Leather Bare necessity tools for leather sheath making

[ron55]

Sorry took so long to get back. I'd thought I'd answered this and then was rereading and realized I hadn't. Look at Leather Wranglers and Knipshield Leather tools. I don't have any experience with these personally but have heard good things.


7/8 oz will handle most fixed blade chores and is probably the most common leather weight used in sheath making. I do use lighter for some specific things and heavier for a lot. I think the quality of the leather is more important than the weight. Most pros will use either Wicket and Craig or Herman Oak veg tan leather.

Thanks!

 

[Horsewright]

Ya bet!

 

[7stitches]

I thought I'd chime in about the pricking irons. I have French style K&S Pricking irons and Sinnabroks French style pricking irons. Furthermore, I also have Sinnabroks stitching punches that punch a clean round hole. All of them will punch a hole through 8-9 oz leather. I do open the holes up a bit with a harness awl if necessary. I prefer the Sinnabroks chisels over K&S. The fact that you can replace the teeth if necessary is an excellent option. You would have to send the K&S chisel back to the factory to have ant teeth replaced.

 

[RayseM]

Here is a question about leather.

All of my sheaths tend to look VINTAGE, i.e., used right out of the box, compared to the works of so many of you whose sheaths are crisp and clean and so NEW looking. It occurred to me last night while scrolling through Sharp & Fiery and Gary W. Graley works that ONE of the difference (my lack of experience notwithstanding) could be that these guys DYE their leather AFTER the forming and tooling is completed. Whereas I have been buying pre-colored leather such as HORWEEN panels. When my sheath is done I treat it with a wax blend and call it good. All the wrinkles and blemishes from my effort show up. Would these be obscured by dyeing?

My work isn't awful. Each piece gets better in some respects than with the last effort. Some pieces even have little aspects of perfection. BUT a standard characteristic is the distressed, aka, vintage look of the leather. Would it be an upgrade to learn to dye?

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Is there a way to CLEAN the leather after construction, before the wax treatment? Sometimes I end up overworking my leather because I try something that needs some reconsideration and so the leather gets an extra work out. If I could clean it maybe it would appear less tired.

BUT my epiphany was that I should get my colors from dyeing rather than purchasing pre-colored leather.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Lorien]

I get the sheath completely finished before dyeing it prior to waxing. The stain that I use gets applied in thin layers, usually up to 5 or 6 depending on the look I want. An important lesson that I learned was to let the dye or stain dry completely before adding another coat and to rub it down a lot with cheese cloth in between applications. If the dye isn't completely dry when rubbed with the cloth, bits of material stick to it and they're very difficult to remove. I haven't tried that using water, since I thought it might cause more problems, so I've ended up with little scratches which aren't ideal.

Dye or stain can REALLY help cover some things up. Other things, not so much. The benefit to pre dyed leather is that it usually doesn't rub off. If you dye your own leather you have to be pretty diligent rubbing as much of the dye off as you can before sealing it up with wax.

 

[Lorien]

oh, and a response to the OP which is an essential tool; my vote is for an overstitch wheel. It has a lot of uses, but when you go over your stitches with one it really elevates the work compared to not using one

 

[baxtrom]

oh, and a response to the OP which is an essential tool; my vote is for an overstitch wheel. It has a lot of uses, but when you go over your stitches with one it really elevates the work compared to not using one

As it happens I recently purchased one

 

[ron55]

Here is a question about leather.

All of my sheaths tend to look VINTAGE, i.e., used right out of the box, compared to the works of so many of you whose sheaths are crisp and clean and so NEW looking. It occurred to me last night while scrolling through Sharp & Fiery and Gary W. Graley works that ONE of the difference (my lack of experience notwithstanding) could be that these guys DYE their leather AFTER the forming and tooling is completed. Whereas I have been buying pre-colored leather such as HORWEEN panels. When my sheath is done I treat it with a wax blend and call it good. All the wrinkles and blemishes from my effort show up. Would these be obscured by dyeing?

My work isn't awful. Each piece gets better in some respects than with the last effort. Some pieces even have little aspects of perfection. BUT a standard characteristic is the distressed, aka, vintage look of the leather. Would it be an upgrade to learn to dye?

View attachment 2280779\

View attachment 2280785

Is there a way to CLEAN the leather after construction, before the wax treatment? Sometimes I end up overworking my leather because I try something that needs some reconsideration and so the leather gets an extra work out. If I could clean it maybe it would appear less tired.

BUT my epiphany was that I should get my colors from dyeing rather than purchasing pre-colored leather.

Thanks for your help.

I can't answer your questions, but I really like your vintage look. The stitching with twine, balls hanging from the thread, leather patina, rivets - the whole deal. I'd like to attempt something like this, but don't know where to find the supplies. Can you give me the name of a supplier for this vintage looking things?

