Another sheath finished

duramax

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Nov 29, 2012
Messages
6,283
Hello All,

Well just finished this one up today. It’s for a Scrap Yard urban regulator .33 thick knife.
Here’s some pics
A6B26FB0-7874-4FF6-A2A2-22F57CE8140D.png 576E0837-13CF-4F8E-BD9F-2D808DCD784F.png 0FED742F-0390-43E8-8AEE-AAFB23C56C21.png 253A1A88-2D34-4915-8995-FB938F3CA0E5.png D47BCF28-20B3-49F7-B93D-75A437CF4130.png DB2A2A05-E606-41F6-AD6D-FF61D0C1B730.png 0303E829-714D-42C3-B478-388C3FCF9D6F.png BB7E7640-2247-476C-8F36-8A1C63E2E07A.png A0958E29-8869-4B6B-B9BF-582E358185F3.png
This one is hand stitched with tiger thread, leather is WC bridle ( thick )
 
Looking good man! The one thing that always gets my design sense up in a roar is thick knives. When I started doing the wedge shape it all came together. You have that sense already, that is a good thing.
Oh, wait till you see the beast of a custom knife I am working on at the moment, that thing just wants to eat my bench in one bite!
 
Thank you :)

Finding the “wedge” shape as you call it took some real thinking lol. Drove me nuts !! I wanted a more tapered look front and back. Which on thinner knives was possible, but thick knives - ugh lol

Can’t wait to see what your crafting next :) Your Busse FMV8 dagger sheath really came out awesome ! :)
 
That's a rugged sheath for sure!

Duane knows thick knives, it's been some time since I made a fixed blade sheath for a knife with a guard like that and when I made them I also would make the opening of the sheath large like you did for two reasons, ease of getting the knife back into the sheath and also it doesn't push the belt loop backwards at the same time. As to the wedges, I would take the leather welts to my sander and sanded/blended them down further back to make it a more gradual transition.

My take on stitching, I wouldn't do two rows, contact cemented downe and solid stitch will be plenty.

I might have made the sheath not quite as thick, it looks like you doubled up on the back and front panels ? Possibly for heavy duty protection for the user? If the leather used is heavy enough, one layer should be fine.

The restraining strap, since the knife has a double guard, I would have put the strap on the other side, so that when the person is walking through the brush it has less chance of getting unsnapped by accident, as well as being out of the way when taking the knife out and returning the knife back, lessens the risk of getting that strap cut. Also in making the sheath I would make the lower third close enough from front to back so it squeezes the blade a little bit, adding some friction retention, not a lot, but it helps to keep the knife in the sheath a little better.

But pretty nice stitching there man, a LOT of work into that one! What size thread did you use for that? I just got some tiger thread 1.2 mm that I'm liking pretty well.

G2

here's a link to a short tutorial I did that had to have a pretty thick welt to accommodate the guard that was made for a friend, always be careful when you tell a friend you might help out one day...they tend to remember such things better than you ;)
 
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That's a rugged sheath for sure!

Duane knows thick knives, it's been some time since I made a fixed blade sheath for a knife with a guard like that and when I made them I also would make the opening of the sheath large like you did for two reasons, ease of getting the knife back into the sheath and also it doesn't push the belt loop backwards at the same time. As to the wedges, I would take the leather welts to my sander and sanded/blended them down further back to make it a more gradual transition.

My take on stitching, I wouldn't do two rows, contact cemented downe and solid stitch will be plenty.

I might have made the sheath not quite as thick, it looks like you doubled up on the back and front panels ? Possibly for heavy duty protection for the user? If the leather used is heavy enough, one layer should be fine.

The restraining strap, since the knife has a double guard, I would have put the strap on the other side, so that when the person is walking through the brush it has less chance of getting unsnapped by accident, as well as being out of the way when taking the knife out and returning the knife back, lessens the risk of getting that strap cut. Also in making the sheath I would make the lower third close enough from front to back so it squeezes the blade a little bit, adding some friction retention, not a lot, but it helps to keep the knife in the sheath a little better.

But pretty nice stitching there man, a LOT of work into that one! What size thread did you use for that? I just got some tiger thread 1.2 mm that I'm liking pretty well.

G2

here's a link to a short tutorial I did that had to have a pretty thick welt to accommodate the guard that was made for a friend, always be careful when you tell a friend you might help out one day...they tend to remember such things better than you ;)

Wow , thank you so much for all the input :) I will definitely take a lot of that ( probably all ) into consideration on the next one. :)
I used 1.0 tiger thread on this one but I’ll be stepping up to 1.2 soon. I bonded it together with barge cement and place under 55lbs to keep pressure while curing.
I did thin the welt toward tip for a little added retention :) Was tough to do as the spine of this knife holds .33 thick more than 2/3rds length !! Knife is a beast lol.
I doubled my leather at the front for added protection and at belt loop to reduce drag against belt loop, and beef it up :)

Thanks again for all the info, greatly appreciated as I continue to learn :)
 
Doubling up makes sense and provides security in carry, I've done similar on the back side myself before, as I could just picture someone taking a fall while wearing the knife and wouldn't want it to break through the back and hurt someone, but, I did stop that after a while as it made the sheath heavier and just added to the overall build, but, I always thought it was a good thing safe thing to do!

