How I make a pouch sheath... (tutorial).

[Diomedes Industries]

Purpose:

In this tutorial I will show you how I made this sheath for a ML Knife. It would be very easy to use this basic idea for any knife you would like that is a basic bushcrafter:

Caveats:

There are many many ways to skin a knife - so please take all the advice and ideas in this thread as simply that - one way to make a sheath. You can supplement nearly every step in this process with another way or another tool that will get you similar results.

I will give a list of everything I used to make this sheath. It will seem daunting - but you do not need all of this stuff. I use it because it makes my life easier and I make quite a few sheaths for myself - and - frankly - I enjoy it. All of the stuff on this list cost me about 400 dollars (Leather included) but I could easily make 40 sheaths with the amount of leather and materials listed. Once you get good - sell a few - and you will easily make back your investment. If you just want to make stuff for you - take a careful look at the tools you see me using once - and the tools you see me using a lot. Make your list from there.

Also - I give lists from Tandy - but they make hobbyist quality tools. If you are thinking this is something you would like to do - you may want to invest in better tooling from the beginning. Again, watch to see what tool I use a lot, and maybe invest in a better tool for that one. If you only use it a little (like a snap setter or something) then buy the cheaper model. Just wanted to state that I have no fealty to Tandy - nor do I think they are the only kid in town. They are a little more ubiquitous and so you could get your hands on some of their tools a little more easily than others. Just something to think about.

Resources to read or watch:

a) If you were going to purchase one resource - buy Chuck Burrows "Custom Knife Sheaths". I learned more from one watching of this video than I learned in the first 6 months of trying to make sheaths.

B) Two Books: How to Make Leather Cases Vol. 1 and The Art of Hand Sewing Leather by Al Stohlman


Leather and liquids: (Use all of this stuff in a well ventilated area).

a) 8-10 ounce Leather is what I used - I wish now it would have been thinner. Perhaps 6-8 ounces. I use quality leather from Wicket & Craig. It is worth buying the good stuff. They usually sell economy sides of leather for about 100 dollars - this would make about 40 or so sheaths - so going in with someone on leather might be a great idea. If not - get the BEST double shoulder of leather you can get from Tandy. However, if you are going to splurg on anything - let it be the leather.

b) I used Light Brown Leather Dye Feibing's - but you can use any color you would like - just use QUALITY dye - not oil based - but spirit based.

c) Some sort of sealant. This is totally up to you - but I use my sheaths in the woods - so I want them to have as much water protection as I can get - without hindering the leather. I have found the best stuff to use is Montana Pitch Blend - Leather Dressing. This stuff is awesome for all leather sheaths. When conditioning and re-conditioning your other sheaths - this is a great choice. All natural and the 4 ounce tub has lasted me about 2 years.

d) Gum Tragacanth: This is a natural gum compound generally used in edging. I find with the Montana Pitch Blend it is not necessary - but it makes your edging SO shiny when done right. Get the smallest amount of this you can - a little goes a LONG way when edging.

e) Contact Cement. I use Weldwood Original Contact Cement.

f) Contact Cement Thinner DAP makes their own - if you cannot find it - get thinner with Toulene.

g) Some sort of Brush to brush on the contact cement. I would get two small bottles of Dap Contact cement and use one until it runs out - clean it - and use the brush in the cap of the empty bottle, half filled with cement thinner. This keeps your brush clean and able to be used when you need it. Simply clean off the thinner before you use the cement. I learned this trick from Chuck Burrows DVD.

h) Blue painters masking tape. This is used for the knife while I am wet forming. Get 3M and it will come off easy while protecting the blade. You can also use saran wrap on the knife while wetforming.

Tools I used:

a) #2 or #1 Edger

b) Strap edge punch - I use a English Strap end - but you can use whatever you want (and this is not necessary).

c) Safety Beveler (also known as a safety skiver)

d) A 13/64 hole punch - or you can buy a Maxi Punch set - so that you have a few extra holes you can choose from.

e) 000 Harness needle and 0 harness needles - you need one 000 and a bag of 0 Harness needles. .

f) Waxed Sewing awl thread. I used Natural thread to give it the sinew look.

g) A Drill Press. I use a inexpensive Asian drill press - I think it was 60 dollars new - it was donated to me by a buddy.

h) Adjustable Stitchgroover

i) Overstich Wheel - I am using a 5 Stitches Per Inch Wheel.

j) Bone Folder - This is not really necessary - as a bone or brass rod would allow you to do the same - but I use the bone folder for the straps a little more.

k) A bit of Antler for edging.

l) I use an automatic burnisher as well - this is a dowel made of hard wood (Cocobolo) that has been put to a lathe for specific strap sizes. This is certainly not necessary - but allows me to chuck it up in my Drill press and finish the edges quickly - but does not do a BETTER job than a bit of horn or the bone folder.

m) A D-Ring - I use a removable D-Ring (These can be purchased from www.hardwareelf.com)

n) 1/4 inch Chicago Screws (I use Nickle Plated)

o) Wool Daubers: Again - not necessary - you can 'dip' your sheaths in dye with the use of a tub of dye - but with these small sheaths - and done right - you can use these.

p) Freehand Groover: You could use just this instead of the guided one - but having both is nice.

q) Adjustable Strap Cutter. You don't need this - but it makes straps whatever size you want VERY easily. When you are making danglers - you simply cut a huge length of 1" straps and then use it to cut out danglers with. However, you can simply use a metal ruler and use a sharp knife to cut out 1" strapping.

r) A Sharp Nimble Knife. You need a good knife to make your initial cuts. I use a Bark River Mikro TUSK. However, I have seen Chuck Burrow's use simple utility knife for most of his cuts. And if you know Chuck's work - well it speaks for itself.

s) Granite Surface Plate. This is great for doing small tooling as well as setting your makers mark or any other work. I used it here for Skiving and other things.

t) Some sort of cutting surface. I have used a cutting surface from a hobby shop for hobbyists.

u) 1 3/4 English Strap End Cutter.

v) Two Spray bottles. One filled with Water - one filled with isopropyl alcohol

w) Adjustable V Gouge.

x) Metal straight edge ruler - 18 inches.

y) Needle nose pliers

z) A clean shoe buffing brush

Music listened to while making this sheath:

The Verve Pipe - Villians - other various songs.
Brian Vander Ark - Angel Put Your Face On - other various songs.
Tricky - Various songs
A-Ha - Take on me.
Public Enemy- Various
Credence Clearwater Revival - Various
Tribe Called Quest - Various.
BB King - Live from Cook County Jail.
Jack Johnson - Live from Boulder.
Doug E. Fresh - Various.
Fatboy Slim - Various.


