Thickness of welt... (WIP) All done, bunch of pictures.

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Dr Heelhook

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Jul 24, 2007
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I'm making a two piece+welt leather sheath for a Bowie knife with a blade that is around 4,7 mm thick at the hilt with an even distal taper to about 4,4 mm just before the clip. I have a piece of leather about 3,5 mm think, which I originally intended to use for the welt of the sheath. Will it work to make the welt out of leather that is that much thinner than the blade, or should I just get myself a thicker piece of leather?

Thanks
/Oskar
 
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If I understand correctly, you are making a stacked style (as opposed to a pouch) where the welt goes all the way around?

I'd think that would work fine. I like the welt to be a little thinner than the blade. Should loosen up a bit with use too.

You could also just glue two welts together and skive it to the thickness you want. If procuring a thicker piece is easy, cut a welt from both and see which you like better.
 
The welt should be about 75% of the thickness of the blade at the thickest point.

That was the rule of thumb that Chuck Burrows taught.

TF
 
Jason, is that with all welts? I gleaned that figure from you, and it's worked very well, but I didn't realize that applied to a stacked sheath?
 
I prefer not to have the blade being rubbed so hard by the leather, ie think strop. If the finish of the knife is anything but a full polish I dont want to mess with it too much. I did a lot of testing back in the day and settled on a welt thickness at or just under the thickness of the blade to keep the rubbing to a minimum. Especially so on coated blades that are so popular, try telling that fellow his 400.00 tactical knife is going to get polished. nope.

Remember that the welt will get compressed as you sew it up, so a thinner welt will only get thinner and rub that blade that much more as it "breaks in" .

I also use a wedge shape to my welts, thicker at the top and thinner as it goes toward the tip. Following the distal taper of the blade. this is especially important on a sandwich construction where the leather does not move a whole lot.

But thats me, and it seems to offend some other makers so take it for what it is, my way and the way of my teachers, two of which are Sandy Morissey and Dave Cole, their way is the way I settled on and its plenty good for me.
 
Interesting point re-stropping. That had never occurred to me, but it makes perfect sense. Sometimes it's nice to be in a position to learn something new every day. ;)

Maybe I'll throw some ChromOx compound on the leather before I assemble my next sheath. I'll market it as auto-sharpening. :D
 
Yes Strigamort, it's a stacked construction where the welt goes all around, I didn't know the common term used. Leatherman, it's not a coated blade, it's a fairly shiny satin finish and by no means a $400 blade. It's my first project and it's for a blade blank, that I'm also putting a handle on. It is also a fully flat ground blade, so it get's thinner all the way from spine to edge as well. This time I actually think I'll go ahead and use the leather that I've got. Thanks for all the feedback guys. Great info here.
 
Strig: One problem, on most knives the edge doesn't make contact with the sheath. The only area you'd be polishing is the flats. You'd have one shiny knife after a few days of use! :)

Doc, Sounds like you have it under control! :D Where rubbing is not a concern your good to go, if you have troubles with the point not wanting to track into the sheath you can add a wedge of leather an inch or two long into the welt and that will give you some room.
 
Makes me think of that old (crkt?) knife that had a sharpener inside the scales of the folding knife that supposedly sharpened the blade when you'd close it.

Re- proper names, that's one thing that really bugs me about sheaths. The various parts of a knife (or most things) have a name. With sheaths (and leather in general) there are many names for the same thing. If I clarify, it's not because I know the proper name of a thing, just that I want to make sure we're on the same page. ;)

Post some pics of your work when/if you can. :)
 
Oh lordy that knife was a horrible idea. :p There are some very old fisherman knives that have stones on the sheath for the same reason, but if you re-sheath it too much you end up wearing the knife out before its time. Fishermen, think deep sea, dont re-sheath their knives till they are done, therefore a good idea. Bad idea for a casual user.

re: sheath terms, well, your on your own there, I dont want to ruffle more feathers than I have. :p
 
I hate to agree with Dwayne - you know how he GETS.... but I do the same thing. Skive the distal taper - starting at about 75% of the spine at ricasso.

TF
 
Dwayne, I have a question if you don't mind?

On the tglb sheath that I'm doing, I have three 7/8 (guess) welts cemented together. I'm seeing that the handle will push hard on the belt/dangler loop. I'm planning on using a wedge (one thickness). Just wondering if you have a rule of thumb for how long you make them. I like a very gradual look, so I'll make the taper pretty acute, but I'm curious how you do it. If nothing else (no given rule) I'll try maybe 4".

