The Martialist: The Magazine For Those Who Fight Unfairly

“Stay ‘unreasonable.’  If you
don’t like the solutions [available to you], come up with your
own.” 
Dan Webre

The Martialist does not
constitute legal advice.  It is for ENTERTAINMENT
PURPOSES ONLY.

Copyright © 2003-2004 Phil Elmore, all rights
reserved.

Profile: Mike Sastre

By Lawrence Keeney

We martialists, as “gear guys,” tend to enjoy customizing
our stuff. Be it hanging a piece of equipment on our Glock that we really
don’t need to have or “Mayoing” a perfectly good Sebenza, if it looks cool, we
want to do it. Not all of these projects are needless posturing.  Some
are quite worthwhile, as I’ll demonstrate.

Mike Sastre’s neck work.

Most new fixed blades come with perfectly good leather or
Kydex sheaths that hold the knives just fine. For any number of reasons,
however, users may opt to change them. There are many different reasons for
this, but in the end, they just want to make their experiences using the tools
a little more functional and enjoyable.

Close-up of Mike Sastre’s folder sheaths.

For example, I know a guy who is lucky enough
to own not one, but four Bill Bagwell custom Bowies. These are the
biggest and the baddest custom fighting knives out there. Each of these knives
costs from $950 to $1,800 each. That is a large amount of money, and he
carries the knives. Not one of these beauties are safe queens or wall
hangers. The Bagwells come with fine leather sheaths, but the owner chooses
not to mar them. Instead, he opted to have Mike Sastre of
River City Sheaths
make Concealex copies of the knifemaker’s Southern Comfort IWB rigs for each
of the knives.

Bagwell Bowies with Mike Sastre Concealex sheaths.

I was able examine the knife and sheath set-up and was very
impressed. Fit and finish were tight and very professional. The knives could
be drawn and reinserted into the sheaths without problems, even though they
did not have belt loops. This is possible because of the tension of your belt
around the knife. It’s a very simple idea, but it works great.

You will also notice that in addition to such fixed blade
sheahs,  Sastre makes a number of clever sheaths used to secure smaller
fixed blades, multitools, and numerous types of tactical folders. These
include neck sheaths that are the favorites of cops, soldiers, federal agents,
and fans of extreme outdoor sports.

A great big pile of Mike Sastre’s
sheaths.

If you are whitewater rafting down the New River in West
Virginia and suddenly realize you need a knife, you don’t want to hear that it
is lying on the bottom of the river. That is what makes sheaths like this so
great.

The next time you’re looking
to customize your carry options, give Mike Sastre a call.