Cross Draw carry sheath, for a fixed blade

Gary W. Graley

Gary W. Graley

“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 2, 1999
Messages
27,249
Here's a tip, try not to promise someone a long time ago something
as they may come back to hit you up for that :) but that's ok,
but then, it reminds me just how much I don't like making fixed blade sheaths!

Here's a sheath that I made today for a fellow Bladeforums member named
Raj, a knife that Ron Newton guided him in creating, nice knife too,
it's been used a lot but still sharp as heck

it has a fairly big guard so I made the welt sizeable as well, three layers
thick, sandwich afair with the main welt running in the middle;
My friend Paul Long made this comment which I will use when next I'm
saddled with making as large a welt

by Paul Long aka Sheathmaker;
...When you are ready to install the Welt, skive the this style sheath all the
way around to 50% thickness from the edge to about 3/8" to the interior
(this assumes about a 1/2" wide welt/ that's wide not thick)
Install the welt and do the same 50% skive on the welt just like you did on
the edges. Assemble as usual. You now have an edge that is much thinner
and easier to sew and gives the optical illusion that the whole sheath is much
thinner, but you have given up absolutely nothing in the interior of the
sheath. The same 50% skive is applicable on the belt loop both front and
rear. I do this on a lot of my sheaths even though I machine stitch, simply
because they look better thinner in my opinion...
Click to expand...
thanks again Paul !

crossdraw_1 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

crossdraw_2 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

with a ramp or cam to help retain the knife once inside the sheath and the
notch cutout to catch the guard to prevent the knife from traveling further.

crossdraw_3 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

heres a shot showing how the welt was built up, the middle section runs the
length of the sheath, while the outer layers are tapered and provide additional
room for the large handle and guard to enter the sheath;

crossdraw_4 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Which resulted in a fairly thick welt to hand sew through! I did punch holes through first with a make shift awl;

crossdraw_5 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

and a few shots of it finished, it has 7 layers of leather along where the
cross draw belt loop is placed! quite thick to hand sew let me tell you, my
needle almost didn't make it through!

When the knife arrived it was quite patina'd as you can see and I took the liberty
of cleaning it up a little before shipping her home, in her new home ;)

crossdraw_6 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

crossdraw_7 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

crossdraw_8 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

The belt loop folds over the entire sheath and is stitched along the edge as shown there.
To keep the leading edge in line with the opening of the sheath, I had to cut the leather
at an angle so when I folded it over, it would be straight with the opening, more pleasing
to the eye, to me at least. I used a sheet of paper to figure out what that angle would be
just fold the paper over the sheath, while you have the sheath set at the angle you want
it to be carried, and then mark a line on the paper that is parallel with the opening of the sheath.

and this is just for instruction purposes only as I stick with the folder sheaths
and let my friends handle the fixed blade world which they enjoy and love doing!

G2
 
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You're welcome Will and thanks B, with that style of belt loop you can switch it
to wear on either side, except of course the concho is on the 'good' side, so that
does limit the moving around, but it can be done if needed.
G2
 
Hi Gary,thanks for the pictures.Helps me realize what all went into, making the sheath.Glad you made that promise to me :D:D.
Gary is very modest about saying he cleaned the knife up a "little".
He did a great job, cleaned up the blade big time and put his special "super edge" on it.Those of you who know Gary,know that the man is crazy particular about having a razor sharp edge on his knives.
By the way,Gary,did you not "promise " about making another fixed blade sheath for me ??:). I have this great big 12 inch bowie with 2 inch wide blade and......:D :D :D.
 
Gary, I must say that everytime I see one of your posts I learn somthing. I have rarely used a welt in my knife sheaths, let alone doubling and tripling the welt to get accomodation for the guard.
I have always tried to form the leather so that it accomodates the guard and have never really been pleased with the result. I must say I like the way you think, "the hell with thinking outside the box, throw the damn box away"!
Another great example of your work.
I must ask, what are you using to burnish the edges of your sheaths? I have tried several things and mostly use a deer antler but, I don't get the results that you do.
I did a sheath on a recent knife that I used some knowledge that I had gleaned from you and even though I don't consider myself in your class! I was inspired to try several new things (embelishments) that turned out fairly well. In fact I got praised by one as to the good form of the sheath around the knife and he wanted to know how I done it. I referred him to some of your posts and told him to read anything that had your name on it.
I can't wait to get some good tooling leather as what I am using now is not real tooling leather and I think that may some of the problem when it comes to getting the results I am looking for. That and experience!:D
 
Thanks Dixie, you can do the forming but as you noticed it doesn't always work as well.