If you have any pics that would be welcome too. I'm using a Sam Browne, but I did flip the loop over to the inside, so thanks for teaching me that. Not sure if you were the first to do it, but doesn't matter, I got the idea directly from your work. ;)
 
Talfuchre said:
I hate to agree with Dwayne - you know how he GETS.... but I do the same thing. Skive the distal taper - starting at about 75% of the spine at ricasso.

TF
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:p Yea, I do get bad eh? Agree, disagree, I'm an equal opportunity hater. I dont like anyone. :D
Strigamort said:
Dwayne, I have a question if you don't mind?

On the tglb sheath that I'm doing, I have three 7/8 (guess) welts cemented together. I'm seeing that the handle will push hard on the belt/dangler loop. I'm planning on using a wedge (one thickness). Just wondering if you have a rule of thumb for how long you make them. I like a very gradual look, so I'll make the taper pretty acute, but I'm curious how you do it. If nothing else (no given rule) I'll try maybe 4".

If you have any pics that would be welcome too. I'm using a Sam Browne, but I did flip the loop over to the inside, so thanks for teaching me that. Not sure if you were the first to do it, but doesn't matter, I got the idea directly from your work. ;)
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Ah Busse, the handles that love to tear the living daylights out of leather. I always make a shelf on the rear and yes, a slow gradation is a good idea, and the less that the handle grates on the leather the better. I normally do around 4 inches for the shelf length and also if the handle is a cheese grater like those machined handles are I try to make it as thick as possible without making the sheath look like a brick. Its a hard choice, protect the leather and make the sheath a little thick at the top or dont put one there and hear about the marks on the belt loop later.

I know I have a pic somewhere showing the shelf, I'll look it up tomorrow as I am nodding off right now. Sorry. :eek:
 
I'm going pretty slowly, but I want to make sure I get everything done right. Will post more pictures later:

Kniff_zps40621910.jpg
 
Looking forward to more photos!

Could you also describe your drill/dremel set up in detail?

Thanks!
 
From years ago, back when I still had colour in my beard ;) I would also take into account how thick the guard is and try to make the opening so when the knife is placed into the sheath, it isn't pressing the back too much out of line. I picked that up from Rob Hudson, that guy certainly can make a big knife! and his sheaths were great as well, he would have a rather large opening, so when you go to return the knife, you aren't trying to go into a small slot, but you have a more comfortably return back to the sheath, with less fuss and muss.

one of the sheaths I made for Kodiak PA up in Alaska, I remember the welt was SO thick that I did have to use a drill, don't much care for drills but had to because of how thick the welt was made. I'd glue a thick layer that was centered in the stack and that ran the full length of the sheath and I'd taper both top and bottom sections so it would blend better and not be too sharp a transition.

See this thread about thicker welt it's not the same as the one for Greg but it shows the sandwich I'm talking about of the center layered welt.

And your shop looks SO clean! very nice :)
G2
 
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Gary

Like you I only make folder sheaths , but I suspect for different reasons .
I don't make them because I don't think I'd be that good at them , as well as that I don't carry fixed blades other than a tiny No Bother CRKT , but your fixed blade sheaths that I've seen just about out strip your folder sheaths and that's not an easy thing to do .
You have a real talent and understanding for fixed blade sheath design that is really impressive and unique .

Ken
 
Thanks Ken, I see from his layout now that he won't have a belt loop that the guard will come in contact with, so his approach to this looks like it should be fine, as he is using a stud on the face to catch on the belt when slid between body and belt. So my example doesn't have much bearing on this particular sheath.

I wish I had a photo of one of Rob Hudson's sheath, simply amazingly simple but highly functional. To those that don't know Rob, there is another Rob Hudson but a different guy altogether. This Robbin Hudson is or was well known for his octagonal style handles, they fit the hand extremely well and the faces of the octagonal sides provided a solid grip. Always very lively kind of knife, my wife's uncle had a big camp knife, loved that thing, he traded it away a few years ago, was hoping to have made it mine, but just didn't work out.

G2
 
I, too, am curios about the dremel/rotary tool set-up. Also, where did you source the stud? That's a bit larger than I'm used to seeing, but then I've seen them made by the knifemaker, as well as folks using miniature (doll house or the like) drawer knobs.

Very clean so far. Looking forward to more pics. :)
 
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