CS Laredo sheath - process pics.

[SBranson]

A friend on another forum wanted a new sheath for his CS Laredo Sword.. er Bowie.
He asked for a crossdraw and wanted the sheath covered with a softer leather over an inner sheath.
After many emails and pondering the possibilities we came up with this:

Well,,, it was a long thought process to sort out how I figured to make this. Because he wanted the sheath to come up over the guard (and it's a large guard) I decided that I would essentially make 2 sheaths. I felt I had to do it this way to get the soft wrap on the outer without it interfering with the drawing of the knife.

So here's what I did....

This is the beginning of the inner sheath.

These little wings are there so there is some support for the choil area but thinned so the blade can still be inserted.

Here's the top after glueing and shaping.

Now these next few photos show the beginning of the outer sheath... this mess took me a week of evenings only to see it all scrapped for a simpler and much nicer approach. I guess that's part of the learning...

 

[SBranson]

Here's where I realized it wasn't working and you can see the new outer piece underneath. At this point I had cut it apart to try and refine the fit and deal with the seams from too many joints. Also it wasn't making a smooth transition and the edges were really showing through the soft sheepskin outer.
Here I am starting to fit the new outer. In this first photo you'll notice that there are two strips scabbed on to the sides of the outer. These are to make up the space by the edge of the blade. Otherwise I would have to make the sheath thinner at the edge side and that wouldn't look right with this kind of sheath.

Ahh... now this is a much nicer fit

In the end the original mess was useful as I cut the top off and used the bottom pieces to complete the inner sheath.

Now that I was happy with the outer it was time to start attaching the soft skin.
I did it in sections to be sure that I got a nice fold over the shaped lines of the outer.. If you've work with contact cement before you'll know that there is very little room for error and as I got closer to the end of the sheath I was loath to screw up. Besides, BabySeal had been waiting too long anyway.:redface:
Each section took the time to fit, to mark out, to apply the cement and to wait about 10-15 for it to dry...then stick it down.

Now to sew it so the thread is only on the inside. Man this was tedious. Like working inside a tube sock..

 

[SBranson]

I stopped the sewing at these points as I wanted to be able to sew the inner sheath to the outer at the retention tab. I didn't mention that before but that little piece sticking up on the inner sheath was to provide the friction and a dimple for a kind of lock with the guard. It worked very well.

This is the inner glued to the outer and the outer final shaped and ready to have the skin glued down.

So before I did that it was time to fit the belt loop. I started with card board to get the shape.

And here's the leather piece before glue up.

And after glueing and sewing. I had to cut down a couple needles to be able to sew inside the tunnel.

And the sheath nearing completion before dyeing and the custom "engraving"

 

[SBranson]

And here's the final pics.
The stickman is his avatar on that site and BabySeal is his handle.

 

[leatherman]

Wow! Thats labor intensive! Very nice work!

 

[TekSec]

Really nice! Love the lace up on the back side. Excellent write up too!

 

[Greg45]

That's a great piece of work! :thumbup:

Very nice design and some nice touches all the way around. He oughta love it.

 

[Trigcure]

Seems to be a hind of bulkie design, but very well made, nice work!

 

[THE PUNISHER]

I respect you,there is a lot of labor in sheaths.............

 

[Keith Montgomery]

Very cool thread. Thanks.

 

[SBranson]

Thanks everyone. It may be a bit bulky but it's a big knife and it's not much bulkier than a rawhide style sheath.

It really was the most labour intensive sheath I've done and mostly in the planning. My rawhide sheath was about as close to this as I've tried before.

 

[deanaz]

Good Looking! I read a lot about coloring leather and the different methods. I like the mottled brown look you got on the sheath itself. I would be curious as to the methodology you used to get that.
:thumbup: