MK: DIY Neck Knife W/ ABS Sheath

I´m making very small neck knife with nice compact sheath, suitable for every day carry.

Tools: drill press, anglegrinder w/ cut off and grinding discs, belt sander, heat gun, soft pad, drill.

Materials: old saw blade, piece of ABS, aluminum rivets, paracord.

I started by drilling 10mm(3/8") hole with a masonry drill bit. Then I annealed the piece of blade with my shop torch. After this I could use HSS drill bits, so I made 22mm(7/8") hole. When the boring was done, I used the angle grinder to cut it to rough shape to grind it to precise shape with grinding disc later. Now I created a bevel, again with the grinding disc in my angle grinder.

Then I used the belt sander to grind both flat surfaces of the knife. This created nice sharp line with the bevel and also beautiful brushed finnish.

I first cut the ABS sheet to rectangle bigger than the knife. Then I placed the knife on a flat surface and warmed the ABS to the point where it was very soft and ductile with the heat gun. Now I placed it on the knife and pressed it with soft pad using four clamps. I had to let it rest for a while for everything to cool down. Then I removed the pad and the knife. I haven´t got it correct untill 4th try because I was applying too little pressure, my ABS was too small, or the knife was positioned incorrectly to the ABS.

After theese steps, I attached second piece of ABS to the first one with double sided tape. Then I drilled 3mm(1/8") holes, fed through the rivets and punched them with hammer on a lead block to prevent the head of rivet to deform. When this was done I used jig saw mounted upside down in a vise to cut it to rough shape. A band saw would be much better for this step. Then I used my belt sander again to round over the edges.

Finally I added paracord to hang the knife on my neck.

This knife turned to be really nice and functional as well. If I were to do this again, I would make the sheet from much thinner material. I was working with 2,5mm(3/32") and something like 1,5mm(1/16") would probably be much better. Anyway, as you can see in the video, the blade is secured well in the sheath but it can also be pulled out using just your finger. What do you think of this knife? Is it too small to be really useful, or is it small enough to be your EDC?

Let me know in the comments, check out my YouTube channel, there´s new project video every thursday and don´t forget: get inspired, use what you have and make the best out of it!