"...in a few moments an evil man will step through that door, and you & I will be forced to come to grips with our mortality, and our [DUTY] to prevent him from accomplishing his wild ambition."
-Judas Gospel 12:1-00

I highly doubt the next plastic artist needs much of an introduction. Master Clay (slice@balisongxtreme.com) can only be described as the 'Tylor Durten' of internet Balisong fandom. Webmaster and guru of BalisongXtreme.com, this self taught gentleman is as witty (snappy =1) as a diner waitress, as mystifying as a kung fu master and as down to earth as your drinking buddy's roommate twice removed. if you've surfed the page that started the Balisong disease you'll know that Clay has a propensity for frankenstien tinkering and it was only natural that he would one day make his own Kydex sheaths. It is my sincere pleasure and teary eyed honour to be asked to review his sheaths (please excuse me while I get my tissues and a cup of old stale cancer inducing coffee).

So three buds go into a Chili's right? And the big white guy he like flags down this waitress, and says "Hey can we get a hammer?" in his charming Joisey accent. "Excuse me?" She says rolling her eyes. (Charming lady) "A Hammer. You know..." and he goes into the motions. The other caucasian gentleman shrugs, and the silly Chinese wretches and laughs maniacally, but softly. Moments later there was no hammer. But we did get our drinks. Relentless the determined man flagged down a young waiter, "Excuse me we ordered a hammer?" He requests again, the torx pins of his BM42 laying plainly on the restaurant table...

I was very happy to carry and evaluate this sheath over thanksgiving break. From looking at the pics on this page one might notice that this concealex setup doesn't bring anything "new" design wise. Well, that is true. Clay's setup is an elementary 'punyo in' configuration. There are no dynamic auto poppers or any new gadgets or gimmicks with this one. However a pioneer artist is not judged only by his accomplishment in work in a new medium, but also in the redefinition of an existing medium, or in this case - design. The design speaks well Clay's character (or more likely SHOUTS) - An existing design is charged on crack and we have a concealex sheath worthy to be on the back of any bounty hunter off to save the world. MOREOVER, the pictures fail to show is the intricate detail and care Clay put into this project. Despite him noting how 'crude' this sheath is, I beg to differ. The fit and finish and attention to detail are superb. Clay has gone as far as carving fine curves and providing smooth edges on this machine. He has even gone the extra mile by adding rubber spacers in strategic points along the sheath to stabalize and align the sheath in the best position. Far from a kindergarten prject I must say, and an excellent first impression for someone who only 'dabbles' in concealex for the first time.

01:RETENTION:
My evaluation sheath was designed to carry a pair of Benchmade Model 42's. I tried carrying it with my pair of 42's and found the retention to be rock solid. Nothing. NOTHING short of a determined draw will release the knives. Running, jumping off ledges and crashing into walls was no problem. ^_^ HOWEVER, I loved the feel of these sheaths so much that I fancied the idea of carrying my pair of BM48's on it. Yes it inspired me to do that. On the right is my BM48SB: model 48 partially serrated modified with latch gate and spring loaded latch by none other than master Frankensteiner, Booshank (I told you I was a die hard fan, dude). and on the left (wipes tears) is my first Balisong, [Justice]. I was VERY happy to find that both model 48 fit into the sheaths "sweetly" with a light "fwip - click" that well.. made me feel nice. Unlike inserting the pair of 42's which was kind of underving because of the TIGHT fit (scratches?), this sheath fit the 48's gently. With a few twists of the well placed tensioning screws (with rubber buffers/liners no less) the retention factor was as confident as the BM42's. If you plan to carry investment 40 series with Clay's sheaths I suggest you ask him to mold it TIGHTLY on a BM42 and just adjust the retension. Again on the 48's runing into walls and jumping off high buildings was no problem. ^_^.

02:IMAGE.TRAINING:
What is 'image training'? Well that is posing for insane hours in front of mirror praciticing the perfect demeanour for the moment you meet your arch rival. Under a Chow Yun fat trenchcoat, Clay's (my own termed) [Seraphim Wings] sheaths is just a bad ass motherfucker. I have always fancied carrying a pair of HK P7M13's in a kydex rig like these and you can imagine my excitement when (unsolicited) Clay came up with this design. NOTHING beats a pair of six guns from the small of the back. Draper's auto popper was quicksilver and effortless for those of us who need a handicapp against master Clay, but the image of two Balisongs flailing from nowhere just impresses as well as terrifies. (Yes we did this at work, and I got lectured again, thank you very much.)