For burnishing the edges of the sheath I use the bone folder I've had since starting leather work, it comes with a halfmoon shaped piece that snaps onto one end, that piece has several grooves in it and I also use those to burnish single layers of leather. I remove that half moon piece and use the squarish end to form the leather and also use the sides to smooth it out.

One tip shown in the making above, don't cut yourself short on leather along the edges, I leave a bit of 'land' along the edge before I put the holes in the sheath that way it doesn't pull the leather awkwardly, you have that area of leather glued
down that will provide some sturdy place to work, later on after you have sewn it up, trim along the edge and then I sand it down evenly on old 100 grit sand paper.

I do it in this order
Sand the edges down to a final even thickness in relation to the line of the thread

Knock down the outer edges after sanding, using the sanding drum I made up

I then dye the leather along the edge burnish it shortly after dying

dye it again, I like to get a nice soak into the leather for those scratches that can happen
burnish again

Then I hand sand with some old 2000 grit sand paper

rub in some gum tragacanth, that's the magic stuff that will help calm down any rough leather!

burnish that again
rub in some more gum tragacanth
burnish and that should do it.

here are some shots of the tools;
Bone folder with the half moon thingy in place

bonefolder by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

and just the thingy itself, you can slide it up close to burnish single edges

bonefolder-part by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

bone folder with that piece pulled off;

bonefolder-end by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

on the other end of this tool it's rounded and narrow, I use that to burnish in the groove
I put at the opening of the sheaths

the container in the middle is the magic stuff...

leather finishes by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

knocking down the very edges you end up with a nice smooth radius that lasts and also
looks a bit nicer than leaving it more squared;

sidefinished by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Glad to hear you're thinking out of the sheath/box, keep up the good work!
G2
 
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another great turorial Gary...:thumbup: your leatherwork is amazing... i would love to see this as sticky's..
 
Gary, thanks for the info. Great information. Where in the world did you get you bone with the end attachment like that? I have never seen one quite like it!
 
Dixieblade57 said:
Gary, thanks for the info. Great information. Where in the world did you get you bone with the end attachment like that? I have never seen one quite like it!
Click to expand...

Tandy leather carries them, see this link

And thanks guys appreciate the kind words!
G2

fixed the link to go to the actual item...;)
 
gary-- a quick question.. do you wet the leather before you start to form, with the bone folder...
 
with this particular sheath, there isn't any forming performed, but with the other sheaths, folder sheaths, yes the leather is held beneath hot running water until it is pliable and then I use the bone folder to start forming the sheath. BUT, as the leather goes from wet to dry about 1/2 hour or so between forming sessions, I keep going back to press and form again and again and again to actually stretch the leather into the shape I need it to stay.

G2
 
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hmmm I have this Blackwood Henchman that needs a sheath ..... ;)

Exceptional work Gary.

*PS. Thanks for the Christmas card , great picture ! *
 
Thanks Gary I have it bookmarked and will be making an order in the morning as I had already decided on a couple of things I needed from them anyway. :thumbup: That is the slickest little tool I have seen in a while. I have somthing similar I made of Oak wood but, I really have to watch the pressure I use with it or I end up wrinkling the leather from overstretching.
 
A word of caution, you might want to get two of them, I keep one so that it has the half round thingy still attached and the other one gets smoothed out over the years and it no longer stays put.

BUT, the caution part, when it arrives, there may be raised lettering from the mfg on the tool itself, I recommend sanding that down right away so it doesn't mar any leather!
G2
 
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Gary,
I have never had contact with you but I must say that is one impressive sheath!!!
Congratulation on some excellent skills there. Do you make larger crossdraws say in the 10" blade length???

Russ
 
Thanks Russ, but that was done for a friend, as I only create folder sheaths normally.

But there are many on the forums now that would entertain that project and help you!
G2
 
That is one gorgeous sheath! Thanks for taking the time to post all this. :thumbup:
 
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