Here is the knife I am starting with:

The Pattern:

The knife ultimately determines the pattern of the sheath in terms of what kind of welt you will need. In terms of what kind of sheath you want - this is dependent entirely on what you want your sheath to do for you. In this case, I made a simple fold over pouch sheath for a couple of reasons - first, is that I like it - and what I wanted for this sheath but - secondly, it is one of the simpler sheaths to make for those trying their hand at it.

Pattern making takes time, and frankly I am not focusing a ton on it. If you pick up the books I mentioned above or the DVD - the go into pattern making in more detail. What I will say here is that when making a pattern to use heaver stock when cutting out the pattern. This allows you to see what the sheath will look like when it is completed. I use Manilla folders to make my patterns out of and it seems to work just fine - however - the back of a cereal box works just as well.

Here is the pattern I came up with after about 4 iterations:

I would encourage you to leave ample room for your knife - especially if you have thicker leather (8-10 ounce is a quite a bit thicker and needs more room in your pattern than 6-8 ounce. Also - when you get your leather cut out - if you find it is too big - you can always tweak it some. I found that I tweaked my leather after I cut patterns a lot more when I started making sheaths than I do now. I tweak a little - but that is due more to aesthetics than anything else.

Also, be cognizant of your welt when making your pattern. Lay your knife on your pattern in the way it will rest in the sheath and then trace the blade - this will allow you to make a welt that you want. You want the blade to be almost resting on the welt - but have a little room (something like 1/16th inch) of space between the blade and the welt. I do it this way so that if the leather get's damp inside the sheath - at least wet leather isn't just sitting against the blade of my knife.

Also, the type of knife will depend on the kind of welt you can put into the sheath. With a knife that has a guard you can put a shelf in your welt that can serve as a stop while inserting the knife. Simply trace your blade and trace the guard so that the welt becomes a sort of shelf that prevents the knife from being over inserted into the sheath and causing the sheath to cut through your stitching.

This knife has no guard and thus the welt is one smooth radius that simple guides the blade into the sheath and allows for the most amount of surface area for the blade to come into contact with before getting to the stitching of your sheath. In my case, I like the look of a sheath that has been double stitched (I am not at all sure if a double stitch makes a stronger sheath or a stronger way to secure a sheath - but I like the looks and I don't think it compromises the sheath at all. What is does mean, though, is that I need a wider welt. You want your outer stitch to be about 1/8th of an inch away from the edge of the sheath - so with a double stitch I need 1/8th to the first stitch - 1/16th or so gap - a second stitch (1/16th) - and another 1/8th of leather between the blade and the stitching. This makes for a LOT of welt (almost 1/2 inch) - and some sheaths when paired with some knives will not look right with this much welt. You can see in my picture above that I have a lot of room left for the welt. Play around with your design. I tend to think that form should follow function - but should also look cool when it can, and does not ruin the function of the knife.

I don't use any rivets in my sheaths. I do not believe that they add any strength to the sheath - however - after talking to Mr. Marchand about this - I think certain rivets can be used to make a sheath almost impossible to cut through - and very safe. I think your stitching will be jacked up and the sheath will need repaired if the rivets (in this case more of a safety measure) are used - but I think they can make a safer sheath. Think about your use of rivets in your sheath and leave room for them if you decide to use them. Just know that rivets do not make a sheath hold together better - however - I think an argument can be made that they can make a safer sheath. It is all up to you and what you want from a sheath.

 

[Diomedes Industries]

Making a Welt Pattern:

Before you can make a welt pattern - you need to duplicated the sheath pattern you have already made. Carefully copy the sheath you have on to another piece of manilla folder and label it. I label all of my sheath patterns in a few different ways. First, I put the knife's name on it. Second, I put the 'top' and the 'bottom' on the respective sides. If you reverse the pattern and trace it upside down you will make a sheath for the wrong hand. Meaning, if you are a righty and you are trying to make a sheath to rest on your right hip for your right hand - carefully label the flesh side and grain side for the hand you are making it for. This happens more than I would care to note, so be sure and do this.

Now you have two identical sheath patterns and you can use one to make the welt for. What you want to do is basically trace the blade and extend the line from the blade to the opening where you want the welt to be. I forgot to take picture of this part so I made a line in paint that basically allows you to understand what is taking place.

You can see how I made a line starting at the middle of the sheath - ran it up the blade (about 1/16th of an inch from the blade) and extended that line up curving it out slightly to allow the welt to help guide the sheath into the knife properly. You then simply cut out the pattern and name the welt pattern by the knife that you are making. When you store these - use a paper clip to hold the welt to the sheath pattern so you don't loose them. What you will find is with 3 or 4 of these patterns - you can simply adapt existing patterns to fit other knives.

Tracing the pattern on leather:

As I said above, you need to be careful how you set up your pattern. You don't want to cut out the wrong handed sheath - so carefully, while double checking, lay out your sheath on to some leather and trace it with a reg uni-ball type pen. This is a trick I learned from the Chuck Burrow's DVD I mentioned above. Red pen tends to blend in an disappear when using brown dye, like I plan to with this sheath. If you want to keep your sheath natural (which takes an absolutely clean work surface and careful preparation) use a soft lead pencil. This will be harder to see, so I advise starting off dying your sheaths and use a red pen.

You can see above I have a few sheaths laid out on this piece of leather. I highly advise rough cutting a section of leather and then drawing and cutting out your pattern (and welt) on a smaller piece of leather. When you are using a smaller piece of leather you will make fewer mistakes and have an easier time cutting and tracing as you can rotate the piece as you cut. I had, in the past, tried to cut my sheaths out of the whole side of leather, trying to save every scrap of leather and not waste any. This is laudable, but will produce an product that will take more time to clean up - or simply have to be tossed out due to large cutting mistakes.

Cutting out the sheath and welt:

Using a sharp knife carefully cut out your pattern. I use a Bark River Mikro Tusk, in the picture, but you can use whatever small nimble SHARP knife you have on hand. Chuck Burrows uses a simple utility knife - and his work speaks for itself - so use what you have that WORKS:

Again, due to some welt/camera inversion I forgot to show you the picture of the cut welt. But here it is laying on the sheath at a later stage:

You can see the outside of the welt is not carefully cut, I did this on purpose. The inside is what matters here - the outside you will have to trim later. Simply use your welt pattern to ensure you have enough material to cover the area needed and leave the outside cut alone. This will make more sense later.


