Whacha Been Up To......

Dave, I have to say I much prefer the oiled/antiqued sheaths to the dyed one. That's the russet color that you use? I ordered some natural awhile back and regretted it upon receipt. Once I get through it, i plan to mostly stop using dyes, except for maybe on my edges.
 
KHandmade said:
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New member here. Beautiful work on this post, (not to mention some amazing landscapes). I've been forging knives for almost 20 years. Just started making my own sheaths. I'm still learning the ins and outs of working with leather. Mostly trying oak and beech leaves. (attempting to attach an image here)
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Welcome! Wow cool job on the leaves. Very nice! Thanks for posting please post more. Any help we can be around here just ask.
 
ANovinc said:
Dave, I have to say I much prefer the oiled/antiqued sheaths to the dyed one. That's the russet color that you use? I ordered some natural awhile back and regretted it upon receipt. Once I get through it, i plan to mostly stop using dyes, except for maybe on my edges.
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Amy here in our wild wild west even dyeing edges is kinda looked down on. Yeah that's the russet. I love it. Find the non russet pretty pale. I hate dyeing leather and seldom will do it.
 
I also purchased natural leather and I'm only half way through my side. I thought I needed to go that route in order to tool.
Horsewright, beautiful pieces! When you mention Antiqued/oiled, is this a treatment you do to the leather, or does it come that way with natural oils?
 
Horsewright said:
Amy here in our wild wild west even dyeing edges is kinda looked down on.
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I figured it was....and I'll probably eventually get away from that, too...but I sure do love a black edge with a brown sheath ! However, with that said...... dyes are just plain messy.
 
Wickett and Craig have a russet saddle leather that has a slight reddish tint to it. When oiled it produces a rich color. I oil with warm pure neats foot oil. I use this leather on heavier items like holsters, rifle scabbards, martingales etc. I normally get it in 8/10oz weight. I will also use this leather for belts if they are tooled and all carving projects. I find the regular Wicket and Craig a little pale in color even after oiling. The vast majority of my sheaths are out of Herman Oak 7/8 oz. It oils up to a deeper more golden color.

Wickett and Craig russet, just oiled:

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Herman Oak just oiled:

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On carved items and Carlos border stamping we'll use a slight antique mixture that we make up our selves. Here's a WIP I did a while back on the technique:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...ng-the-horsewright-way.1554236/#post-17863187

Russet Wicket and Craig highlighted our way:

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Wickett and Craig will split the russet saddle leather down for you free of charge. I've had them do this for me in the past. Problem is the wait time. Their 3 days turned into 4 weeks and then they charged $50 for shipping one side. However I really liked the leather. If I ever get more organized it would probably be all I use.
 
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Thank you so much for the information and tutorial link. That is very helpful. I think I'll try some of the Wicket and Craig when I make my next purchase.
 
KHandmade said:
Thank you so much for the information and tutorial link. That is very helpful. I think I'll try some of the Wicket and Craig when I make my next purchase.
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Ya bet. Ya can get it directly from the tannery or Hide House and Maverick both carry it.
 
Finally getting around to doing a couple of projects that I had originally wanted to do and were the reason for trying my hand at leather working about 4 months ago. I got side tracked with making some stuff for my various knives. Axe masks. They're simple, but they work. The next one is for my Kelly Works double bit cruiser.
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Horsewright said:
Very cool. Nice job I like those.
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Thank you! I am enjoying the process of making mistakes and learning from each thing I make. Design mistakes, execution mistakes. So far they have been minor and haven't kept me from making anything that could not be used, but I am clearly not a professional. All the same, this has been a great learning experience and really ties my enjoyment of knives and axes together with an item I can create myself.
 
Finally got around to remaking a pocket sheath for my favorite fixed blade now that my skills have improved. I used some mink oil plus my normal conditioner I've been using. It gave it a nice golden color compared to when I just use conditioner.

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Dave, on the floral holsters do you lose any detail from stretching when you fit the gun ? They are awesome looking. I would think very time cosuming.

John
 
camaroless said:
Dave, on the floral holsters do you lose any detail from stretching when you fit the gun ? They are awesome looking. I would think very time cosuming.

John
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Howdy John. No not really. I use either 8/10 oz or sometimes 10/12 oz leather when doing the oak carving, so not super detailed molding anyway. The heavier weight leathers allow you to really get some depth in your tooling. Most of the molding is done on the backside. I'll hardly even touch the front when wet molding to the pistol or knife. I oak carved a sheath and a holster yesterday in about an hour or so. Doesn't take too long once ya get the hang of it. I'll do each step to each piece before I move on to the next step.
 
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