need some advice on stitching repair

COSMO

COSMO

Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
451
Hello all:

Looking for some advice on the repair this sheath needs. What happened is the blade of the knife got between the leather and cut the stitching. Despite the fact that I have NO EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH LEATHER, I am going to attempt to repair it myself (with the help of BF experts and YouTube). I figure I have to remove all the white thread that is there and replace it all. I do have a few questions I hoped you all could assist me with so I do this properly. Thanks in advance for your help.

Questions:

1) Should I glue the leather before stitching?

2) What should I use? Thread, Sinew? About how much will I need? I see there are two rows of holes and the sheath is about 7” in length. I will probably use a color similar to the leather.

3) What stitch should I use? Preferably something easy that I can find a tutorial for on YouTube.

pictures below show the damage on both sides and profile.












Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Cosmo
 
Do you have a picture of the knife?
If I were you I would get a more dense piece of leather and replace the welt.
I would also remove all the thread and stich it again.
 
It looks like the sheath hasn't been boned enough and the knife has been able to or has been pushed down into the sheath far enough to cut the stitching. If it was me I would re shape and re bone the sheath and make sure the welt is glued all the way before re stitchin. By re boning the sheath the knife should not be able to get pushed down into it far enough to cut through the welt and the stitching. I do my sheaths with hot wax which sets the leather almost like kydex ahd the boning holds the desired shape.
 
New here and not an expert but hobbits. Here is a site that has a tutorial http://beebeknives.com/ If your will pay shipping you can send it to me and I will resew it for ya I will added a new piece to prevent the blade for cutting your threads
 
I'd restitch it with saddlemaker stitch.
stitching.jpg
 
If ya can, take the sheath apart and show me a pic of the inside with the sheath laying out flat. Kinda got an idea of what happened and so ya might want to avoid that in your rebuild.
 
Thanks for the stitch suggestion, and yes, there is a welt. I have already sent the knife and sheath to a forum member who's going to repair it for me. Hopefully he will see your post horsewright and perhaps take a picture of it once he opens it up. What is your thought on what the problem is?

Cosmo
 
COSMO said:
What is your thought on what the problem is?

Cosmo
Click to expand...

The spear point design of the knife pictured is not conducive to the sheath that appears to be designed for a straight back blade/trailing point type of knife.
 
Honestly I would have another sheath made that is a better fit for the knife rather than repair.
As bonafide mentioned above the shape of the sheath is wrong for the knife. How was retention and fit of the knife in the sheath before? Did it move around loosely or was the knife secure in the sheath?
 
This pic here was why I wanted to see inside:



If ya look very closely ya can see the inside edge of the welt. Looks like it is some distance from that inside row of stitching. If the inside edge of the welt has lifted/separated from the body of the sheath due to a poor glue job and not being supported by the stitching it can become a "funnel" so to speak to direct the point/edge of the blade to the stitching. Thats why I wanted to see the inside of the sheath, to see if that is what was going on.

Paul has a trick of reinforcing the welt in said areas with JB Weld and I have done the same thing with super glue. While apart I'd use the round end of a small ball peen hammer to tap the petals or cap of those rivets down into the leather a hair and give em a coat of clear gel finger nail polish, helps prevent scratching. A guy can use several hand stitching needles to line the holes back up when re glueing the sheath back together.

Personally I'd start over too. Years ago when I was pretty well know horse trainer I tackled a project of starting a 19 year old horse. Most horses are started when they are 2 or 3. This one had been a yard ornament his whole life and obviously the owner didn't have a lot of commitment to the horse or she'd of had somebody start the horse when he was young. She'd have the Vet out to drug up the horse just so they could trim his feet every couple of months. So I took on this project and it was a PROJECT more to see what I could learn from it than any monetary benefit, and I did learn a lot. Same deal with the sheath. Lots to learn from this project.
 
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