Preparing the inside of the sheath:

I prep the inside of the sheath a little before I start. Quality leather will come with a prepared rough side - but I like to make some further preparations. Because I have thicker leather to begin with - I wanted to skive the leather down some. I used a safety beveler to make these adjustments. Then I use 100 grit sand paper to even out any marks that may not have left a level surface. I then use 320 grit sand paper to prepare the inner surface further. This is probably overkill - but when sanding (only in one direction) with your sand paper - it sets up the rough side of the leather to be smoothed later when burnishing the belt loop as well as the inside of the sheath.

A word about your bench as you begin to sand and skive. You are going to make a mess. Keep a paint brush on hand in order to keep your work surface clean and free of debris. What you will find is if your work surface gets a bunch of debris - you will prevent a lot of damage to your leather and you will have a better surface and look when you complete your sheath.

Also, you will notice I am doing my skiving, and most of my work, on a granite block. This makes for a GREAT work surface. It does not catch the blade of my skiver when I go off the edges and does not dull my skiver when I do so. This block is essential when doing any tooling as you need a dead surface to take up any of the blows from the tooling you use and so I purchased one for about 40 dollars. I keep this block clean at all times - this makes for better leather work.

Knife Preparation:

Because most of the knives that I make sheaths for are high carbon steel, have wooden handles, or would not do well by getting wet for a few hours, I prepare the knife very carefully before I put any water on my sheaths. I use 3M painters tape and cover the entire knife with one coat of tape.

I first take a long portion of tape and run it down one side and back the other making a careful sandwich out of the tape. I carefully fill in any gaps with one layer of tape and then trim the excess off (leaving a bit at the blades edge to ensure the tape is touching itself and not terminating at the blade. I don't want water to seep in and touch the edge. Even though I could easily sharpen this out - when I am making a sheath for someone else - I don't want to mess with their edge. It has their mojo on it - and I don't want to mess that up - or send them back a rust blade. In this case, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Wetting the sheath:

At this point I wet the sheath. This is not truly 'casing' the sheath - as I am not going too far in my leather prep. I want the leather to bend - but I don't need it so prepared as to take tooling well. If you plan on doing any tooling - you would likely case your leather - make a few marks to ensure you were not tooling where you were going to stitch and get started. I am not tooling and will thus refer you to the Chuck Burrow's DVD that is excellent on showing you how to case your leather as well as tool simple (and complex) designs into sheaths. Frankly, I don't enjoy tooling, it is tedious for me, so I don't practice or get better. I would rather leave you to the experts on that topic - and man - there is some beautiful stuff out there. I admire it, I just don't do it. Anyway, I wanted to talk about the word distinction between simply dampening or wetting the leather and truly casing it. Casing leather is an extended process, in this case, I am simply grabbing a water bottle that has warm water in it - and spraying the leather down on both sides until it is damp.

Cutting recess grooves for thinner blades:

At this point my leather is damp and I am ready to work the edges and inside of the leather. I wrap my knife in the leather in the approximate position that it will rest when I get finished and mark where the handle terminates. I take the knife out, and marry up the edges of the sheath so that it is folded much like it will be when I get the sheath stitched. I then mark a line, again using a red pen, from the handle portion of the knife down the middle of the sheath to the tip, as seen above. This shows me where the spine of the blade will rest when I get the knife finished.

Because it is tough to bend 8-10 ounce leather around a 1/8th inch blade - it makes the sheath look puffy - and throws off the wet form of the sheath. So I want to take some material off this portion of the sheath so that it bends more easily around the blade. I don't need to do this all the way up the sheath as it is easy to bend the leather around the circumfrence of the handle. I then use an adjustable V-Gouger to make three gouges in the leather. One gouge in the center of the sheath, where the line was made, and two right next to it. Be careful to set the depth of the gouge properly (I set it about 1/2 the thickness of the leather) and don't let the lines run into each other. When it doubt, set the gouger shallow - you can always follow up with a little more depth.

What you end up with is three gouges in a row - and if you reinsert your knife and wrap it around the blade - you will see how, with just a little thumb pressure - you can easily start to wet form the knife to the sheath and the blade portion flattens out more and looks appropriate. If you are truly anal, you can set the depth of your gouger a little shallower as the blade comes closer to the handle and a little deeper as it gets to the tip. This will allow the leather to follow the contour of the blade more exactly and give your wet forming a nicer transfer from the handle to the blade.

What you have at this point is 3 V's that when folded over, become solid again inside the sheath. You loose very little strength in the sheath doing so. I have heard master leather benders say that much of the strength in leather is on the skin side. The grain side is mostly porous and so removing a little, especially in this application, is no loss and the result is a good looking sheath.

One word of advise at this point. I don't wet form my knives tight to the blade. I find that if I over wetform my knives at the blade portion, a few things happen, one - you have a VERY tight portion inside the sheath that leaves you very little room when inserting the blade. In other words, when putting your knife back in when you have pushed the leather tight to the blade, the inside slot that accepts the blade is so tight that you have to be exact when reinserting your knife. This has many disadvantages - one is that when you are using a bushcraft knife - you want it to come out of its sheath and go back in very easily, but not so easily that it will fall out on its own - second - if you make a mistake and catch the tip of your sharp knife on the inside of your sheath - and push- it will cut right through your nice sheath and make you say bad words at yourself.

There is a happy medium when wetforming - make it look like there is a blade in there and that you formed your sheath to it - but don't form it so much that you can see the contours of the blade through the leather. It not only looks bad, it makes for a sheath with an inferior design. Wetform the handle more than the blade, it will hold your knife correctly, and allow you to reinsert the knife without cutting through it.

 

[Diomedes Industries]

Cutting the Belt Loop:

As mentioned above I left the belt loop long - it had to be trimmed at a later time and so it doesn't make sense to make measurements when you don't need to. At this point - I put the knife back in the sheath at about the point it will rest when I complete the sheath and mark the belt loop at the point where the handle terminates. This is the furthest down on the handle I can go and have a firm sewing point to stitch the belt loop on to the back of the sheath. What you are striving for, no matter where you cut the belt loop, is a belt loop that is at least 2 inches long. The widest belts are 2 inches and having some wiggle room on a 2 inch belt is nice to have. I like having at least 2.5 inches on my belt loop as it allows for some movement on the sheath while sitting or getting snagged on branches. I want it to give - not pull on my stitching over and over for no reason. So, I put the bottom of my belt loop at the point where the handle meets the blade. I mark this point and then cut the belt loop at this length.

I use an 1 3/4 English Strap End Cutter - it makes quick cuts and makes them uniform. However, this tool is EXPENSIVE (40 bucks!) and not necessary. In the picture above I have the burnisher that comes with the plastic bone folder sold by Tandy. That semi round circle makes an easy traceable end for your straps too. Just use whatever is handy round off this end - or make a template in the design you like and then simply cut it with a knife. I like the look of the English strap - so that is what I use - but you can save a lot of money if you are willing to just trace and cut at this step. When you start making sheaths for sale - you can justify buying a strap cutter. Until then, don't sweat it.

One thing - if you do buy and use a strap end cutter - be SURE to use a good cutting board when using the tool. It is great when it is sharp, and not that hard to sharpen, but there is no reason to dull your tools unnecessarily. However, you will be banging on this tool for it to make a cut- so over hitting it is common and you can cut through a good board without trying. If you look in the picture - you will see a hole in my cutting board from a hole punch - this should not have happened - I just gave it too much muscle - and had to sharpen the punch when I was done messing that one up. Go slow - be careful - and your tools will stay sharp for a long time.

At this point you have the inside of your sheath prepped and the belt loop cut - you are well on your way to having a finished sheath! It is now time, oddly, to start doing some finishing work on your belt loop and opening of your sheath. The more preparation here - the better your end product will look, trust me.

Marking the Welt:

Before we can edge the opening of the sheath we need to mark where the welt will go in order to know where NOT to edge. Take out your welt pattern and lay it down on the sheath. Trace this pattern on the sheath on both sides so that you know where the welt will be when glued in place. Do not edge or sand on the INSIDE of the opening of the sheath at these point. You want these flat so when you glue the flat sheath to the flat welt - it will make a seamless look. If you bevel the edge at the point where the welt will glue in - it will leave a gap and look wrong.

Wetforming the knife:

At this stage you can wet form your knife to sheath a bit. This process can go on as much as needed. Simply insert the knife where it will rest when completed and use your thumbs (trim your nails as not to leave nail marks) and form the sheath to the knife until you like the look. I think the handle needs to be more formed than the blade. I flatten the blade section and then spend most of my time on the handle. Remember, you don't want this to be super tight as you have not put the welt in yet - so just keep working the leather until it is about right. Take the knife out and match up the edges.

Sanding everything straight:

This part of the process will not be necessary if you were careful enough with your blade when cutting out your pattern - but what I found on this sheath is that I did not cut the belt loop evenly - it was wider at the base than it was at the tip. (See the pictures above - and you will see the base is wider than the tip - by just a little bit.) I wanted it to be 15/16th of an inch the length of the strap (one it looks uniform and two it fits the D ring that I am using. If you are not going to put a dangler on your sheath - you can leave the belt loop wider at the top than you do at the tip - it will look a little more organic and provide more material at the point where you are wearing the sheath on your belt.

You have a few options in trying to clean up any mistakes with the knife, you can use a knife and try to trim off a little material here and there, or you can use a sander to take off the parts. I use a knife if I am way off, which I try not to be, and use a sander where I am a little off. I owned a dremel tool already so I use the rough and fine barrels to do my clean up work.

With the rough barrel attached to the remote head of the Dremel I carefully clean up and smooth out any spots and make any corrections I need to make at this point.

Using the Edge Beveler:

Use a #1 or #2 edge beveler along the now squared off edges of the opening of the sheath (again, staying away from the welt area) and the entire belt loop. Remember, you leather will still be a little damp and this dampness will help the beveler cut through the edges. If you find the edge beveler pulling or grabbing, and messing up your work - sharpen the beveler. You can see in the picture below what difference the edge beveler makes. The tip is not beveled - but the length of the belt loop showing has been beveled. Can you see how nice and round those edges are starting to look?

Sanding the Edges:

Once you have beveled all of the edges - change the barrel in your sander to the fine grit sander. I use a worn fine grit to begin the finishing on my edges at this point. I carefully and lightly sand the length of where I beveled, rounding the edges, evening everything up, and getting my edges to look good. When everything is even - go over the edge only in one direction - this will even out your edges even more. Then I use 320 grit sand paper and go over the edges by hand - then switch to worn 320 grit paper. First I do the edge dry, then I add a little water, and go over it again. Things should start to look very good at this point, the more you work on your edges now, the better they will turn out when you finish burnishing them.

You can see in the picture above how the edges are getting to look more shiny as we go. Experiment with this phase, add and edging of water and sand again, try sanding in only one direction and see if your results are better. I find that sanding dry first, adding a little water (dip your finger in water and run it along the edge) and sanding again - only in one direction - makes the edge finer and finer. Wipe off the dust with a rag and inspect your results. Keep going until it is without blemish - this will not take all that long.

Burnishing the edges:

Wet the edges slightly again and burnish the edges. If your leather is so wet that as you start to burnish you start to smush the edges - let it dry a little more. I find at this point a little wetting is necessary at the edge you are burnishing - but the inside can be a little dryer to give you a good backing to place a little pressure against.

Burnishing can be done in a few ways, but the simplest is to use a round, hard, non steel object to rub vigorously on the edging. I use a deer antler that I carefully sanded down to 1000 grit and over time has become so smooth that it is just a joy to use. Another method is to use your bone folder to rub the edges. It, however, doesn't do well in tight places, so I use the antler.

Here is another thing that you might invest in if you make more sheaths than just a few. An automatic burnisher:

I set my drill press to about 200 RPM's and chuck up this cocobolo dowel (machined to have recesses that allow me to do different width straps and things) - and then do my edging with this spinning bad boy. However, this is simply faster - not necessarily better. In the Chuck Burrows DVD that I cite above - he uses a Moose antler, and has great results.

Burnishing the belt loop and opening:

At this point I also burnish the belt loop and opening of the sheath (staying away again from where the welt will glue in) and make sure it looks flat and as smooth as possible. You can use a little water if your sheath has dried out some - but don't soak it so it becomes mushy. Again, vigorously rub the belt loop and opening until it gets shiny. This will make for a great looking belt loop when you get done dying your sheath.

You can see in the picture below that not only the edges are shiny but the belt loop is burnished too:

A little decoration at the opening:

I like to make a small groove near the opening of the sheath. It is a little decorative touch that makes the sheath look a little nicer. Frankly, I borrowed this idea from the JRE and Sharpshooter sheaths that came with BRKT knives when I first started buying bushcraft knives (My first sheath was made for a BRKT Aurora!) You can simply trace a line 1/8th in back from the opening of the sheath and use your bone folder, pressing moderatly hard, to make a line at this point - and be fine.

However, I like to use my adjustable groover, set at about 1/8th inch and make a groove. When making this groove - I don't like the groove to run into my stitching - so I am careful to stay away from the welt that is marked on the back. After I make this groove - I use the tip of the bone folder to burnish the inside of this groove and make it look nice and neat.

This is not necessary and is a touch that I like to include - but you may want to get your own thing going and invent your own style of marks that you think look cool. It is up to you - you don't need to do much to make a sheath have a little style - and I find with bushcrafting knives, simpler is better.

Setting your Makers Mark:

Of course - if you are not going to make a lot of these - a makers mark doesn't make much sense. I had a custom makers mark made after I commissioned a graphic artist to make a logo for me. This is NOT necessary at all. In fact - you can simply set some initials in your sheath, or make your own custom makers mark. A buddy of mine made a triangle for me out of a hardened bolt when I was making some other projects that acted as a markers mark (An upper case Delta) for some PSK Tin's I was making. This could be used easily as a makers mark. Be creative, look around Tandy - and see if you like any of the stamps they sell, and just use that. It will be like your own signature on your work - and I think anything you choose will be cool. I know a maker who doesn't sell a ton who simply uses a bare foot as his makers mark. Who cares? It is up to you!

No matter what you chose make sure your leather is damp - but not mushy. In fact, this is the only time you want your leather to be 'cased' properly. So, this is what you are looking for. Your leather to be damp, cool to the touch, but not wet. If you gave your leather a decent spritzing at the beginning - and you are working with any urgency it will be about right - if it is too dry - dampen it with a sponge. Set your leather on a hard surface, as mentioned above, I use granite to take the blow without absorbing it.

This part is crucial. Once you set your makers mark - you can't move it - and you should NEVER strike a makers mark twice - you will just screw it up. So - take heart - set your makers mark and strike one - SOLID - strike on the tool - and be done with it. Check twice before striking - but when you strike - strike evenly without hesitation.

See how this makers mark (although sideways because of a lack of room because it is a small knife) looks deep, even, but not so deep that it cuts the leather. This is what you are looking for.

Wetform the knife one more time - and then set it aside to dry. I set my sheath in front of a small fan, or on top of my dryer if my wife is doing a load of clothes. You can also set your knife out in the sun to dry - but this needs to be done with care. A hot sun can not only dry a sheath too fast (making it shrink a bit) but also will tan the hide slightly. However, if you want a neutral sheath color with just a bit of tan - you can always leave a finished sheath out in the sun to 'tan' flipping it often to make the tan color even.

 

[Diomedes Industries]

Making the Dangler - another interlude:

At this point you need the sheath to be dry to glue in the welt. You don't want to use contact cement on wet leather. It makes a mess, doesn't adhere well, and leaves a nasty brown line in your glue line. So - set your sheath to dry somewhere. You want this drying to be organic - so set it in front of a fan - or like I did with this one - set it on top of the dryer (my wife was doing laundry).

You need a one inch strip of leather about 8.5 inches long to make a dangler with. This will allow for a two inch belt and allow it to swing and move when bumping into obstacles. However, I like a long dangler (leave it alone...) so you might want to experiment with the length of your dangler.

If you plan on making belts, bracelets, and danglers, it might be wise to buy an adjustable strap cutter. This allows you to make cuts of 1 inch up to about 5 inches in long strips. If you do this, cut a straight edge on one side of your leather as a beginning point - set your strap cutter at your desired width (in my case about 15/16th of an inch) and carefully cut a length of strap. I usually cut about 4 of these three or four foot pieces and then cut them into danglers lengths. I do this because I can always use them as danglers - or trim them as bracelets if I want to make one of those.

If you don't plan on making a bunch of these - simply use a good metal straight edge and cut a strap about 1 inch by 8.5 inches. This is a little more labor intensive - but again, will not make a worse end product. The strap cutter is just faster.

The dangler on the left was one of my early ones that got messed up and I keep to set my hole patterns by. You can see the strap is cut at the right length and waiting for some further cuts. Use the strap end cutter again to cut the tip of the dangler to match the belt loop. If you don't have a strap end cutter - just use the same template for cutting the tip of the dangler.

Once this is done - chamfer the ends of the back of the dangler. I don't like square edges on the back of the dangler as it tends to snag your belt. A few small quick cuts with your knife taking off about 1/16th of the tips of the back is enough. Once this is done, bevel, sand, and burnish the edges of your dangler.

Once you have this done - use a 13/64th hole cutter to set your holes. I don't have the pattern for this - but with a little experimentation and a D-ring you will see where to put these holes. If you don't have a hole punch - simply use a 13/64th drill bit. This will not be AS neat - but it will be close - and frankly it will be covered up by a Chicago Screw.

Skiving and roughing your welt - a third interlude:

Set your welt inside of your sheath - and mark where the handle ends and the blade begins. This should be easy to do as that is where you made your V grooves.

Once you have made this mark - what you want to do is use your safety beveler to skive the welt thinner as the welt approaches the tip of the sheath. If you have a fat welt at the tip of the sheath where you will fold it over - it will leave a gap at the tip of the sheath and look like crap. Gradually taper the welt slowly with your safety beveler until you have a welt that is about 1/16 thick at the end.

You can see how I thinned out the welt as it get's close to the end. You want it to be full thickness at the handle and no thinner that 75% of the width of the blade at the end. With this done you want to use about 100 grit sand paper to rough up the smooth side of the leather to prepare it for glue. This doesn't need to be carefully done - you just need to make sure it is roughed up enough to take the contact adhesive once you are ready to glue.

Double checking your sheath:

Assuming your sheath is about dry, I should mentioned something at this point. I always put my knife in the sheath and double check that I like how things are looking. In this case, I didn't like the very tip of the sheath (It looked too 'pointy') so I used my dremel to blunt that tip some. I liked the look a lot better at this point and moved on. Double and triple check your sheath often to make sure things are fitting right and make any tweaks as you need to. As you get better you will make less tweaks, but for now - don't be afraid to tweak away. You may screw it up and need to start over - but there is no learning without failure - so dare to fail. Who cares, it is a leather sheath, and you can always make another!

Setting the stitch marks for your belt loop:

Once you are happy with your sheath - it is time to get serious and start to get ready to stitch it up. This is a multi staged process - but it will be the same for every time you stitch something. Let's start with something simple, like the belt loop. Use a free hand and adjustable stitch groover to set the grooves on your belt loop.

Here is how I do mine. I measure down the belt loop with it folded over to make sure I have 2.5 inches of clearance before the stitching. I set my edge groover at about 1/8th inch and run a V down the edges of the belt loop at the tip - making sure these lines are even. I then use my red pen to make a shield like look to connect the top of the stitch. I like the shield look and it has become sort of my thing (although I am sure others use different looks) - again - do your thing.

However, one caveat. You do not want a straight line at the top of your belt loop stitches. A straight line of stitching can cause a 'zipper' effect and make the stitch line weaker. I round this line in a convex manner to make this stitch line stronger. Chuck Burrows makes another type of V inside his attachment (as seen on his DVD) to get around this zippering problem. Regardless, be wary of a straight line - but do your own thing.

Once you have your groove made, use your over stitcher to mark where your stitches will go. I use a 5 stitch per inch wheel because I like the look and I don't have to sew as much if I had a 7 TPI wheel. Mark where your stitches are going to go. What you will find is that at times you will not have your stitch marks will not be even - and you will have to fudge them a bit to make them even. To do this - use a sharp tool (like one of your needles) to remark your stitch marks to make them even and looking right.

Gluing the welt:

Get out your contact cement and use a clean brush to brush a thin coat on the welt as well as on the sheath - staying just a hair back from the line your drew to designate where the welt will go. What you want are two or three thin layers of contact cement rather than one thick layer. Once you have a thin layer of glue on your welt - set it in front of a fan or in a well ventilated area in order for it to dry. Because I work in my garage - I usually keep my garage door open and set a small stool outside in order to let my things dry on. What you are looking for is for the glued areas to take on a shine and be completely dry. This is important. You don't want a tacky non shiney glue line. Shiny, dry, and not tacky will make for the best adhesion.

Once you have both sides dry, and even, carefully place the welt on the place where you made the mark where the welt should go. You need to be careful at this point as once you put these two pieces together - they are pretty much stuck there. This glue is called contact glue for a reason - when it comes into contact with itself - it is stuck.

One caveat while gluing. Make sure you do not get the tip of the welt too close to where the sheath will fold over - or else you will have a lump at the tip (bottom) of the sheath. Just be careful. Also - if you want to make a weep hole at the tip of your sheath - simply cut the welt a little short and it will leave a small hole for water to drip out if you get rained on.

Cutting the welt:

Once you have the welt glued in place, you need to cut it back to match the edges of the sheath. Use your sharp knife to follow the lines of the sheath and cut away the welt to match the edge of the sheath. I usually don't get this exactly right - I need to sand this back a little to even the edges perfectly.

Drilling out the holes for stitching:

You need two types of needles to drill out your holes and stitch your sheath. You will do the majority of your drilling with the 000 needle but a few of your holes you will make with the 0 size needle. For the belt loop you will be using all 000 holes. Chuck up the needle in the drill press, move the flat plate out of the way for this process, and begin to punch out the holes. I use a needle for this process because it acts like an awl. Drill bits actually remove leather, weaken the stitch slightly, and do not allow for the leather to 'heal' around the stitch once you have made your stitches.

Hold the belt loop tightly with both hands, being sure not to get your finger poked while doing this, and punch out the holes carefully. Once you have the holes drilled - use your overstitching wheel to run over the holes. This will prep them for stitching.

The inside of the sheath will look like this at this point:

What you need to do is make sure the inside stitches lay BELOW the surface of the leather. You do not want you knife tip or the scales dragging on these stitches, forcing them to come unstitched or simply wearing them out. You need these stitches to lay low. So, use your free hand stitch groover and connect these dots left from your drilling process - making sure they are lower than the width of your thread.

Here is what this will look like when you stitch it up - you can see how the threads are recessed into this groove:

Stitch grooves and stitch marks for the edge of the sheath:

Now that you have double checked your sheath and are happy with it - know how to use a stitch groover and a overstitching wheel to make your marks - you should be ready to make your edge marks on your sheath for the main stitch or in my case, stitches. I use the edge of the granite block I work on and carefully (using my adjustable stitch groover set at about 1/8th inch) make my line all the way up my sheath - starting at the tip. You may want to dampen the portion of the sheath that folds in order to get it to be more malleable at this point - you can see in my pictures below that the middle of my sheath (where it will bend and fold over) is damp. I simply gave it a spritz with the spray bottle.

When I am done with both of my lines (again you don't have to do a double stitch - I like to do it - but for your first one - keep it simple is probably the best idea) use your over stitcher, starting at the top and set your stitch marks all the way down to the bottom. Here is a trick to keep in mind - your stitchmarker will likely not end up at the bottom of the sheath perfectly. Again, you will have to fudge your stitch marks a bit to make the stitches end at the bottom of the sheath. Use your needle to move these marks around slightly, keeping them as even as you can, to get the bottom of the stitches to terminate perfectly at the end.

 

[Diomedes Industries]

Drilling out the stitches at the edge:

Use your 3M tape and put a layer of it on the plate on your drill press. Any steel tends to turn leather, especially wet leather, black. If you use your bench or drill press for metal work too - be sure it is certainly clean before you start any leather work. Steel dust plays hell on the look of clean leather. When your tape gets dirty - simply peel off that layer and set another layer on there.

This part can be tricky - but what you need to do - is fold over your sheath - keep the edges perfectly even, the folded sheath perfectly flat, and make holes that go straight through the leather. If the entrance hole of the leather is 1/8th inch from the edge, your goal is to get the needle to come out the other side of the sheath 1/8th inch of the edge on the back. Again, keep your edges even, keep your leather folded and flat, and take your time making your needle holes. Once you start - try not to unfold the sheath and start again. Once you start, finish.

Here is another tip that will make a cleaner stitched sheath. Use your smaller needle to make the top and bottom holes of your sheath - those will only be getting one loop through them and if the hole is punched too large - it will look not as professional as it can. So, what I do is use my larger needle first - run all of my holes except my first and last hole and then use my smaller needle to punch those remaining holes. This will make more sense as you stitch up your sheath.

Prepping the back of the sheath for stitching:

When you are done punching the leather from the front, this is what the back will look like:

What you need to do now is much like the inside of the sheath where the belt loop was going to attach - connect the dots you have made with the punch from the front. Use your freehand stitch groover and carefully connect the dots. What you can also do at this point is straighten out any slight deviations from straight that you have on the back of your sheath. What you can do if you have a few straggling holes is simply cut to the left side or right side of the hole that is off slightly and get them back on track. You can't move them much - but if you were careful on the front end - you can straighten out what may look a little rough at first blush.

Once you have these holes drilled - go back over the front and the back of these holes with your overstitcher and prep them for stitching.

Dying your dangler and sheath:

When dying - you want to do this in a protected area and away from where you will do future work. What I did is found a box that fit over my granite block (upside down) and I put tape on it. I can then put more tape on it when I get dye on the box. Ideally you would have a special dye area - but I don't have that much room - and I make due with what I have.

I will start by dying the dangler first as it is easier to see what we are doing.

Step one: Deglaze the leather. In the tanning process there is often oils and wax's left behind on the surface of the leather that will take the dye unevenly. You want to get rid of this. Also, you want to wet the leather to open the pours in order to accept the dye well. So, use a spray bottle filled with isopropyl alcohol (you don't need the high quality stuff) and dampen the inside and out. Isopropyl alcohol has a high water content - so you are really killing two birds with one stone by using this method for deglasing.

