My Fath (an experimental Skinth mockup)

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So I decided that I needed to buy a Skinth because they are so cool. The problem is that it will mean fundamentally altering my carry strategy. (I presently don’t carry anything on my belt.) I decided that rather than buy a Skinth and hope for the best, I should try mocking one up at home first to see what I like and what I don’t. Since “Skinth” is a contaction of Skinny/Sheath, I’ve been calling this my Fath (Fat/Sheath). I wanted to share what I came up with.

It’s based on the sheath that came with my Leatherman Charge Ti.

I cut a slit in the leather to slide in the belt clip, and then I zip-tied the bottom of the clip to an HK style snap hook (which prevents the belt clip from sliding out, since it’s not sewn in or otherwise retained). I suspect the zip-tie will fail eventually, but it’s been stable enough for my purposes.

I’ve used the Fath to carry a Kaweco Classic Sport Rollerball, Charge Ti, Baladéo 15 Gram,TU36 SlimClips, and a Streamlight ProTac-1L.

Here are the questions that I was interested in testing before buying a Skinth and their results.
Does it bother me to belt-carry? A little, but I got pretty used to it.
Do I need a belt clip upgrade? Absolutely!
Do I want a snap closure? Yes.
Do I like having my keys on the HK hook? Yes, but I may ask if I can get mine sewn as close as possible to the body of the Skinth for minimal hang-down. (Also, I’m still torn on the opening-forward vs. opening back on the hook. I changed it three times on my mockup. If any of you use these for keys, which do you prefer?)
Is it too heavy with my Charge? Yes (it weighs in at 14.7oz), so I’ll build my real one around my Juice Kf4 (and I might step the light down to a AA model).

I’m waiting to get my Kf4 back from being repaired before I order, but I think this little project has given me all the info I need to order the right Skinth the first time (which isn’t to say that I won’t still find excuses to order more)!

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