Bear and Sons Neck Knife Mods

Recently I reviewed my impulse-purchased Bear Ops Constant Neck Knife.  Summary:  nice knife for the money, bad sheath.  The knife would not stay in the sheath, and I did not feel completely comfortable with my ability to hang on to the short, slender grip. 

I have changed some things, and I am much happier.

First, I got rid of the ball or johnny chain and replaced it with an appropriate length of paracord.

There is a tactical reason for using the johnny chain, and it is the same reason cops and guards wear clip-on ties.  I look forward to the day some fool with a regular necktie wants to fight me.  It's like a choke collar on a dog. I normally, though, wear a neck knife under my shirt which makes it less readily available for use as a garrot.  Also, there is a sharp blade at the end of the rope, as opposed to, say, a tie-tack.  Still, there is some risk involved.  Everyone should decide for himself or herself.  I just don't care for the chains.   

I added a bit of a lanyard to the knife's hilt.  This helps a great deal as far as control and retention.  In a hammer grip, the lanyard goes between my ring and little fingers, reversed between the index and middle fingers.  

As noted, my main complaint was that the knife could not be trusted to stay in the sheath when it was upside down.  This is a serious flaw for a neck knife that is worn, you know, upside down.  After thinking about it for a while and looking around at what I had on hand to remedy this problem, I settled on a solution.   I cut two strips from a piece of bicycle inner tube, about 3/16" by 3/4".  I glued these into the part of the sheath where the spine of the knife rests.  Putting a piece of paper towel over the knife, I inserted it into the sheath and left it to set over night. 

The next day I tested my fix rigorously, and the knife stayed solidly in place yet can be easily drawn.  The rubber strips exert enough pressure to keep the guard engaged behind the retention groove, plus they add some friction to the slick Kydex. 

My final modification was to add a means for carrying the knife on a belt, as the picture below illustrates.  Because it is so slender, the rig rides nicely under any of my belts, while the stiff Kydex allows for swift, snag-free removal and and replacement of the blade.  It would be simple enough to enable horizontal carry with a couple of longer pieces of cordage going around the sheath.  

It's a handy knife with a good edge, and I have no more issues with the sheath -- except that Bear and Sons should have thought of it in the first place.