Step two: Use a clean rag to clean off the outside of the leather as well as anything you want to be dyed properly.

Step three: Shake your bottle of dye very well and get a wool dauber ready to be used. Dye is suspended in mineral spirits and needs to be shaken well to spread that dye evenly throughout the suspension.

Step four: Once your ready to dye - put some latex gloves on and be ready to move quickly. What you want to do is get quite a bit of dye on your daubler, and spread the dye quickly and evenly using your dauber in a circular motion until you have the desired color at the desired evenness. Set the dyed leather down for a minute or two and then wipe off the dye using an old but clean rag. As stated before, this dye is in suspension and when the mineral spirit dry, they will leave behind a powdered dye that needs to be wiped off.

Step five: Let the dangler dry for a minute or so and then rub on some Montana Pitch Blend and let it soak in for a minute and then wipe it off. You will see a lot of dye come off at this point. You will put another layer of Montana Pitch Blend on later - this is to start the sealing process, and to get the excess dye off your leather. (If you do not get this dye off your sheath it will get all over your clothes, knife, and generally be a mess - I used to really combat this until I started this method - and it works well for me).

Dying the sheath itself:

The process is exactly the same for dying your sheath. Deglaze, dampen, dye, wipe off, Montana Pitch Blend (inside and out), wipe off, and let dry. One thing you are going to want to do is to keep the dye and the Montana Pitch Blend off the welt. You want to keep it as clean as you can - so be careful when you are dying and sealing the inside of your sheath.

Where you start and end your stitch needs to be thought out to give a uniform look. If you look at the picture below you can see that I started on the top edge hole and have sewn two holes and stopped in the center.

The process is very easy. Push one needle through - then the other needle through from the opposite side - and pull tight. In fact, you can actually do a few stitches before you pull them tight, being a little more efficient. However, this belies the truth of double stitching. When you start, you will push the needle through, even up the threads so that you are starting in the middle of totality of thread, and then push your first needle back through the leather. This needle will go through simply enough, and you will pull it snug. You will then push your second needle through and realize that it does not want to come out of the leather as easily as the first needle went in. It has not only the hole it needs to go through, but also the thread from the first needle in the hole. Keep a pair of needle nose pliers on hand to pull straight on the needle and then snug up the second needle. You want this to be pulled tight as it will set the stitch in the groove created for it by the stitch groover.

It will pay off in spades to get a rhythm going with your stitching, one that is uniform and the same for the entire length of the stitch. For instance, always put the top needle in first, then put the bottom needle in second to the right of the first needles thread, and pull taught. This process, not only sets up a meditative rhythm but makes your stitch look more uniform and much better when you get done.

Also, you do not want your second needle to go through the first needles thread. If it does, it will lock up the stitch in such a way that you cannot pull it tight. If you do push the second needle all the way through the first needles thread without realizing it until you go to pull it tight, don't worry. You can simply unthread the offending needle and pull it back through the hole, rethread the needle, and start over. Pull all stitches tight so as to seat them in the groove.
The picture below shows me with my first few stitches that stop in the center hole of the beltloop:

I then back stitch over these two holes and go the opposite way with my stitching all the way around until I end up back at the center hole:

I am now ready to cut my stitching off and finish my stitch - however - I need to secure my stitch before doing so. In or to secure a stitch I do not need to tie a knot, use a lighter, or doing anything fancy. Al Stohlman, and most other leather stitchers simply back stitch a few stitches to lock in their thread and then cut it flush so that that excess thread is hidden from view. In this case I will back stitch one and one half stitches so that both of my loose ends end up on the inside of the sheath.

You can see above where I have back stitched - and now the top portion of the belt loop has a double stitch at the point it needs it most, the point of most stress. If we turn the sheath inside out you will see it now looks like this:

In this picture you can see one thread poking out and if you look close you can see where I have trimmed the other thread off as close to the leather as possible. A trick I learned on the Chuck Burrows DVD is to use Cuticle scissors. This leaves a neat cut and those are very cheap to procure (you wife probably has a pair you can gank. Use one hand to pull up on the thread and then cut it as close to the leather as you possibly can. The clipped thread should pop back into the leather and dissapear (or come close)

At this point you use your a light mallet and tap the threads down on the inside and outside of the sheath - to seat them in their positions, and then run over the threads with your overstitcher (now you see where it got its name). This tool not only marks where the stitches are supposed to be drilled, but allows you to make your stitching look very professional. Carefully, with pressure, run your overstitcher over your threads (being careful not to stray as you will make permanent marks on the leather if you do) and you will see a difference. The stitching becomes more uniform and flatly looks better. Here is what the stitches looks like after I was done running my mallet and overstitcher.

You see they lay flat and look straight.

Gluing up the sheath:

You have done this process before with the welt - so I am just going to quickly iterate what you are trying to do here. You want dry leather that is roughed up (welt and sheath top - with 100 grit sandpaper), and then multiple thin coats of contact cement applied that is totally dry. You know you have the right amount of cement on your leather when it looks shiny and is slightly tacky to the touch.

Once your contact cement is dry - you are ready to adhere to top and bottom together. Take your time, line your stuff up and go slow. Once you have the two pieces together, use a mallet and tap them together to get the best adhesion possible.

You are now ready for your final stitch - the outside stitch.

 

[Diomedes Industries]

Stitching up your sheath:

Start your outside stitch about three or four holes down from the top and stitch to the opening of the sheath. Then turn around and back stitch over these existing stitches toward the bottom of the sheath. The needle nose pliers will come is especially handy when you double up and back stitch your stitches. Take your time, keep your pattern, and get the sheath done.

When you have reached the bottom of the sheath (the tip) back stitch the same amount of stitches you did at the top (to keep things uniform) ending your stitches with both needles hanging out the back. Again, in this manner you are hiding the stitches on the back of the sheath.

Cut the threads off at the back after pulling them tight and tap down your stitches with a mallet. My sheath looked like this at this point:

Run your overstitching wheel over your threads and tap them down again. After running my overstitching wheel front and back (using my granite block as my backing) my sheath looked like this:

Wet Form your sheath:

With your knife still wrapped in tape, carefully insert the knife in the sheath. This is a point where you can do some damage. You need to make sure you are not snagging the tip of the knife on the sheath while inserting it and cut through the sheath. Once it is in the sheath, use your thumbs (be careful to have trimmed nails) and form the knife to the sheath to your desired look.

