4" Fiddleback Bushcraft sheath W.i.P.

[wildmanh]

Hey guys, Andy thought you'd like a Work in Progress thread on sheath making so over the next week or so I'll taking you throught the process of building a 4" Bushcraft sheath.

Prelude; After getting a hide, I check it for flaws like holes or deep cuts/scratches or anything that makes that part of the hide un fit for a sheath. I mark any flaws on the back of the hide so I dont use it. Sorry don't have pictures of that because this last hide didn't have any.

Step 1: Use my pattern to trace out the sheaths on the leather. Building sheaths in batches really speeds things up so I trace a bunch of sheaths into the leather at a time. Normally I lay out 10 to 20 sheaths to be cut out at a time:



Step 2: After I mark the sheaths I cut them out with an Old Hickory pairing knife that I turned into a Warn Cliff blade for leather working. The Belt loops are first cut out as a 1" wide strip then 5" long strips from that. The main body is rough cut. Both of those steps go pretty quickly since I'm cutting straight lines.



Step 3: Now comes the detail cutting, I round the bottom edges of the sheath and mouth, also cut the tip of the belt loop out with an End punch. Right now I only have a 1.5" English end punch for machete sheaths so thats what I use. In the near future I hope to get a 1" which will make this stage a little easier. After that I use a saddle groover to add some flair to the belt loop and I also round the mouth of the sheath on my belt sander:



-- Update 03/17/12 --

Step 4: On the back side of the belt loop I use my groover then stitching wheel to mark where I will be punching holes in the leather.


After marking the holes, I flip the belt loop over, mark a line at 1" in front of the end of the loop. Once I have that mark, I rough the leather up so that the glue stitchs to it better:

 

[wildmanh]

Step 5: Once the belt loop is ready, I place a mark in the middle of the sheath at the mouth then apply Glue to the belt loop where I roughed it up:


I allow the glue to dry about a minute then I stick it on to the main body of the sheath and use my L-square to make sure that it's square with the mouth of the sheath. Then I use a clamp to hold it there while the glue sets up which takes about 10 minutes.


Now that the glue has setup I punch holes for stitching:


Then comes the stitching:


Once the top of the belt loop is stiched, I apply glue to the tip of the belt loop, stick it to the sheath and hold it there for 10 minutes with a clamp.

 

[wildmanh]

After the glue has set I punch the holes and stitch the tip of the belt loop:


I'll add more as I can. Thanks!

 

[Stratmeister]

So you drill holes, not really punch them? What kind of glue is that? Thanks for the WIP, I always wondered how much work was involved in making a sheath...

 

[wildmanh]

So you drill holes, not really punch them? What kind of glue is that? Thanks for the WIP, I always wondered how much work was involved in making a sheath...

You are correct, I drill most of the holes instead of punch them. Guess I'm just in the habbit of saying punch. The Glue is Weldwood's Contact Cement. When they say use in a well ventalated area, they mean it! Holds good once it dries, but stinks to high heavan.