How to make a leather pouch for a sheath?

[guitardemon]

I am thinking about putting a pouch on a sheath I am going to make but am not sure how to make one. I want to make one like the one on the camillus pilot knife.

Anybody know how I might go about this?

 

[alephlex]

Guitardemon,

Most of these pouches are made _before_ the sheath is put together. If you have a ready-made sheath, the only way you can put one of those one is to disassemble the whole sheath.

If you haven't made your sheath yet, you basically cut out the two sides of your sheath from your leather. Then you cut out the leather for the pouch. Remember that you only need to cut out the top side of the pouch as the top layer of the sheath leather will form the back of the pouch. You then also cut out the cover for your pouch. Punch holes for the snaps and attach the snaps to the leather _before_ you sew the pieces to the top sheath layer -- makes things easier and will result in less deformation of the leather than setting the snaps after sewing. Sew the filp cover and pouch to the top layer of sheath leather. Sew the top and bottom layer of the sheath together and you are done. If you are using the same leather as the USAF pilot's knife, you can harden and waterproof the whole sheath by dipping it in melted beeswax and parafin wax.

Er, hope this helps. Personally I work better wit diagrams but haven't got any. If you really need that, post again and I'll see if I can help.

Good luck

 

[Chuck Gedraitis Knives]

There's a great article in he new blade magazine.

 

[Maqua]

I can attest to the benefits of dipping your sheath in melted bee's wax. It leaves the leather hard like Kydex only much prettier. Just get the wax hot to about 170 degrees and make sure your sheath leather is COMPLETELY dry before dipping. I made my first sheath last weekend and aside from the rivets looking rough, it works great and looks like something a mountain man would carry.

Do a Google search on "How to make a knife sheath" for more info. MAking a small pocket shouldn't require too much additional labor. Just attach it before the final sew-up and wet mold it to carry whatever it is you want the pouch for.

 

[guitardemon]

I have made a few sheaths in the past so I know I have to sew the pouch on before I put the sheath together. My main question, which I should have worded better, is how do I form the pouch? Somebody said something about wet molding? How does this work?

 

[singteck]

Best solution is to cut a mold in two parts in the shape that you want and used that to form the leather. Just wet the leather, put it in the mold and clamp it. Leave it until the leather is dry and then cut to shape and stitch to the sheath.

You can also use just a small block of wood and form the wet leather over the block of wood until you get the shape you want.

singteck

 

[alephlex]

I should mention that for wet-molding to work, you need specific types of leather. Chrome tanned leather which is what you normally get at the stores is likely to be unsuccessful becaues they often put a mild waterproofing agent in the mix and therefore the leather doesn't soak up the wax like it should. So you land up with a really ugly mottled look. If you want to wet-mold, you need vegetable-tanned leathers or any other sort of leather that will soak up the wax. A simple test I do is to stick my finger in some water and draw it across the leather. If the leather soaks up the water and darkens immediately, it is ok for wet-molding. If the leather repels the water, do not buy it for wet-molding. I thought you should know this as the majority of the leathers sold in Aust are Chrome tanned and I don't know what it is like for you in the States.

Basically wet-molding is the process of molding the leather while wet into the shape you want. You can build a mold like Singteck suggests or you can 'cheat' which is what I do. I take the object that I want the leather to fit (in the case of the USAF it is the sharpening stone) and wrap it in clingwrap to protect it from water and anything that can leach out of the leather and use that as the mold. You need to wet the leather thoroughly to make it pliable and soft -- a soaking it in a tub of water is good. Then you mold the leather over the object that you have clingwrapped. You will need to clamp the leather down while it is wet and leave it undisturbed until it is dry so that it will keep it's shape. Once it is dry, hotwax the sheath and you are done. Note that if you do the wet-molding, you absolutely _need_ to hotwax the sheath because if you don't and the sheath gets wet, the whole thing will go out of shape again. The good news is that hotwaxing is easy and inexpensive and you only need to do it right first time to get very durable protection.

Good luck and post pics of your sheath when you are done -- would be great to see your project.

Btw, very nice sheath Maquahuitl -- very rustic!