Rough Edge EDC: Leather sheath, slip sharpen up look of knives
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – My latest EDC adventures have revolved around exploring leather goods and accessories to augment my everyday carry.
Let me set this story up a bit.
Back around Black Friday, Cold Steel Knives made me an offer I couldn’t refuse – 25 percent off any knife and free shipping.
So, I chose a Cold Steel Peacemaker III. With the offer, the knife came in at under $30. Like I told a couple of friends, they practically gave it to me.
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It’s a super lightweight fixed-blade knife with a 4-inch blade. It’s pretty handy to carry in your pocket, on your belt or even in your boot.
It is billed as a inexpensive knife that can be used for hunting, fishing, camping, survival and of course, self-defense. But to be honest, it’s really a self-defense knife, one you hope you never need to use but have around JUST IN CASE.
I absolutely love the knife, but hated the sheath. The sheath is full-on tactical and makes this knife look way too much like a weapon for my tastes.
Remember, I grew up carrying a Buck hunting knife and various Swiss Army Knives.
Anyway, I reached out to my new friend J.O. over at J.O. Ventures Outdoors. J.O. creates excellent content for a YouTube channel that now has more than 1,000 subscribers. He mostly focuses on traditional pocket knives but also on leather goods, such as sheaths and slips, he makes for knives.
I started to subscribe to J.O. Ventures Outdoors after hearing about it from another YouTuber I enjoy, Factors of Jack.
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I started to get to know J.O. after commenting on some of his videos and we began communicating via direct message on Instagram.
Anyway, I sent him my Peacemaker III so he could make a custom leather sheath for it. The mission – to soften its look and make it look more like a Buck 110 or a traditional hunting knife.
I had not personally met J.O. before and being a native Californian I consider myself pretty suspicious of strangers.
I remember when I first moved to El Paso 22 years ago, someone told me, “In Texas, a stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet.”
I remember, I cynically replied that “in California, a stranger is just a serial killer you haven’t met yet.”
It was met with laughs, but really describes how guarded most native Californians are at heart.
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Well, I got past my innate mistrust and asked around the online knife community about J.O. Ventures Outdoors. Everyone told me that J.O. is a great guy and makes amazing leather goods.
So I mailed him my knife without reservations and included a check for $40 which covered a handmade sheath and the shipping back to me.
Well, his work blew me away. He created a beautiful brown leather sheath that comes pretty darn close to matching my existing Galen Leather notebook cover I use for carrying around a couple of Log + Jotter or Field Notes pocket notebooks.
The craftsmanship is exquisite. It has hand-stichting, a button strap to hold the knife in place and just his maker’s mark on the back. Minimal, but beautiful.
And of course, he hit the mark perfectly as far as the mission – softening up the look of my Peacemaker. Now, I feel like I can strap it on my belt and carry it when we travel on a weekend trip into New Mexico or West Texas.
During the process, J.O. shared photos with me so I could see the progress. It was a nice touch that made me feel part of the process.
He also posted a YouTube video that largely focused on the work he did on my knife. Here is a link to watch it.
Pocket dump: A look at this weekend’s EDC loadout
I liked what I saw so much I sent him another $25 for a slip for my Victorinox Recruit.
My Recruit is one of my all-time favorites. I have loved Swiss Army Knives since I was a kid. As I’ve gotten older, I really like their more minimal knives the best.
The Recruit is 3.3 inches or 84 millimeters when closed and has just two layers – a main blade, pen blade and can opener and bottle opener with both being able to double as light-duty screwdrivers. Of course, the Recruit has the traditional scale tools – toothpick (which is a great sim card ejector) and a pair of tweezers.
But I found myself never really carrying it. I put it in a pouch and would have it in my car or sometimes in my go-bag for work or weekend adventures, but just didn’t use it as much I as thought I would.
Why? Well, I was afraid of losing it and scratching it up with keys and other gear.
So, J.O. ended up creating a slip for it in the same brown leather as he did for the Peacemaker III. He also put a small lanyard and bead on it that makes it that much easier to pull out of my pocket.
So now I have a great matching set.
On top of that, I made a great new friend. Included in my return package were a couple of stickers with his channel’s nifty logo, a sample of some leather conditioning from Last Chance Knives and a little spray tube that I can put some mineral oil in to lube and maintain my knives.
All very helpful stuff and way above and beyond all my expectations.
Anyway, in the near future, I will be reaching out to J.O. again to create some leather carrying options for a couple other knives.
The Rough Rider Desert Fox hunting knife I recently bought and wrote about in this space is dying for one of J.O.’s sheaths. This knife is longer than any of my other regular carries, but doesn’t have a pocket clip nor did it come with its own sheath.
My Rough Rider is a beautiful knife, especially considering its $25 price, but again I am not carrying it for fear of messing it up.
I also just ordered a Cold Steel Stockman, a traditional pocket knife that has three blades.
The Stockman is billed by some knife enthusiasts as the one of the most popular slip joint patterns ever made.
Like my Rough Rider, this one looks like it could use some leather to keep it from getting scratched or banged up.
So I will be enlisting J.O. Ventures Outdoors once again.
Here are some handy links to some YouTube channels that I think have some useful and fun EDC-related content.
Editor’s note: Dave Burge is a web producer and digital reporter for KTSM.com. All gear he writes about or reviews has been paid for out of his own pocket, unless otherwise noted.
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