Edging your sheath:

At this point the sheath is almost done. The only thing left is to finish up the edge of the sheath. Use your sander to carefully even up the edges, making everything flat on the edge and rounding off the corners (carefully) so that the edges look nice and even. Switch to higher grits of sand paper, wetting the sheath edge with a wet finger from time to time, until you have sanded the edges nearly glossy with a high grit sand paper. The more time you take with the sandpaper now, the better your edges will look. You will likely have to touch up the opening of the sheath where the welt met the top fold of the sheath, this is normal, and you will likely take some dye off the opening of the sheath. No worries, you will redye this anyway.

Here is what mine looked like when I finished sanding:

If your edge is not damp, dampen the edge with a wet finger again until you have evenly dampened the edge and then use your burnishing method (antler, bone, or automatic bunisher) to finish the edge. Take your time and get a very glossy and even finish on your edge. Here is what mine looked like when done:

While your sheath edge is still damp (if not redamped slightly) use your dauber and carefully dye the edges of the sheath. Do not get too much dye on the dauber at a time as you don't want to slather on the dye and accidentally dye the thread you so carefully made look good. Take your time, use several thin coats, and keep redying the sheath edge until you have a uniform and matching dye job for the edging. When you have the desired darkness in your dye, carefully wipe off the dye with a rag (being careful not to mess up your stitching) and then add some Montana Pitch Blend. Let this sit for a minute and then wipe it off.

Final edging for the sheath and the dangler:

Wet form the sheath one more time with the wrapped knife, then take the tape off the knife - and let the sheath dry completely (this may take overnight) and you should have a dry sheath and a dry dangler. Get out your gum tragacanth, dip the edge of a cloth in it and put a light coat of the edge of the sheath and use your burnisher to add an additional shiny edge to your sheath - running this process all the way around to the belt loop and the opening the sheath. Repeat this process for your dangler. Once this is dry, put another light coat of gum tragacanth on your edges and use a scrap of jean material to buff this light coat to a high sheen. Repeat this for the dangler as well.

Here is what my edging looked like before I used the jean material on it and gave it an even higher gloss:

Final Assembly and fitting:

Now that your sheath is dry - it may have shrunk a little. So, again, carefully insert your knife into the sheath. Wiggle and cajole it into place. If it is a little tight - the leather will expand to accept this knife - and this, I find, is a good thing. Your should be able to be turned upside down and shaken without the knife coming out.

Take the knife out and add another thin layer of Montana pitch blend to the sheath and dangler and let it fully soak in and dry. Use a clean boot brush at this point and buff the entire assembly to a high sheen. It should look rich and beatiful at this point.

To assemble the dangler, use a Chicago screw and put the D ring in the dangler for assembly:

Congratulations - you have finished your first pouch style sheath!

Here is what mine looked like at this point:

Final Thoughts:

A run to a local leather store should get you to a leather scrap bin. Some scrap bins are free for the taking - and some are by the pound. I would buy a few pounds of good scrap leather to practice on. I would practice the following skills before assembling your first sheath.

a) Edge Grooving and thread marking.
b) Gluing two pieces of leather together.
c) Drilling even holes.
d) Stitching and back stitching evenly
e) Edging and burnishing.

Running through these processes a few times before starting your sheath will help make a good sheath the first time around.

With that said - I would not plan on buying a knife without a sheath if you have the opportunity to pick up a good inexpensive sheath. Andy usually sells his knives with JRE sheaths - which are, in my opinion, excellent sheaths. In fact, my first sheath, and the basic pouch sheath you see here is essentially based on a JRE sheath that I got with my first Bark River Aurora. Buy one of Andy's knives with a JRE sheath so that you can use the knife and then try to make one of your own. As you get more confident, you can start ordering custom knives without sheaths. It will save you a few bucks and have the satisfaction of having your own sheath.



I hope this helps - post up your efforts or PM me with questions.

TF

 

[Fiddleback]

This is really excellent. I learned a step already. I've never skived the inside of the leather. Sweet.

 

[ice-pic]

Thanks very much for doing this,I just made my first sheath for a 12" machete and it turned out kind of rustic looking.I will be following this to help me make a sheath
for an 18"er.
Listing the tools with links to tandy site was a huge help,very well done Talfuchre.

 

[Diomedes Industries]

Andy, with good leather - it isn't a step that is necessary - but with this small knife - and your 1/8th inch blades - it might not be the wrong idea to take a little off 8/10 ounce leather. I think I will be ordering more in the 6/7 ounce range from now on. I can always double up my welts if necessary - but when I am trying to bend the pouch of thicker shoulder leather it makes it difficult unless I skive a little off the inside. I hope that makes sense.

However, when I am finishing the inside of the leather - I roll the skiver up a but just so I am more 'shaving' the fuzz off the inside of the leather. That prepares if for me to sand down to 320 grit or so. This gives it a TIGHT swede look - and set up the rough side for burnishing. It let's the inside look more uniform and lays down the grain of the rough side. Again, this is not really necessary - but it is what I do. There are many ways to skin a knife.

TF

 

[Gevonovich]

Subscribed. Always wanted try my hand at making a sheath. Thanks for your effort. I appreciate it.

 

[sumnrfam]

Tal,,that is an amazing tutorial!! :thumbup: :thumbup: awesome pics & instruction ,

Thanks for sharing!

Wade

 

[milkyeye]

Very nice, just what I needed to get me started making my own pants for the boys. I'll get started with those books. Great effort.
Randy

 

[Diomedes Industries]

I am not quite done yet - but I should have it done in the next day or so. I have the process up until you are stitching the sheath up - make sure you check back after a while in order to get the full story.

TF

 

[JW Knives]

This is great, thanks a lot for posting

 

[schmittie]

Wow, thanks for the thought, effort, and work you have put into this so far Tal. It is very generous of you!

 

[J. Oeser]

I have never done that prep work on the inside like that either but I really like it. I checked out one of your sheaths I have and it is very suede like inside and that is a nice touch. I might need to look at doing that on the next ones.

Thanks for taking all the time to put together this tutorial it is fantastic!!

 

[DerFALMaus]

Alright Tal, lets finish this up! I'm sitting here with a half finished sheath....

Seriously, thanks for the tutorial, it's really helped me figure out what I did wrong the last time and pushed me to try to make another!!!

DFM

 

[Diomedes Industries]

It's almost done. I just need to get this thing stitched up! I will have it done by tommorow. The hard part has been getting past the 15000 character limit of each post. In Microsoft word this document is like 30 pages!

Sheesh.

TF

 

[Diomedes Industries]

Okay - it is done.

I will proofread it a few more times for clarity - but it should be there enough to make your own sheath.

Good luck

TF

 

[Thrill]

Such a fantastic thread. A great tutorial that obviously took a lot of effort. Thanks for sharing your expertise.