Recommendation? Leather dye mishap

McDermott

McDermott

Joined
Sep 24, 2017
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View attachment 781391 hello everyone , I am defiantly
New here and would like to say hello. I also need a little help with a finish problem. I made my father a knife from 1095 ( lightly forged , mostly stock removal). It is the best I have made to date. My dad lives 600 miles away and had a sheath custom made at a local shop. I guess the leather was freshly dyed ( inside portion) and likely still wet when he let it dry with the knife “sheathed” to form it. When my dad picked it up the finish on the blade was etched with the dye / chemicals used when making the sheath. He’s sending me the knife back to repair it , and hoping someone has suggestions for me. I only have pictures at this time and expect the blade this week. The first thing is any idea on how to neutralize the chemicals from further “etching” the steel ? That way I can have him do that before he sends it. I’ll try to post some pics , kinda new to forums. Thanks in advanced.
View attachment 781390 View attachment 781392
 
Mc
For the scabbard, make sure the leather is dry and wax free. Then coat the inside with something like Fiebing's Resoline Acrylic finish. I use Miniwax Polyacrylic finish. Most any acrylic floor finish should work. This puts a waterproof barrier between the leather and the blade.
1095 is a good steel, but is as NON stainless as you can get. If the blade is just stained, you might be able to clean it up with some Semichrome polish, or a buff, if not back to hand sanding with 500 or 600grit paper.
Hope this gets you pointed in the right direction.
Jim A.
 
Thank you , I’ll give that a try. I’ll know more when I get my hands on it. I haven’t worked with leather before , any advise on how to put that sealer in a sheath that’s already made ?
 
If you use one of those craft sponges with the wood handles you can just push that in and get a coat or two in there.
 
Yeah, now that I look at it, it does look like rust. That would have been because the leather was wet when he was trying to form it.
 
The barefoot boy said:
Yeah, now that I look at it, it does look like rust. That would have been because the leather was wet when he was trying to form it.
Click to expand...
How did you get the script on the blade? I can etch my logo but I have a transfer for that. How did you do the dedication?
 
yeah, it's rust. If left in an unwaxed or unsealed leather sheath that is finished, 1095 will often rust just because the leather attracts moisture. That's why i recommend that a leather sheathed carbon steel knife not be left in the sheath for long term storage. If they left the knife in the sheath unprotected to finish the wet forming of the leather, then it's DEFINITELY going to rust.
 
There are several things here to address.
1) The leather for knife sheaths needs to be vegetable tanned leather. Chrome tanned and other methods leave chemicals in the leather.
2) The sheath should be wet-formed before dying.
3) Unless made from stainless steel, a bare knife will rust if placed in a wet sheath.

I will give you the basic procedure for forming a new undyed sheath:
Apply a coat of car wax, carnauba, or Renaissance wax to the blade and handle.
Wrap the knife tightly with several layers of saran wrap. This should be done before sharpening. If the blade is sharp, dull it down first.
Soak sheath in warm water (never hot) until fully pliable.
Place knife in sheath and work it in all the way. Form the leather around the blade and handle with your fingers. Let dry/drain for a while, checking every so often and re-working the moulding to fit well. When starting to show signs of being less wet, pull the blade in and out a few times, then re-mould the leather one last time. Let dry fully overnight, remove knife, then let the sheath dry for several days.
Unwrap knife immediately afetr removal from the sheath, clean and oil. Sharpen blade when all other work is done.
Dye the sheath as desired using an oil or alcohol base dye.
Seal the sheath inside and out with Resoline, Bag-Coat, or another leather sealer ( preferably acrylic).
When the sheath is completely dry, hand buff with a soft cotton cloth ( old diapers or towels work great).

NOTE: Do not store a carbon steel knife in the sheath.
This is just asking for problems. Store the knife in a zippered knife pouch and put the sheath under the elastic straps on the back of the pouch.
These pouches cost about $5 each and are well worth it.
 
He is not asking how to make a sheath.o_O

When that happens to the knife, you need to go back to sanding and polishing it again.

That sucks, but wet leather is no friend to knives
 
Ace cases is who I use most of the time now. They sell all pouches for $8.00 each, or three for $19.50). If you want larger amounts, call them. They have cases from 6" up to 21" for knives and 45" leather tipped sword cases. The sword cases are only $0.50 more than a knife case.
https://acecase.com/knife-and-sword-cases/
 
Neither of those show to have the elastic straps....do they not or is it just the photo?
 
You can get the same Ace cases from Trugrit from $5-6.50
 
Ok update on the knife , thanks for the great responses. It was certainly rusted , the majority came off easily. But there was some pitting that went deaper then the engraving , so the engraving is lost .

Howard1 said:
How did you get the script on the blade?
Click to expand...

That was a afterthought and a test. I went to the local jewelry store and asked about having it engraved. They gave it a try and said they went through 2 diamond engraving
Tips lol . It was already hardened and tempered , so the engraving was very shallow. If I do that again I’ll try it before heat treat.

I started with 800 grit wet hoping to save engraving. But after 15 min lettering was fading faster then pitting . I had to take it to 220 wet , cussing the entire time.

I had a knurled finish to the brass and scales. Kinda happened when shaping and it grew on me and my dad liked it so I evened out the knurled ( rough ) texture and went with it. That backfired because the brass was etched or croroded ( discolored ) in some low spots on the handle. Forced me to smooth it all out completely. Basically 10+ hours of detail sanding and buffing ..

Thanks for all the info , much apreacated.
 
The jewelry store was not very familiar with their engraving machine. I engrave hardened steel all the time with mine without damaging tips.
A bottle of Tarnex (TarnX?) available at the grocery store would have allowed you to chemically remove discoloration from the handle.
 
I engrave all my hardened knives with a jeweler's pantograph. As Bill said, they were either not telling the truth. or don't know how to engrave. Technically, a diamond graver has a Rockwell hardness of infinity, but suffice to say that it doesn't care if the steel is hardened or not. (In Mohs reference, a diamond is about between 100 and 1000 times as hard as hardened steel, and 10 times as hard as the hardest carbide.)
 
Never thought of tarnx, it would have been worth a try. And the jewelry store did say they have never engraved a custom knife before. I’m sure it was a learning experance.
 
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