JRE Industries sheath review

Yes folks- I know I've been gone for a while... haven't had much to say...

Well, boy do I now...

I picked up a SOG Powerlock multi-tool a few months back, because I was sick of dealing with the worn-out Leatherman Super Tool I'd been carrying for 20+ years. It was so worn-in that I could literally use it as a balisong- a few flicks of the wrist and out came the blades. Unfortunately this resulted in a deep gash in the back of my dominant hand as the drop-point blade went about a quarter-inch into my paw. Yeah... that hurt a bit...

( EDIT: Actually, the sheath I ordered was for a Victorinox Swisstool, since the nylon sheath that came with it had worn through and I was looking for a good, HD replacement. Sorry for confusion, I have too many EDC tools ;) . I bought the SOG Tool to carry while waiting for the Swisstool sheath to arrive, below. I'm gonna be lazy and leave the rest of this as originally posted, as I've been outside grilling most of the day and am feeling rather sun-baked... the Swisstool and SOG tool are the same size and both tools fit this sheath, just trying to prevent some confusion)

So I bought the SOG tool- great tool, but the sheath that came with it SUCKED. It's a folded leather affair, loosely riveted, and way, WAY oversized for the tool it ships with. I actually dropped the tool a few times without the snap coming undone. Granted, I was climbing over/under my Jeep and a few (errr.. slightly heavier ;) ) vehicles, but this is a problem I never had with the other multi-tools I've carried over the years. Something had to be done...

A quick Google search lead me to this gent, The American Woodsman. A quick visit of the JREIndustries site, I sent an email, and after waiting a week for their reply (money's knocking and they can't be bothered to reply faster than a week?), a deal was struck. I think the all-up charge was $42, with 12 weeks leadtime. A bit long, yes- but this is pretty standard for the custom leathercraft industry, so I had no problem with it.

I ordered the sheath on the 16th of April. The receipt of the order was acknowledged on the 17th (much faster than i expected, so a plus for them). I inquired about some custom features on the 18th, with the acknowledgement that if they'd already started, just build it as I ordered it. Received a reply on the 24th acknowledging my requests, and discussing at length some options I might have not considered. I immediately replied, nailing down what I wanted, and putting it in a list of requirements to make it clear to all parties. No reply to emails for acknowledgement of the changes made, sent on the 24th of April, 6th of May, 14th of May... on the 5th of June they responded, saying my last 2 emails had ended up in their Spam folder (odd, but I work in IT so I know strange things can happen) and I replied on the 19th (REALLY not sure what happened there- life's been nuts lately with training for a new certification so I can keep my job. Hey, I dropped the ball there, I admit it!), on the 26th of June he replied we have all the specifics of my sheath squared away and will be cutting leather on it soon. 2 days later, sheath is done and being shipped my way. Yay!!

I received the sheath on the 2nd of July (yesterday). The following is a cut/paste from my email to them...

***** Cut/paste of email to vendor follows *****
Unfortunately, I have to say, I am *massively* disappointed....

I asked for the following:


"Swisstool Pouch Sheath:
-black leather and black thread
-JRE logo on the outside
-folded-over leather belt loop - Rivet Back Up
-to fit a 2" ranger belt
-no loops, no clips
-snap closure"


You confirmed that. In fact, that is a direct quote from your second-to-last email, sent 05JUN11.

Additionally, I specified:

"Regarding the sheath- I'd called and spoken to someone weeks before you sent this. We decided to go with addition of a firesteel loop and purchase of one of your firesteels. I'll be wearing this on my offside (left hip) so would like the loop on the aft side of the sheath (looking at the sheath, on the observer's right)."


What I received was a black leather sheath with black thread. That's fine, it's what I wanted. Unfortunately, it's the ONLY requirement of my order that was met. The sheath has the cut-slot beltloop which I specifically did not want. I even expressed my concerns with other leather products built that way having ripped over time. It will probably fit a 2" gunbelt, but given that it's the cut-slot sort of arrangement it will be a huge pain to deal with.

Further, the slots were obviously cut after the leather was dyed, as there were raw edges in the cut.

Additionally, the metal belt clip which I didn't want, was included. That's one thing, but the way it was installed was, frankly, amateurish. The leather was cut with overlapping slices to the extent that they extend past each other- creating not a box cut but something very "hack".

The firesteel loop I requested was installed on the *left* side of the holster, not the right.

The JRE logo, which I specifically requested to be on the outside of the holster, is completely absent. I can't say I blame you, though- I wouldn't want to claim this work as mine, either.

All of the leather edges are crude, exhibiting no real effort at slicking them and creating a fused edge.

The border around the stitch line is uneven. I'm not referring to "let me get out my ruler and measure this" uneven- I'm referring to something that looks like a new leatherworker's effort.

Given that you folks do this professionally and have a long lead time, I would expect better on all accounts. I am not a professional, I only do leatherworking for my needs and friends, but I could have done much better. The only reason I didn't was because I needed a sheath to replace the crappy one that SOG sends out with their tools, and as I've a lot going on at work (IT), I don't have the free time.

I will be honest- this sheath is still *much* better than the one SOG sold with the tool- but if you've seen what a horrible piece of work that is (folded leather, riveted together loosely, massively oversized for the tool- I actually lost the tool out of the still-snapped sheath twice in the first few days I had it), that's not hard to accomplish. I don't feel it was worth the $40 I paid, however.