One other thing I do, even for the folder sheaths I only make now, is to give the area around the stitching a little extra width of leather, makes for a more secure bond before I go to hammer through the holes for stitching and after it is all stitched up, I carefully cut off the excess and then use my disk sander to even out the welt area so it is all even and smooth. I have a VERY primitive setup for sanding, a motor that is at least 40 years old that turns an even older V belt onto a pulley of an arbor setup, one side is the 9" disk I stick sanding paper on, the other a small drum sander setup for contours. Here's a shot of me cutting off the excess after sewing up this folder sheath, then I take that to the disk sander to even up and also to bevel the edges as well, never want sharp edges on the sheath.

IMG_1994 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Here's a shot after I trimmed it off and rounded the edges;

IMG_1997 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr


I have since changed out the 9" disk thingy, that one was made from a counter top section that we cut out for the kitchen sink, and now I have some thick plexiglass, much better, well, as better as this setup will ever get.

sander by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Also one thing I have changed over the years to is to WeldWood you can get that from Walmart and for my money and some others I've read, works as well or better than barge, that barge cement was costly stuff, this weldwood costs less and for me, just all around better.

I think Paul Long uses this as well, he even thins it out I think also? But that has been a big savings for me over the years.

Keep up the great work sir, always good to see someone else with the passion for leather work!
G2
 
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Thanks again for all the info , much appreciated :)
This was my first big knife sheath, so I went a little robust lol. I do think on my next one I’ll try to give it a diet :) Plust my next order of leather will be 8-9oz instead of this heavy 10-12.
I’ll have to give that weldwood a shot, the barge cement can be pricey. For now I have a old 4x36 belt sander with 6” disc attachment.
I will definitely give all your tips a try :) thanks again for all the advice :)
Thank you
 
Here’s another that I just finished. Same style and again for a sykco regulator knife. I have another one of these on the bench being assembled. But the one on bench has some improvents from advice given from G2, thank you.
82E4F009-7984-4150-A545-3466C1B48B22.jpeg 6B84175C-669E-4648-883F-823CB6965F96.jpeg 6288BA8A-4530-44C9-98A0-D848FFB08506.jpeg
 
Looking good! :)

One thing I did notice is you burn the end of the threads, Gary taught me this one too ;) . Simply back stitch three or four spaces and cut the thread flush. Much cleaner finish. I do still burn the ends when I do a thin two layer stitch like on a belt loop as the thread seems to want to loosen for some reason.
 
Looking good! :)

One thing I did notice is you burn the end of the threads, Gary taught me this one too ;) . Simply back stitch three or four spaces and cut the thread flush. Much cleaner finish. I do still burn the ends when I do a thin two layer stitch like on a belt loop as the thread seems to want to loosen for some reason.

Thanks :)
I normally do back stitch 3 to 4 stitches. This is more a blem sheath as I drifted my stitches a little too close to the edge for my liking :-(
But I did get the back stitching info from you :) thank you. But boy back stitching by hand on thick leather is a bear to say the least lol
 
Nice sir, I like how the retaining strap comes around from the back, which helps it to move more open as you draw the knife and returning it as well, keeps it a little clearer of that edge.

And yes, backstitching in thick leather is not for the weak will person ;)

G2
 
I have a pair of bent nose jewelers pliers for just such an occasion, and that occasion does come a little more often than I'd like on these silly thick knives! :D :D :D

Just make sure your pliers are the smooth jaw type, those serrated jaw types are rather hard on needles.
 
Very nice looks good. Very noticeable improvement from one to the next.
 
Very nice looks good. Very noticeable improvement from one to the next.

Thank you :)

I have to give credit to members here for all their help and guidance. G2, leatherman, and yourself, all so willing to help :)
greatly appreciated !!!

There’s one more of these on the bench. So hopefully the fourth will again make some small steps of improvement :)
 
I use a scrap of leather that is cut scored (on the rough side) in the jaws of my non cutting needle nose pliers to pull the needles thru when the going gets tough.
However, YMMV, I've never made a sheath that thick!

How did you make the holes?
If it was a drill press, what size bit?
My 1/16" bit wander with 4 layers of 10 oz :O
 
“Ebbtide”
To be honest it’s a PIA ! Lol. I measure like 6 times then again, and usually make my holes in each layer of leather, or two layers, etc, making sure it all lines up.
I have extra harness needles to kinda pin it all together.
I’m still waaaaaaayyyyyyy away from giving advice on making as I’m still the new guy. Sad part is my stitch holes line up better at the thicker end lol. Go figure lol
 
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