Pancake Sheath Question

J

Jrmysell

Joined
May 18, 2014
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I am making a knife as a gift for someone and am going to be making a pancake style sheath. I want to do a basket weave design on the front, and dye it and use antique for the tooling. I plan on tooling, then doing the dyeing, then putting the sheath together. When forming the sheath to the handle, everywhere that I've looked says to soak the sheath to form it. My question is, will this effect the tooling or the dye? I've read that getting the leather too wet while tooling will cause them to lose definition. Am I overthinking this and everything should be fine or will I possibly run into trouble doing this? Just to clarify, after forming, I can then use resolene, antique, and resolene again to finish it?

Thanks everybody.
 
Generally you soak the leather completely to wet form it. Tooling doesn't require it to be soaked, and in fact it shouldn't be saturated when tooling. It should just be dampened. You can actually dye it when still somewhat damp, and I think it actually helps the leather absorb the dye better.
 
I make a lot of pancakes. Check the sticky at the top of the page , there is a WIP on how I do a pancake sheath. I would tool first, then construct the sheath, wet mold and then dry (I actually bake em in the oven to dry them). Do most of your wet molding on the backside so as not to deform your tooling. With a basket stamped one I do a little molding on the front but not much. I don't like to dye leather and seldom will. However, I will use a diluted HI Liter (diluted with Bag Kote) wash on occasion. I don't use antique much, I find it too contrasty. Back when I use to dye sheaths I did dye them after they were dry. These days all I do is oil the sheaths with warm neatsfoot oil and finish with Bag Kote.

Finished this batch couple of weeks ago:

Qy7muRz.jpg


Those two brown ones at the top are not dyed, they are made from Water Buffalo.
 
ninjahawk said:
Generally you soak the leather completely to wet form it. Tooling doesn't require it to be soaked, and in fact it shouldn't be saturated when tooling. It should just be dampened. You can actually dye it when still somewhat damp, and I think it actually helps the leather absorb the dye better.
Click to expand...

Right. I reread what I wrote and I didn't quite clarify what I meant. For tooling, I'll just case it, then tool. But for the soaking to wet form it, will that affect the definition of the tooling?

I'm assuming not, looking at Horsewright's picture.

Also, Horsewright, what do you use for the background on the 3 in the front middle?
 
Jrmysell, here's a closeup of those three. All wet molded after tooling. You don't loose definition from getting them wet. Its the rubbing while wet to mold to the knife that can kill the definition. The background tool is called a bargrounder. Have 4 different sizes from Barry King Tools. My wife did this flower carving on these three.

zJZvulw.jpg


Here ya go Ken.

2gcA6EZ.jpg


Customers wanted water buffalo leather to go with the water buff horn handles on the knives I was making for them. Found this leather at Weaver. Not my first choice for sheaths, wasn't real keen on how it molded. However, rocking belt leather. In fact got these two and their knives back from the engraver yesterday and will now make two belts for the customers. A buddy stopped by the shop one afternoon, saw this buff leather, ripped off his belt, cut the buckle off and had me make him a belt there and then. 8/9 oz water buffalo leather (Crazy Horse color), split to about 7 oz and lined with 4/5oz California Belt Latigo. Took about 20 mins, he brought the beer. Then we went roping out at the ranch, well they did I was still just taking pics recovering from surgery. Sorry for the drift Jrmysell.

klGAEsS.jpg
 
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Thanks for the info. I was just worried as I'm out of the country for school, and will be making a knife and sheath for a wedding gift when home next, and won't have time if I mess something up too bad.
 
Feel free to contact me by phone, email or through these pages with any questions. Be glad to help.
 
Thank-you. Shipped quite a bit of it down your way.
 
Once my knife & goodies fund is a little more flush a buffalo belt will be mine! 😃

Sorry for the slight thread hijack 😌
 
One last question, what size basketweave and camouflage stamp do you use on those sheaths? I'm looking at Barry King stamps and think size 2 in both will work, but can't see them (or any stamps) in person as I'm out of the country. Does that sound right?
 
First you won't go wrong with Barry King tools. They are some of the best and I'm a big advocate of good tools. OK so confession time. My favorite basket weave stamp is a cheapie Tandy X513. I have several JWP? Horseshoe Brand basket stamps that I like too. They are a small one and a large one but don't have numbers. My favorite Camo borders are Craftool Pro C2131. We also have several BK and JWPs but my fav is the C2131.
 
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