 

[RayseM]

I can't answer your questions, but I really like your vintage look. The stitching with twine, balls hanging from the thread, leather patina, rivets - the whole deal. I'd like to attempt something like this, but don't know where to find the supplies. Can you give me the name of a supplier for this vintage looking things?

Thank you for your appreciation. The leather is mostly from panels of Horween Leather purchased from Buckle Guy. They aren't a very efficient purchase but I don't do enough of this work to need to buy other than some 1"x2" panels, every now and again. Since I haven't got into dyeing yet these are most satisfying. The rivets look worked because I work then with files or hammers to get some detail. The leather "thread" I often get from various ETSY dealers. The regular thread comes from wherever I buy my regular supplies. BEADS AND BAUBLES are from bead stores. Mostly the most excellent EARTHLY ADORNMENTS who offers lots of metal and wood beads, among others. I lover her collection but ETSY could be another source. Lots of dealers to choose from. You need to select beads with over sized holes or be prepared to rebore the holes to suit your purpose. Wood beads lend themselves to this. Glass beads do not. You don't want glass beads on a sheath anyway IMHO. The metal beads very often come with oversized holes.

I get the sheath completely finished before dyeing it prior to waxing. The stain that I use gets applied in thin layers, usually up to 5 or 6 depending on the look I want. An important lesson that I learned was to let the dye or stain dry completely before adding another coat and to rub it down a lot with cheese cloth in between applications. If the dye isn't completely dry when rubbed with the cloth, bits of material stick to it and they're very difficult to remove. I haven't tried that using water, since I thought it might cause more problems, so I've ended up with little scratches which aren't ideal.

Dye or stain can REALLY help cover some things up. Other things, not so much. The benefit to pre dyed leather is that it usually doesn't rub off. If you dye your own leather you have to be pretty diligent rubbing as much of the dye off as you can before sealing it up with wax.

Thanks for this Lorien , the quality of your leather work is worthy of emulation.

 

[ron55]

Thank you for your appreciation. The leather is mostly from panels of Horween Leather purchased from Buckle Guy. They aren't a very efficient purchase but I don't do enough of this work to need to buy other than some 1"x2" panels, every now and again. Since I haven't got into dyeing yet these are most satisfying. The rivets look worked because I work then with files or hammers to get some detail. The leather "thread" I often get from various ETSY dealers. The regular thread comes from wherever I buy my regular supplies. BEADS AND BAUBLES are from bead stores. Mostly the most excellent EARTHLY ADORNMENTS who offers lots of metal and wood beads, among others. I lover her collection but ETSY could be another source. Lots of dealers to choose from. You need to select beads with over sized holes or be prepared to rebore the holes to suit your purpose. Wood beads lend themselves to this. Glass beads do not. You don't want glass beads on a sheath anyway IMHO. The metal beads very often come with oversized holes.



Thanks for this Lorien , the quality of your leather work is worthy of emulation.

Thanks for all the info! I don't much leather work either and sheaths/slips are small, so I'm going to try buying some vintage looking pre dyed leather. My attempts at dyeing are abysmal.

 

[RayseM]

The VINTAGE comes from the work of making the sheath. The new leather looks like new leather until I get a hold of it.

Good luck and have fun ron55 .

 

[7stitches]

Here is a question about leather.

All of my sheaths tend to look VINTAGE, i.e., used right out of the box, compared to the works of so many of you whose sheaths are crisp and clean and so NEW looking. It occurred to me last night while scrolling through Sharp & Fiery and Gary W. Graley works that ONE of the difference (my lack of experience notwithstanding) could be that these guys DYE their leather AFTER the forming and tooling is completed. Whereas I have been buying pre-colored leather such as HORWEEN panels. When my sheath is done I treat it with a wax blend and call it good. All the wrinkles and blemishes from my effort show up. Would these be obscured by dyeing?

My work isn't awful. Each piece gets better in some respects than with the last effort. Some pieces even have little aspects of perfection. BUT a standard characteristic is the distressed, aka, vintage look of the leather. Would it be an upgrade to learn to dye?

View attachment 2280779\

View attachment 2280785

Is there a way to CLEAN the leather after construction, before the wax treatment? Sometimes I end up overworking my leather because I try something that needs some reconsideration and so the leather gets an extra work out. If I could clean it maybe it would appear less tired.

BUT my epiphany was that I should get my colors from dyeing rather than purchasing pre-colored leather.

Thanks for your help.

I've purchased leather that had been dyed, but found it's a real problem if you intend to wet mold it. Just handling some leather will cause the finish to scuff or scratch. I now buy only leather in a natural finish. Before dying, I use a deglazer, such as the one made by Fiebing's. Oxalic acid is far cheaper to use as a mix with water, but doesn't work as well.
I get my best results with an oil dye, followed by Resoline as a protectant, or Skidmore's cream depending on the project.