My wife and I were driving home from the Scottish Festival and Highland Games on Saturday (a 3-hour drive from home). We stopped at Wal-Mart to visit with my step-daughter who works there. And my wife, being a typical woman (said with the utmost love and respect!) wandered over and found a purse she just had to have. So she bought it, and as we were coming out the front door, she wanted to cut the little plastic ties off of it.

So I think to myself, hey, I've got my handy sgian dhub on me, I'll whip that sucker out, cut the ties off, and be a hero. Now, I'm wearing my sgian dhub in the manner I understand is 'correct', where the sheath and about half of the handle are inside of my hose. It's an el-cheapo model mean to be fairly dressy, with a black plastic handle and plated thistle logo on the side, with a rigid (and metal-rimmed) sheath. It's not a tight fit necessarily, but there's some friction when you try to slide it out of the sheath.

When I went to pull my sgian dhub from my hose, it pulled the sheath out with it, with the blade about half exposed. So I had to then pull the sheath off the blade, cut the ties, re-sheath it, and stick the whole thing back in my hose. It was not the suave motion I had intended it to be. And here I am, imagining myself in a life-or-death situation, having to pull my sgian dhub to defend my life, and then having to screw around with the sheath that came out too, all awkward-like.

So is this common? Is there a trick to pulling out the sgian dhub without the sheath coming out with it? I would think that even if the sheath stayed in your hose, the blade coming out could possibly cut the wool fibers of the hose. By carrying it with half the handle in your hose, it seems that there's no winning when it comes to unsheathing it. Either the sheath is coming with it or you risk cutting your leg or hose.

Advice? It's a silly and possibly trivial matter, but I felt kind of foolish with the sheath halfway hanging off my blade in front of all the Wal Mart people.