Guitarfish inlay sheath for Busse Team gemini (picture heavy)

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kaizo

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Oct 17, 2014
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Hi everyone I'm currently working on a sheath designed for a Busse Team Gemini using some latigo and guitarfish so I thought it would be nice to show some pictures of the progress.

I've first measured out the general shape of the sheaths (in this case rectangular). I keep meaning to try some rounded corners as well but since I'm using exotic skin I thought it would be best to adhere to a tried and tested formula for this one.

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After measuring and cutting them out I've sanded the edges down. Latigo does not like any form of glue even the ones used on masking tape so its a bit of a pain to hold them in place.

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I then measured out the area of guitar fish I need for this piece which is about a centimetre longer in lengths and width than the middle window. After doing so I used some scissors to cut the rayskin out.

I have mentioned this in another thread but a guitar fish is an odd looking fish that is half stingray, half shark. It's effectively an evolutionary link between the closely related two species. In fact both rays and sharks belong to a genetic family called Elasmobranchii. So guitar fish has a very ray like skin on the ray part of the body.

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Then I used a stitching groover to make tracks for the threads to be embedded into. Followed by marking the stitching point using a stitching wheel.

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Then using a combination of a scalpel and a round knife I cut out the window where the inlay would be showing through.

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This is how far I got tonight but I will be drilling the stitching holes before hand threading them tomorrow.

I just want to say a word of thank you to everybody here on this forum. I am here because of the various helps that everyone has generously provided out of their kind hearts and I could not speak higher of the people here on the forum. Special thanks to Dave Ferry (horsewright), David Brown, Paul Long (sheathsmaker), Omega leather works and leatherman for helping me with various details of the techniques used. Thank you everyone.

Unless things go drastically wrong more to follow soon (I'm still waiting on the basket weave stamps that I am hoping to use on the back of the sheaths so I may have to wait for that).

Thanks everybody for reading :)

P.s. here are some of my earlier works with a ray inlay and a leather sheaths for team gemini. They are both designed to have a wide range of carry option using teklok. Effectively giving the user most available carry option of that of a kydex.

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Hey, I caught a 5 foot one of those a few years ago. Wish I still had the pics lol.
 
Hi everyone :)

I've pressed on with the sheaths today. Firstly I've drilled holes for the stitching and the eyelet:

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Then I took the outline of the knife using paper to make the welt:

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I then went ahead and stitched the sides:

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I did notice something rather interesting while I was doing it. It may be just me, but due to optical illusion the area that is stitched with the brown thread appears more brown than the unstitched areas where it appears more reddish. I might try and use a burgundy thread next time to see if it has the opposite effect next time.

Fully stitched:

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I think many people reading this may have noticed it but the stitching is very crooked. What happened was when I was drilling the eyelet holes the leather was so soft it warped and breached the edge of the leather meaning I had to remake the back panel mimicking the hole locations using a fresh piece of leather. This unfortunately meant that I had to force the threads to follow the new holes that were ever so slightly off and that made the stitching wonky... :(

Those of you living across the pond from here may have even heard me cursing like an apoplectic grandpa. :P

It also affected the appearance of the edge as well. The key case on the right of the image below is when I get the edge treatment right and the sheaths on the left unfortunately has noticeable 'steps'...

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I think I should learn from my mistakes here. When I made the black sheaths for the TG in the first post I used a 2.5mm thick veg tan which has much more structure to it than latigo. In fact, that one feels more like a kydex because it is so well supported. While this one is self supporting it will bend very easily if you try to do so with your hands. If I were to do this for somebody other than myself (where I would be using a method that I know will work with the right kind of leather) I think I would definitely use a veg tan for the stack sheaths and latigo for the pouch type sheaths so I could enjoy the best of both worlds.

Actually speaking of which my supplier is carrying this python hide that probably looks great with a Busse blue and black G10 (I think its also called a bruiser) so if I ever get a knife with the blue and black handle I might use the veg tan and this as an inlay to make something like the rayskin sheaths I made in the first post.

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Anyway thank you for reading please let me know what you think and my next post will be me making the retention strap. :)

Sosa said:
Hey, I caught a 5 foot one of those a few years ago. Wish I still had the pics lol.
Click to expand...

Send the hide to me next time you fish one please!! :P
 
very cool, thanks for posting and please keep us updated. btw, what kind of model of dremel and drill press is that?
 
Thanks possom :)

The model is 3000 if I am not mistaken. I'll let you know if its any different when I get home today. It's a brilliant tool to do a lot of soft material pressing. Mind you that's not the only tool in action when I'm using that :P

I'm not sure about the model of the press but I think they only have one model so it should be easy to find. I definitely recommend this as well. :)
 
thanks alot! i am looking for a replacement for my proxxon as it is crapping out on me and am considering one of these.
 
Worth every penny. The only thing that I cannot do with this is metal drilling but for leatherwork I think it's perfect.
 
I wonder if you moved your exterior stitch line in some if you would see that bubbling on the edge? Even if ya did get it then you would have room to sand and edge enough to take care of it maybe. Another thought is ya could combine the leathers. Use your latigo to frame Nessie and then welt and back could be veggie tan. Might give the latigo the support your not seeing. I've two Dremels, one with a flex shaft and one without. Great little tools. Use for lots of little things.

Was rereading your post. Ya might try leaving your bottom layer a little oversized where ya stitch. That wil also help prevent that rolling while you're drilling the holes methinks. Stitch er up and then trim the bottom layer to the rest of the sheath.
 
Horsewright said:
I wonder if you moved your exterior stitch line in some if you would see that bubbling on the edge? Even if ya did get it then you would have room to sand and edge enough to take care of it maybe. Another thought is ya could combine the leathers. Use your latigo to frame Nessie and then welt and back could be veggie tan. Might give the latigo the support your not seeing. I've two Dremels, one with a flex shaft and one without. Great little tools. Use for lots of little things.

Was rereading your post. Ya might try leaving your bottom layer a little oversized where ya stitch. That wil also help prevent that rolling while you're drilling the holes methinks. Stitch er up and then trim the bottom layer to the rest of the sheath.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help Dave :)

I just wondered if I could quickly pick your brain on the edge clearance. How much berth do you give between the edge and the stitching? I usually leave 2mm (~0.078 inch) but like you said I may be cutting too close to the grass... What's your go to clearance?

Also absolutely I really should have made the welt and the supporting layers out of veg tan. Latigo alone is just too soft for what I would like a sheaths to feel like.

I've seen you do that bottom layer trick in your tutorial for the pancake sheaths I'm definitely going to do that in the future now :)

Thank you again very much for your help I really appreciate it :)
 
I just measured my sheath groover. I have two groovers and use one on sheaths and I leave it set where it is at 6mm. Now that seems pretty far but I also like to use a #3 Osborne edger. I have a #3 Barry King too but they are different sizes. The #3 BK is quite a bit smaller in size more like a #2 Osborne. So this stitch line and edger allows me to make a very rounded edge once we're all said and done. This rounded edge really provides durability over years of hard use. I've got a couple of old sheaths that are plin beat to death. If I get a chance I'll take some pics and show you what I mean.

You bet!
 
Hmm it sounds like I should try the no.3 as well...

Time for me to update my Christmas shopping list I think! :P

Thank you for the info :)

P.s. yes please on the pics!! :)
 
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