- Joined
- Nov 30, 2001
- Messages
- 13,560
What I am going for here is not having to spend a whole lot of money and still make it simple to make a functional sheath.
1) Utility Knife, That old Stanley retractable I've been using since my armor making days is still running strong. I know some say that it gets dull quickly, guess what? Its sharpenable! You sharpen your knives, sharpen your utility knife. I make a package of 10 blades last nearly a year.
2) Ruler, seems silly but you'll use one as much or more than the knife. If you have a metal one all the better, if not its not the end of the world but the metal one will serve you much better.
3) Felt tip pen to mark leather with. Dont be tempted to use a ball point, I learned that lesson. Ball point ink is messy and doesn't dry very quickly.
4) Mallet. Soft face. Harbor freight has a mallet with replaceable faces for cheap. Also dead blow works but not as well, it absorbs too much impact. Watch yard sales for an old school rawhide hammer, I found one in a garage for under five bucks at an estate sale. Do not use metal hammers on your tools, best way ever to ruin them. I've bought tools with mushroomed tops because of steel hammers.
5) Awl, some thing to make stitching holes with. Nails work in a pinch. You just want small holes so your thread fills them.
6) Stitching spacer. A fork works unbelievably well. you want nice even stitching spaces.
7) You will need something to reliably track the distance from the edge for the stitching line to follow. Pro's use a stitching groover for this. There are really inexpensive ones out there, also if you have a wing divider it works like a charm to make the line and also to make lines and grooves for accents. You, in a pinch, can take an old fork and bend two tines till you get the preferred width.
8) Bone Folder, or smooth objects to help wet mold, burnish, and smooth the leather. One of my early purchases was the nylon jobber at Tandy. It has mold marks all over it, sandpaper works wonders getting them smoothed out. I have several different kinds including real bone. A good alternative is one of those medium point Sharpie pens or a close. They have a nice smooth rounded profile that tends to work well. I just used one last week as a matter of fact.
9) Needles, dont scrimp here, dont get those "big eye" needles they try to push at Tandy. They will cost you more in time. Go ahead and get those Harness needles. Small eye and a pain in the butt to string but well worth the effort.
10) Now that you have needles, you'll need something to pull them through the leather. I use a small smooth jawed jewelers pliers. The smooth jaws dont mar up those expensive needles.
Coming up next are some "expendable" supplies. That stuff that you'll use up and have to get more of. Some of this stuff you can go cheap, other you will want to spend a little more to save later. Yea, some of that cheap stuff ends up costing more in the long run. Off to work again, but I'll be back soon to add more!!!
I'll come back and edit in more, have to head over to work now. Please feel free to add below!
1) Utility Knife, That old Stanley retractable I've been using since my armor making days is still running strong. I know some say that it gets dull quickly, guess what? Its sharpenable! You sharpen your knives, sharpen your utility knife. I make a package of 10 blades last nearly a year.
2) Ruler, seems silly but you'll use one as much or more than the knife. If you have a metal one all the better, if not its not the end of the world but the metal one will serve you much better.
3) Felt tip pen to mark leather with. Dont be tempted to use a ball point, I learned that lesson. Ball point ink is messy and doesn't dry very quickly.
4) Mallet. Soft face. Harbor freight has a mallet with replaceable faces for cheap. Also dead blow works but not as well, it absorbs too much impact. Watch yard sales for an old school rawhide hammer, I found one in a garage for under five bucks at an estate sale. Do not use metal hammers on your tools, best way ever to ruin them. I've bought tools with mushroomed tops because of steel hammers.
5) Awl, some thing to make stitching holes with. Nails work in a pinch. You just want small holes so your thread fills them.
6) Stitching spacer. A fork works unbelievably well. you want nice even stitching spaces.
7) You will need something to reliably track the distance from the edge for the stitching line to follow. Pro's use a stitching groover for this. There are really inexpensive ones out there, also if you have a wing divider it works like a charm to make the line and also to make lines and grooves for accents. You, in a pinch, can take an old fork and bend two tines till you get the preferred width.
8) Bone Folder, or smooth objects to help wet mold, burnish, and smooth the leather. One of my early purchases was the nylon jobber at Tandy. It has mold marks all over it, sandpaper works wonders getting them smoothed out. I have several different kinds including real bone. A good alternative is one of those medium point Sharpie pens or a close. They have a nice smooth rounded profile that tends to work well. I just used one last week as a matter of fact.
9) Needles, dont scrimp here, dont get those "big eye" needles they try to push at Tandy. They will cost you more in time. Go ahead and get those Harness needles. Small eye and a pain in the butt to string but well worth the effort.
10) Now that you have needles, you'll need something to pull them through the leather. I use a small smooth jawed jewelers pliers. The smooth jaws dont mar up those expensive needles.
Coming up next are some "expendable" supplies. That stuff that you'll use up and have to get more of. Some of this stuff you can go cheap, other you will want to spend a little more to save later. Yea, some of that cheap stuff ends up costing more in the long run. Off to work again, but I'll be back soon to add more!!!
I'll come back and edit in more, have to head over to work now. Please feel free to add below!
Last edited:
