Most bottles containing laundry detergent, motor and other petroleum oils, milk,etc. are molded from a plastic known as HDPE, High Density Poly-Ethylene.  You can identify this plastic by checking the bottom of the container for the symbol shown below.

The material is thin enough to cut with scissors or tinsnips, the thickness of the HDPE that we used in the project below is .025″. I haven’t tried it yet but I’m betting that it’s thin enough to stitch with a sewing machine, which could could come in useful for other custom projects.

Our test project is a neck sheath for a Gerber Multi-Tool. The guinea pig is an empty ERA detergent bottle. The labels were tough remove, they look to be water proof and I was hoping that heat would soften them up enough to come off easily but that wasn’t the case. I didn’t want to spend too much time on this experiment so I left them on the bottle and formed the sheath with the labels on the inside.

It took 250 degrees in the oven to get the plastic warm enough to mold. The heat drew the soap’s fragrance out, the odor was pretty strong….. Do this in a well ventilated area since there is the possibility that some hazardous fumes could be released from the heated plastic. Once the plastic was thoroughly heated, the Gerber was wrapped and everything was placed in the Kydex Press and allowed to cool.

The sheath was riveted and then shaped. It took a little forming with a candle to get the retention just right. This whole project took less than half an hour.

Yes, the color is hideous……….it’s a good thing these bottles come in different colors. It’s also nice to know that something useful can be done with these bottles other than birdfeeders and scoops. I do think that this is a viable alternative to Kydex or leather. And having the ability to quickly create an effective sheath from a discarded piece of plastic is a good thing.

Justus