I am asked on a regular basis what the knife laws are.

Be it old age or just a mental block I can not seem to remember all the little details for the state I am living in, let alone all the others.

Since I am a knife nut and travel from state to state on vacation I reference this web site for the knife laws several time a year.

I hope you will find this infromation as useful as I do.

Andrew

Items needed

1.Bottle of Birchwood Casey brass black
2.Q-tip

It is easy and fool proof , here is how.
1.Remove knife from sheath
2.Dip Q-tip in to brass black and dab on rivets
3.Cover all rivets that need a touch up making sure you have enough brass black on each one.
4.Once you see color change to how you want it rinse off with water and pat dry.
5.If when you are done the rivets are not dark enough just repeat these steps.

That’s all there is to it and your sheath looks 100% better and much closer to its original beauty .

More tips to come so check back often.

Andrew Stewart

Armadillo Sheaths

I would like to be able to say that I came up with this little tip but it was one of my customers who let me in on this little secret. Do you have any tips that can help others? If so send them to me and lets get the word out to everyone.

Andrew Stewart

With summer almost here it brings to mind fun in the sun and the car that is too hot when you first get in. Your car can reach temps well above safe levels for dogs, cats, people and kydex. In one article I read it stated that your car can reach temps of over 200 degrees f. “ Cracking” your windows will not always help this problem .

As you may recall kydex is a thermal plastic and is heated to form around your knife. Unlike other plastics, kydex has no memory of its shape and when reheated it will relax and lose its form. With that said, if a sheath made of kydex is left in a hot car that relaxes it, it will not retain your knife anymore.

Like a hot car any other hot area such as near a camp fire or stove will hurt your sheath and you may end up with a molten blob of goo.

Okay, so you did not read this or you just forgot that you had your sheath in the car and it sat in the sun and now your sheath is not much more than a nice looking piece of kydex with rivets that won’t hold a knife. So what should you do? Contact me, if it is not too far gone I can re-press it and get its form back. Only in some extreme cases I will not be able to fix it.

Enjoy your summer, keep yourself and your kydex cool.

Andrew Stewart
Armadillo Sheath

It was not my intention to make this a business but just something to play with in my spare time, but as time went on people kept telling me I should open up a business, that I had a talent. So I opened a business with no idea where it would go.

I decided that first I needed a web site, but I had no idea of how to make one or get a domain. With a little research and a lot of help from my wife I started up my web site. And the orders from other then friends started to come in. I knew that I was the new kid on the block and that there were several Kydex sheath makers out there who were already making a name for themselves. This was something I loved doing and I figured I could make a little extra spending cash for items that the household budget did not allow for.

The first year was rough with growing pains and few orders. My expectations were low and that was probably a good thing as I would have been upset if they were high. The second and third years were better doubling my orders each year. The fourth year things have just taken off. I have made sheaths for survival experts, a large knife co. and people like you and me in and out of the United States.

I still do this as a side line to my “real job” but it seems to be taking more and more of my time to keep up with demand. I now have a web site, blog, You Tube videos, and Facebook to keep up with. The shop is expanding along with orders for sheaths. This may soon be my full time job.

My Brother in law still makes custom knives and sheaths, and was finally able to invest in a leather sewing machine to save his hands. On the rare occasion I still make him a kydex sheath, but now he pays for them!

Andrew Stewart

Armadillo Sheaths

Making a choice as to what type of attachment you want on you new custom sheath can be difficult. The first thing you need to think of is how you will mostly use your sheath. For instance if you are going to use it on a pack, drop leg, or chest rig that has molle or pals webbing then it is a no brainier that you want the molle lok. If however you want to carry it on your belt then a molle lok is not what you want then you want a tek lok or something else besides a molle lok.

Molle locks are made of hard plastic and have metal hinge pins, when the lock is closed the gap between the two half’s is only big enough to support the thin web of molle or pals webbing. I am sure you can force it to fit on a belt but the lock will give out and break in short order.

