Alright, here is the rest. I must preface this in saying that by no means am I nearly as experienced in sheath making as Tal. He asked me to contribute to this thread and I'm happy to add what little I know.
I finally got the Bushfinger in from it's owner and have found a dye that will match it very well. The color matches the liners and bullseye perfectly.
Here is a pic with it all dyed up and given it's first coat of protectant. I use Obenauf's LP which appears to be essentially the same makeup as what Tal uses. It's just made in Idaho instead of Montana.
Like I said my procedure from here on out is a little different but it works for me. After the dye dries for a little while I then mark where the belt loop will attach and rough up the attachment points on both sides. Then glue it up. At this point I will also finish the drop leg attachment and put it together and I will wet form and glue together the fire steel loop.
After the glue dries for a few minutes I take my little cordless drill with a sharpened dowell at 1/16" and drill the holes all the way through. Then I run a groove on the inside and re-dye that part. I make sure the groove is plenty deep so that the thread sits below the surface enough to not be rubbed by the knife.
Then I stitch the belt loop on and do the necessary finishing work to make it look good.
Then it's time to glue. I rough up everything that will get glued and make sure there is not dye in those locations. Then I glue one side together completely and let it dry for just a minute. Also note that I have prepped and finished the edge where the firesteel loop will go. You can't get in there very well to do what needs to be done after it is glued.
Then I glue up the other side and clamp it all together to get a good solid weld. Not that it makes that much difference but it gives me peace of mind.
After it all dries and sets well I pull out my handy dandy cordless drill again and drill the holes along the edge. I have a drill press and used to use it for this part of the process but I was never good enough to get the holes to go straight on the back side. So here is what I discovered works for me. I think it shows a little of my perfectionist personality coming out.
First I mark the holes with my wheel on both sides. I make sure I start in the same place on both sides so the holes line up front to back. Then I start by drilling part way through from the back side not letting the tip quite penetrate the front side.
Then I flip it over and drill through from the front side. As long as I am fairly close the point of the drill will find the hole on the other side and guide itself right into the hole on the other side. This way I know the stitch line on the front and the back is as straight as I can get it.
Once they are drilled I stitch it together. I use both the hand stitch technique (like Tal uses) and the lock stitch technique to sew up sheaths. The lock stitch is similar to what a sewing machine gives you.
Here are both sides all stitched up. Notice how they are both straight, at least as good as I can get.
Then I head out to my 1x42 grinder and finish the edge. On a sheath with a firesteel loop I cannot get the grinder to go in the right direction so I finish it by hand sanding the edge, then dye it and do the edge finishing methods similar to Tal. Then I finish wet forming the sheath to the knife for good retention and give it one more coat of protection as well as all the finishing touches and it's done. I ran out of day light today but tomorrow I will get some good glamor shots of the sheath and knife together. These crappy phone pics do not look very good at all. I hope this can help some of you in you leather bending endeavors.
