing everyone! :wave:


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## jtice (Sep 7, 2005)

*Re: Kydex tutorial*

Great job Chrisse !

I have thought about trying kydex before, really nice stuff.

I look forward to the rest of your tutorial ! :thumbsup:

~John


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## chrisse242 (Sep 7, 2005)

*Re: Kydex tutorial*

Thanks John, took me some time to write it. I'm not used to writing texts this long in english, and after being half way finished the first time, my computer crashed and I had to start again.   

I'll put up some pics, and sources and that is about what was planned.
If there are any questions or suggestions, feel free to post.


Chrisse


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## cy (Sep 7, 2005)

*Re: Kydex tutorial*

good job! Chrisse

our resident Kydex expert


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## chrisse242 (Sep 7, 2005)

*Re: Kydex tutorial*

  I'm far from being an expert! Just trying to give back a little to the community. I've learned so much and I had (and am still having) such a good time here...

Chrisse


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## chrisse242 (Sep 7, 2005)

OK, for now I'm finished. I'll try to update the post with pictures of the process if I get a chance.

Chrisse


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## Zackerty (Sep 7, 2005)

Chrisse, Good tutorial!

BTW, PVC glue will glue Kydex very well, BUT a mechanical screw or bolt method should still be used, but not as many screws etc are required...


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## chrisse242 (Sep 7, 2005)

Zackerty said:


> Chrisse, Good tutorial!
> 
> BTW, PVC glue will glue Kydex very well, BUT a mechanical screw or bolt method should still be used, but not as many screws etc are required...



Thanks Zackerty, your comment is more than welcome. If have a sheath for my darts that is held together with nothing but one screw and superglue, it works pretty good. Another option I forgot is to melt both parts together. I never use this method, because I never managed to get a nice edge.

Chrisse


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## tvodrd (Sep 7, 2005)

:wave: chrisse

Hopefully, Roth will see this and add it in the sticky at the top of this Board! Well done!

Larry


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## Rothrandir (Sep 7, 2005)

great idea larry!

and nice work chrisse!!


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## chrisse242 (Sep 8, 2005)

Thanks guys!


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## TheJumman (Sep 8, 2005)

Good tutorial & nice pics! Congratulations.




BTW Any kydex source in good old Europe




Thanx


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## chrisse242 (Sep 8, 2005)

I get my supply from a guy in the german www.messerforum.net (A knife forum). I doubt he'd do international shipping, though. In general, kydex is hard to find in europe... :scowl: 

Chrisse


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## Moe (Sep 8, 2005)

Great tutorial.

You can get Kydex from sekisui in Germany directly. Shipping costs are so high, that its almost always better, to order smaller amounts from different sources though. If you order 15 sheets (24" x 24") shipping is free.
At least thats what the sales guy told me on the phone some time ago.

But who needs that much kydex???


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## chrisse242 (Dec 4, 2005)

*Re: Kydex tutorial / Part 4: attaching to a belt*

Part 4: Attaching a holster to your belt.

When building a holster you'll want to attach it to your belt, so you can carry it around. There's no use in a holster that you have to carry in your hand is it? :laughing: 

There are a few aftermarket systems that are available. The most common would be the teklok system that is shown in the last pictures in post one. It's a very good system that allows to easily attach and detach the holster while still being very secure. The major drawback is, this system is thick and will add a lot of bulk to your holster. There are also some enclosed aftermarket belt loops, but to use those you have to open your belt each time you want to take the holster on or of. 
So, many of us carry very small lights and sometimes we don't want everyone to see we're carrying a light. A slim profile is needed in this case. 

I found a selfmade belt clip to be the best option for most of my holsters. Each can be made to exactly fit onto your belt, they are easy to attach and detach, still secure enough to make sure you'll not loose the holster or draw it of the belt with the flashlight.

Below are three pics of how a kydex clip can be wrapped around a belt.
the red line is meant to be the belt, the blue line is the kydex.












The Pics one and two show solutions that are less desireable.
To attach and detach number one, you'll have to take of your belt. If we wanted to do that, we could use an enclosed loop instead of a clip.
Number two will likely slide of your belt once you try to draw the light. We still want the light in our hand, not the light inside it's holster.

So, obviously number three would be the one we want. It's got a small hook that will catch the belt, but with a little force, we can get it of. As long as you're simply pulling out the light, the holster should stay in place. 
Making the hook isn't exactly easy. It's best to start of like in this pic:






Now cut of the overlapping part like in this pic:






Now fold over the other side untill you have this result:






If you want to make a detachable clip, don't forget to add holes for screws, (represented by the black spots) before the final folding.
It always good to calculate a few centimeters more than needed in the end.

Well, maybe this part wasn't really needed as most will have figured out how to make a clip by themselves, but I had a boring evening and thought I'd add my thoughts to the tutorial.

Chrisse


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## dougmccoy (Dec 5, 2005)

Chrisse

Great stuff! Nicely written tutorials. I dont want to teach you how to suck eggs but as a finish to the edges of your holsters have you used/tried acetone? Most of the professionals use the following technique with excellent results. Once the final profile on a sheath or holster is achieved by sanding a piece of cloth such as old towells or flannel dipped into neat acetone can be vigorously used to smooth the edges to achieve a very professional finish.

Again, one should not do this in a confined space and you should preferably have some sort of gloves on.

See what you think?

Doug


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## chrisse242 (Dec 5, 2005)

No professional here, but I heard about that. I guess I have to try it some day. ;-) 

Thanks, Chrisse


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## dougmccoy (Dec 5, 2005)

Chrisse

Don't put yourself down your work is excellent!

Doug


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## cy (Dec 5, 2005)

chrisse does some of the nicest work in kydex I've had the pleasure to use!


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## chrisse242 (Dec 5, 2005)




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## Kenski (Dec 22, 2005)

Wow! :rock:
Extremely good info. And very well-written, Chrisse. Your writing is better than many native-speakers!

Anyone else have US sources for Kydex?

Kenski


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## chrisse242 (Dec 22, 2005)

Thanks Kenski, a CPF member (Rudi?) once told me about a ource in the US, but I can't remember it. A google search could help.

Chrisse


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