Please understand, I'm not a "complainer" type of person.. but I do believe in being honest, and receiving fair value for my money. With this in mind, I won't be recommending your leather goods to anyone, going forward.
***** end cut/paste *****

Now, don't get me wrong- I don't expect perfection, and I know that leather is a natural material and subject to imperfections. Hell, that's WHY I like leather!! However, all of my issues with this product have to do with shoddy worksmanship and inattention to detail. I went to lengths to point out what I wanted in this product, and was prepared to pay extra for it if need be. It should be noted I added the firesteel holder (and also one of their firesteels, so we made sure it fit, even though I have plenty already), and so I owe them $20 for those items. I had misgivings about ordering from them when it took so long to hear back the first time, and these were reinforced after long periods of no communication. I don't expect them to be sitting in front of their email all the time (when would they get anything done!), but I think 2 or 3 business days to reply is plenty of time.

I'll take pics and post them later, to illustrate my problems with this product. I imagine I'll have plenty of comments about how much I shouldn't bitch about a vendor. Well, to them I say- you know what, this is *my* blog, I can back up everything I've said, and I paid good money and was more than patient. "You pays your moneys and you expects to gets what you wants", you know?

I doubt I'll get a reply from JRE. If I do, it'll be in a few weeks, and they'll want me to ship it back to them so they can take a look and address any issues. Which means more money spent shipping the item, more time wasted without a decent sheath, and more time carrying the worn-out Leatherman. I'm just going to keep what I have here, throw it in the drawer of holsters I never use because I found something better (you 2A EDC sheepdogs know what I'm talking about), and call it a learning experience.

It all goes back to what granddad always told me... "you want something done right, do it yourself!" Lesson learned, again.. I shouldn't have been so lazy!

Magic Jack- VERY pleasantly surprised!

OK, so I've seen this magic jack thing on TV for like 3 years and I admit I've been curious.

I'm no luddite and I'm sure not a stranger to things Geekish - in fact I've used Vonage for about 6 years, but still-- it's on an infomercial-- how good could it be? It's a rule or something- on an informercial, it HAS to be crap.

Things being what they are and times being the same, ie: TIGHT- I finally decided to throw $40 ($20 for the device, $20 for the year's service... and there's a 30 day money back guarantee which, according to several folks on the web, is valid) at the thing and see what happened.

(yes, two both my readers- I did my research-- found that the folks that are complaining about the device seem to fall into two categories: mouth-breathers who can barely use a keyboard when on the web... sorta... to spit their vitriolic complaints into the ether, and people who would starve to death with a truckload of canned goods, a rifle, a canopener, and an axe, and 50,000 rounds of .223 at their disposal. Either way-- not the brightest bulb on the strand, they)

Got the Magic Jack in the mail today- it arrived in 4 days (ok, I spent the $4 for express shipping- hell, it's reasonable, and I'm impatient- there's geekin' to be done!). It came in a soft-sided mailer, same sort you'd ship an AOL disk back in the day. (Yes, I know. Shut up.) Opened it, it ships in a simple cardboard and foam affair. There's no real directions to be had other than "plug into USB jack. Do not plug unto USB hub that isn't powered by AC"

(at this point, our complainers are already losing their damn minds.. "ZOMG111!!! THERE'S NO DIRECTIONS!!! IT'S SO haaaaaarrRDDDDDD1!!!! SOMEONE COME FIX THIS, I DON'T HAVE AN ENGINEERING DEGREEEEEE!!!)

No, I'm not kidding. I have supported users for... well, WAY too long. I know of what I speak, ok? Let's just say-- I'm way burned out on IT work. WAAAAY. I'm seriously considering getting my welding certificate.

So anyway-- being devil-may-care, I plugged the damn thing in... and...

.. it just worked!

One minor caveat- you must have patience- it'll install the software (software lives on the device- there's a bit of flashram, see) automatically, bring up the softphone (software phone.. this isn't that technical, really) panel, and bring up a wizard to walk you through getting your phone number, all automatically on most systems (those that have registry hacks done to avoid USB Autoplay may- *MAY*- have minor issue. But if you can figure out how to disable autoplay, you can damn sure open Explorer and launch the app yourself). The only gotcha- and it wasn't a huge one- is that I run Skype in the background 24/7 on this machine, and it wanted to use the Magic Jack as an audio interface. I clicked "disable" when the window spawned, and it's not a problem.

I got this because my ATT cellphone gets horrible service in my home. For $20 a year, why not? I've already made a couple calls and am VERY happy with the quality. I'll be keeping the device, no doubt about it.

BTW- the website and presumably the salesdroid if you elect to go that way on the phone, will try to sell you the next 5 years of service for a discount of $60, right when you buy, giving the impression it's "now or never". Don't. Get the bare bones, see if it works- *for you*- and if so, you'll see an advert pop up in the softphone panel giving you the same offer after you've installed the device.

For those techincally inclined: my system is an AMD Athlon64, 2.0Ghz, 2.0GB RAM, XP Pro 32-bit. Nothing stellar by any means. I can't comment on what the Mac experience would be with this product, and I don't believe they support Linux. Knowing LUGs like I do, though, I would be VERY surprised to find there's not already someone supporting them in the OS community.

The hardware side of things, in terms of what you'll use every day with the Magic Jack... is a standard single-line set. AKA a "telephone". I'm actually using a GE 28300EE1-A SkypePhone/landline combo handset. It's likely why I had that little instance of Skype trying to use the MagicJack as an audio device. Oddly enough, this actually sounds better on that handset than it did over my Vonage line. There will likely be some comparisons on that front in the near future.

So, yeah-- sometimes there's some good stuff to be had on infomercials. BTW- you can buy these at WallyWorld, Best Bastard, and Rat Shack as well.

Quite honestly, for $20/year, I'm not real sure how they're even leasing the phone number. If this holds out I may well kick Vonage to the curb- and they're already a stellar product even at $15/month.

So overall- my review for this product is 5 out of 5 rounds dead-center-mass.