The tek lok is made for belts the small tek lock will support up to a 1.5” belt and the large up to 2.25” belt. The new large tek lok has a new locking system which makes it one of the best all around choices choices. Law enforcement and civilian alike find this to be one of the best belt attachments as it can be taken off or put on without removing your belt. It has 6 holes in the back for easy mounting to the sheath and shim bars to fit it to your belt size. The small tek lok does not have the shim bars at this time and still has the old lock system (or none at all) I can be used in both vertical and horizontal applications.

So what if you want to be able to put it on a belt and a molle compatible piece of gear?

In most cases you can install the molle lok in the same holes as the tek lok and just interchange them. This can be done by removing the screws that hold the lock on, switch the molle lok out with the tek lok or vise virsa and re-install the screws. For the best fit it helps to inform me before the sheath is made that you intend to use both types of locks.

Do I need 1 or 2 molle loks, large or small ?

1 Molle loc will work on a fold over sheath in most cases and will be mostly secure if you are going to wear it in the vertical position only (handle up or down), it will require an adapter for two locks. The sandwich style sheath works best for vertical and horizontal carry without any type of adapter. Molle loks come in two sizes also 4” (small) and 6”

(large) measure your gear and knife to figure out what will work best for you.

Although there are many choices in sheath attachments I covered the two most popular if you find something more to your liking then go with that type. I use all types of attachments on my personal sheaths it just depends on my needs at that time.

In this article I use the term sandwich style sheath others may call this a pancake style. I prefer to call it a sandwich style because it just makes sense to me as I put something between bread in my sandwich but never put anything between my pancakes.

I hope you find this information useful should you have any comments please feel free to leave them below.

Andrew Stewart

Armadillo Sheaths LLC

Disclaimer

Tek Lok and Molle Lok are both made by Blade Tech industry and are registered trade marks of Blade Tech industry.

I have one question asked almost once a week. “How good is the retention on your sheaths?”

That question will always be answered with a question of my own. What type of handle scales does the knife have?

There are several items that affect the retention of the blade in the sheath some being the handle material, blade shape, and sheaths style. (fold over or sandwich)

Some knife and sheath makers has a retention screw so you can adjust the retention of the sheath. I do not do this as I feel you are ordering a custom sheath it should look and act custom to the knife. Not a one size fits all sheath.

I make all my sheath to hold the knife in the sheath when held upside down and shook. If for some reason the customer needs an extra tight retention, I can do that too.

The bottom line, the retention on my sheaths is good.

Andrew Stewart

Armadillo Sheaths LLC

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Anderw

I asked my son to do a review on his Shakespheare 6′ 6” collapseable rod. A little background on my son. He is 4 of 6 as in the 4 of my children in the line of 6. He is a junior in college studing hard and playing hard. Has always enjoyed the outdoors, and on his free time would rather be out in the dirt then in a house.

Hey everyone,

I would like to call myself a recreational fisher, fishing about 2 times a week, it’s something I enjoy a lot.

So I got this Shakespheare 6′ 6” collapseable rod for christmas about a year ago and I use it often. It has many plus sizes to it but the number one reason to buy this pole is for its convenience. I’m a college student and this pole literally goes everywhere with me. It only takes up about a foot of room in your back and can easily be stowed under my seats in my car. It’s practically weightless but reels in like a champ.

I’ve caught tons of fish with this from small mouth bass, to large catfish and trout. If your the kind of person that like to go out on the pond or lake and fish for a hobby, this is definitely the pole for you. It will bend and bend but my pole has never broken, but I may recommend getting a stronger line than the one in it (although the one works fine for me, i just lost a huge catfish once). It also reels in smoothly.

I stow it away with the spinning reel, hook, fly bobber and swivel still on it and still doesn’t hinder space in my car as well as its easy to get started fishing on the spot.

One downside this pole can arguably have is that you’ll find yourself getting a bird’s nest every now and again, but when doesn’t that happen?

-Keeping my head bowed, fingers crossed and hard work high-

Michael Stewart