03:CONCEALMENT:
This sheath is quite bulky and with a pair of stainless 48's it can really drag your pants down. (It is more comfortable with a pair of 42's). It is however very comfortable in a variety of sitting and loafing positions short of lying down on your back. (No sleeping test today folks), but back to the main subject. Yes under a long shirt or sweater the sheath's slim design disappeared and in a few moments you forgot it was there in the first place. It is rather difficult to hide under a normal T Shirt though. One option in manner of concealability is to attatch the sheath in a 'V' fashion with the latches pointing upwards. This significantly slows down the draw but is much easier to hide. Again this is up to your discretion. I carry mine mainly in the 'A' or reverse 'V' configuration with the latches pointing down.

ANOTHER option if concealability is priority on your list is to look into another of Clay's designs.

This design did not work for me because it was very wide for my minute frame (read: scrawny ass). Clay has a more compact design which 'stacks' the balis (instead of a punyo to punyo config) and thus cuts down the width of the real estate taken by the completely horizontal double bali sheath design. The Draw is equally as fast and if any lag is there it is of a minute fraction. It basically boils down to personal preference. Unlike a pistol which would probably be better held angled, the balis could easily be accessed any which way. I prefered the 'A' configuration though.

04:SIX.GUNS:
What I woudln't give for a pair of shiny ivory handled six guns. The concealex sheath sets you up for a very precise and quick draw. There is hardly any fumbling. The draw can be initiated in a manner of ways. First it starts with you pulling up the tails of your coat or shirt then grabbing onto the handles. Unlike sheaths where the retention is in the middle of the handles Clay uses the punyo retention method, and has done it quite well - tight and solid. The advantage of a reliable 'grip' of your punyo in the sheathed mode is that you have more real estate to hold on before the draw. There is no fumbling and repositioning upon extraction. This is one disadvantage of sheaths which 'hold on' to the balisong by the middle of the handles.

To initiate the draw one can slide their thumbs to pop the latches while the knives are still locked in the sheaths (for this method I suggest letting the 'heads' of your latches -assuming Batanggas latch ofcourse - pointing "up" so upon gripping you'll have acces to the safe handle immidiately.) Then upon extraction you can go about your merry way thwarting evil with your favourite opening.

Another method would be to extract both Balisongs and in the same action pop the latches with your pinkies (suggestion would be 'heads' of latches pointing "down") then into your routine. Reinsertion was smooth and a no brainer.

The resulting show is a mystyfying double play that will MAKE you. I don't think anythign can beat two Balisongs appearing from the back.

05:DEFYING.AUTHOURITY:
If anyone asks; you DO NOT, know my name, you DO NOT know where I live, you DO NOT know what I look like and I DO NOT carry Balisongs. There are times you just gotta get these Balisongs on and off your belt in a hurry. Uhm.. yeah you probably do not want to give a bad impression on yoru first date, but hey if your blind date can 'feel' you packing on the first date you probably wanna keep em on =). Anyways, yes, Kydex sheaths shoudl come standard with a 'Belt loop' that can be easily removed and attatched without removing your belt. I dunno how to say it.. but in all the sheaths that I evaluated, Clay's was the first that 'Worked'. I could easily remove and attatch this to my belt with no effort and it was still reliable. It's not rocket science. I told clay I on occation wear a 1.5 inch belt. So he made the loop bigger than that and the 'hooks' just right so it works. I dunno what was up but past sheaths either had less slack on the loop or hooks so large that you had to wrestle with the thing to put it on, or wear a narrower belt. Uhm.. cool dude.

06:SILENT.WISH:
Overall I love this bad boy, and with every new toy I get I am inspired think up of more concealment methods and practice new tricks. Getting a new sheath, to me, is as satisfying as learning a new trick or two. I am proud to wear these sheaths. It makes me feel cool (as it should). It feels good. It gets the job done, with a martini laced flair (actually I shoud save that for Gollnick's sheath design ^_-). No superhero should be without one. As of this time I can hardly think of any improvements to it. I am dearly looking forward to more off the wall designs, auto poppers, and maybe a shouder rig that can carry a Baliong either in the open or closed position. That would be sweet. There ain't nothing 'plain' about Clay's sheath. Its like.. like.. body painting while playing twister.