Simple and inexpensive sheath modifications ...

I really like the concept of knife sheaths that do more than simply house the knife; I've seen several good ways that sheaths have been use to house additional survival/outdoor gear both in custom and commercial sheaths.

So, with the goal of making my F1's sheath a bit more useful, I've added a firesteel holder in addition to a cord wrap:



Basically, I found a pen that had an interior diameter that matched my firesteel and sawed it down to length so that it was shorter than my firesteel. I then used electrical tape to secure it to the sheath:



After that, I used around 7.5' of paracord to wrap the final assembly.



I ended up using a Primus firesteel which hasn't seen any real use yet instead of my well used LMF one (the Primus is the same diameter as the LMF Scout, but a little longer). Interestingly, I always thought the Primus was a substandard product until I tried it using the spine of my F1. Used this way, it was comparable to the LMF when struck the same way. I guess all it really had was a substandard striker!

One note, this solution alone does not hold the firesteel in place securely. The Primus firesteel uses a thin shockcord instead of regular cord which, when shortened a bit, can then be used to secure the firesteel (this can be seen in the first picture above).

I just did this last night so this hasn't seen any real world use yet.

Finally, on a somewhat related note, I have come up with a good way to carry the knife while backpacking. Taking some inspiration from leather dangler sheaths, I figured out there was no reason the same idea couldn't work with the F1's zytel sheath (or any knife where the weight of the knife is under the top of the belt loop).

I simply tied a piece of paracord in a loop and used that as the dangler. By feeding the loop through the sheath's belt loop, then feeding my belt through the 2 ends of the loop, I had a dangler:



This I did try on my last backpacking trip and it worked great. It enabled me to carry my knife easily both when I was wearing a pack and when I wasn't.

thats a cool mod, way to think outside of the sheath Just wondering if a dangling sheath would annoying as it bounces around the thigh or did you tie it off around your leg?

Thanks greeenghost.

Regarding the dangler, I didn't tie it off and didn't really notice it bouncing around at all. I'm guessing part of the reason for this is that the waist belt from my pack would have been directly over top of most of the cord, holding that part fairly secure. Therefore the sheath didn't really behave much differently than normal, with the exception of being a bit farther down the leg.

The only time I had the dangler set up without something like a waist belt over top of it would have been around camp. I really didn't walk any distance of note this way, but didn't have any discomfort either.

That said, I don't think I'd use this set-up if I was just going on a day hike with a regular day pack. The only other way I may use this dangler idea is winter camping. I'm thinking having the knife ride lower might be helpful in that situation; allowing easier access to the knife without having to pull up the waist of my coat.

I like the sheath mods, the dangler idea is a nice way to wear the pack and the knife.

I usually carry my knife in the pack instead to prevent loss. If I am going to be using the knife while wearing the pack, I usually rig the sheath for around the neck carry. Only works with a small knife, like a Mora 510 though.

I have a few leather danglers just never gave them much play. I guess I need to try them out with a pack on. Cheers!

I've never heard of a mora 510. Do you mean the 511?

Nope, the 510 is a discontinued model that looks like the 511 without the oversized finger guard. The 510 also has a thinner profile sheath because of the lack of finger guard.

Shame it is not around anymore, it was very popular with bushcrafters and many take 511's and remove the finger guard to make a 510 clone from them.

Interesting. Just went to ebay and there is no mora 510 knife available - but you can get a custom-leather sheath for $60!

Here is a Mora 510 and the Mora plastic sheath.

Mora make one of their knives; The Bushcraft Survival; #11835
with a fire starter (and a sharpener) already on the sheath if you can't be bothered to do it yourself:


http://www.ragweedforge.com/SwedishKnifeCatalog.html

That's a good example of the type of commercial solution that inspired me to modify my sheath. Other examples would be Gerber's BG Ultimate knife, the Camillus Les Stroud Mountain knife, and the simpler Blind Horse Knives sheaths (these also introduced me to the dangler idea). Of course some of these commercial solutions do add more functionality to the sheath than I did, but maybe I'll figure out some other simple and unobtrusive additions one of these days .

As a side note, the Light My Fire collaboration with Mora, the Swedish FireKnife, is kind of cool as well, though it doesn't really relate to the sheath theme here.

I had a little time this weekend and came up with an improved dangler design. Of course, "improved" isn't all that hard given my previous design consisted of a piece of cord, tied in a knot .

I started with an old piece of webbing with a tri-glide on it and a quick-link (both things I had floating around that I kept because they might come in handy some day).



I cut the webbing down to about 11 inches and made it into a loop; I doubled over the end that I fed through the tri-glide and sewed it so it so the webbing end cannot fit back through the tri-glide. Then I put the quick-link on the sheath's belt loop.




Finally, by putting the small webbing loop I made through the quick-link as well, I had an adjustable dangler that seems like it will do the job well:



This not only seems more secure than my previous set-up, but it is easily adjustable depending on how much "dangle" I want.

Very nice!thanks for sharing Dennis. I can sense my inner copycat springing to life.


One question: did you secure the ferro rod in any way other than the tube it slides into? It looks like you might have a para cord loop going through the handle. I would be inclined to do that to prevent the ferro rod from falling out, as long as the ferro rod leash was long enough.

Yes, actually the Primus firesteels use a small diameter shock-cord which seems to be the perfect solution. I just shortened it a bit (cut off the cord-end & tied the ends instead) and it now works perfectly. Here's a close up of it which hopefully helps:



The nice thing about the shock-cord is that it stretches into place and feels nice & secure when holding the firesteel. I've had it out in the woods a bunch of times since the original modifications and have had no problems at all with the set-up.