Cleveland Kydex Axe Sheath, by Thomas Christianson

I have a Cleveland Kydex Axe Sheath for my Fiskars X27 Super Splitting Axe. The sheath does an excellent job of protecting the blade from damage. It also protects surrounding objects from being damaged by the blade. The sheath is tough, has stood up well to a year of hard use, stays on the blade well, and is easy to slide on or off.

The primary advantage of a Kydex sheath over leather is that Kydex does not attract and hold moisture as leather is often prone to do. It is also more wear and weather-resistant than leather.

Cleveland Kydex has a large selection of axes for which they have already designed a standard sheath. If you have an axe for which they have not yet designed a standard model, you can send them the axe and they will make a custom sheath for it. Surprisingly, the cost of a custom sheath is the same as for their standard models.

Unfortunately, quality, hand-crafted, American-made products often cost a bit more than products manufactured by slave labor overseas. At the time of this writing, an X27 axe sheath like the one that my wife bought me cost $49.95 plus shipping at https://clevelandkydex.com. That means that just the sheath alone costs almost as much as the axe itself.

If you own an axe that you especially prize, a high quality sheath like those made by Cleveland Kydex may be worth the investment. For most axes, a cheaper alternative is probably sufficient.

Cleveland Kydex also makes flashlight carriers, holsters, knife sheaths, magazine carriers, and multi-tool carriers.

Background

Last year, my wife, “Kari”, bought me a Cleveland Kydex Axe Sheath for my birthday. It was for my Fiskars X27 Super Splitting Axe.

Many X27 axes come with a molded plastic sheath. For some reason, my axe did not. I use my X27 a lot, and it began to bother me that I did not have a better way to protect the blade as it hung on the wall of the pole barn and as I moved the axe back and forth from the pole barn to the wood pile. Some people might suspect that a touch of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may have contributed to my concern. Some people are probably right.

In any case, I looked online for a good sheath for the X27. I found that Cleveland Kydex offered a nice model. So when Kari asked what I wanted for my birthday, I mentioned the sheath.

Kari ordered the sheath several days before my birthday. It did not arrive in time. It did not arrive the next day. It did not arrive the next week. It did not arrive the week after that. In fact, the sheath took so long to arrive that my birthday was a distant memory and both Kari and I had completely forgotten about the sheath by the time it eventually showed up on our doorstep.

I guess that the Cleveland Kydex shop often gets busy. At the time of this writing, the posted lead time for an axe sheath was 13 business days from order placement to shipment. Transit time for shipment comes in addition to this lead time.

First Impressions

The sheath arrived in a USPS Priority Mail box that measured 14.5 x 7.5 x 5.25 inches. It arrived from The Cleveland Kydex Co., 30628 Detroit Rd., Westlake, OH 44145-5844.

The sheath is made of two molded olive drab kydex sides fastened together with black metal eyelets. Other Kydex and eyelet colors are also available. The sheath was enclosed with a welcome envelope containing a thank you letter and coupons for future orders. The sheath itself was encased in bubble wrap which was very thoroughly secured with a more than generous application of packing tape. After some significant effort, I finally managed to get the sheath unwrapped. The shipping department at Cleveland Kydex certainly does a thorough job of protecting their products during shipment.

The sheath displayed a nice, workmanlike design in a sturdy gauge of Kydex. It fit the axe head snugly while allowing for easy insertion and removal. I put the axe into the sheath, and hung both on the wall of the pole barn, ready for the next wood splitting session.

Testing

During the course of the past year, I have split approximately 15 full cord of wood by hand using the X27 axe. This is about twice as much wood as I typically split during the course of a year. We get most of our wood from friends and family members who have trees taken down on their property for one reason or another. For some reason, our social circle had a more than average number of trees taken down during the past year.

The Cleveland Kydex sheath did an effective job of protecting the axe head whenever the axe was not in use. The sheath has been exposed to driving rain, blazing sunshine, and blowing snow. It has held up well to heat and cold, UV radiation, and precipitation, without any signs of fading or wear. Whenever the sheath was wet, I dried it thoroughly on both the inside and the outside before placing the well-oiled axe head into the sheath for transport and storage. Even though the axe was removed and reinserted so many times, the sheath still fits just as snugly today as it did on the day that it arrived. I have been fully satisfied with the performance of the sheath throughout the testing period.

Kydex

Kydex is a brand name for a line of thermoplastic materials manufactured by Sekisui Kydex of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. The name has come to be applied generically to similar acrylic polyvinyl chloride materials manufactured by other companies.

The material was originally developed by the American company Rohm and Haas in 1965 for use in aircraft interiors. The material has subsequently been utilized in a wide variety of applications including knife sheaths, handgun holsters, and vehicle fenders. It is even used for some of the armor that the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) uses in its heavy non-lethal combat.

Kydex is waterproof, scratch resistant, has low flammability, can be thermoformed, and has good shape retention subsequent to forming. The material has a hardness of 90 on the Rockwell R scale.

The very first Kydex holster was reportedly developed all the way back in 1972 by FBI agent Bill Rogers. After an altercation with a suspect in which his handgun came loose from a leather holster, Agent Rogers began looking for a better alternative. After experiments with fiberglass and Noryl, Agent Rogers found success with Kydex. The FBI placed an initial order for 400 of the holsters, and Kydex gradually gained in popularity as a holster and sheath material in the years that followed.

Cleveland Kydex

The Cleveland Kydex Company is a well-known family-owned and operated shop. They were incorporated in Ohio in 2013 and have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau even though they are not members of that organization.

The Fiskars X27 Splitting Axe

I first wrote about the Fiskars X27 Super Splitting Axe back in 2019, when SurvivalBlog published my two-part series entitled “A Beginner’s Wood Splitting Journey”:  (See: Part 1, and Part 2.)

I talked about the X27 in part 2 of that series. It is by far the most effective wood-splitting tool that I have ever used. The last 5 years have done nothing to diminish my high opinion of the axe. I split an average of about 7.5 full cord of firewood each year by hand, and the X27 is the tool that I use to split almost all of it.

The X27 is light enough to swing for extended periods of time without excessive fatigue. The unique shape of the head forces the wood on each side of the split apart without the head being prone to get stuck in the split. The 36-inch, fiber-composite handle helps to absorb shock and stands up well to hard use. The balance of the tool as a whole is outstanding. The axe also has a lifetime warranty. My axe gives no hint of any need to utilize the warranty anytime in the near future.

I have used the axe on hot summer days, in cold blowing snow, and in driving rain. It doesn’t care what the weather is like. It just keeps on splitting.

You may or may not want a Cleveland Kydex Axe Sheath. But if you split wood, I highly recommend that you get a Fiskars X27 Super Splitting Axe. At the time of this writing, the Fiskars X27 Super Splitting Axe was available for $64.99 at www.acehardware.com.

Conclusions

The Cleveland Kydex sheath for my Fiskars X27 splitting axe has served me well through a full year of steady use. At $49.95 at the time of this writing, the sheath is not cheap, but it is quite effective. If you have an axe, knife, a handgun, or other tool that you especially like, then a Cleveland Kydex sheath or holster might be a good container for that tool.

JWR Adds:  Cleveland Kydex is probably better known as a maker of pistol holsters.  They offer both standard holsters and custom holsters to accommodate unusual barrel lengths/compensators or for pistols equipped with lights, lasers, or red dot sights. In correspondence and in conversations, several SurvivalBlog readers and consulting clients have mentioned the quality of their holsters. Their willingness to do custom work at no extra charge says a lot about their customer service.

Disclaimer

I did not receive any financial or other inducement to mention any vendor, product, or service in this article.