Very nice work there, if I had one suggestion I would spend a little more time on the edges. Granted I was looking at this on my phone so it could be the small screen, they look a little hairy still.
I may have been able to get it a little more uniform with some piddling. We finish some of our edges with gum tragacath which does give it that nice hard appearance.... But I have started to dislike that look as of late. And feel.... Fine for a belt or straight sheath, but on scout sheaths and such I like them to flex and give, like a fine wallet or bag. So we just use a little mink oil and bee's wax. Waterproofing the entirety with the same. Cleaning with lanolin saddle soap... Etc. Since this piece had the kydex core, I wanted it to be soft anywhere I could. The 'mouth' of the sheath (the green protruding portion) actually has two semicircular cutouts on either side of the kydex which is then back filled with leather as the padded layer was added and covered with the suede. If you wiggle the knife on the way in, it doesn't feel like you're fighting kydex. More like an all leather affair.
I have recently been taking our heavy Hermann Oak 'Coffin cut' gun belts which always wind up hard and stiff after tooling and dying, and working them for a while with good amounts of quality mink oil. They're 10-12oz leather after all, so no need for them to be artificially stiff in my opinion. I know that the soft and distressed look is a personal taste, but is what I like to see. And wear. The heavy black 2" gun belt we just finished for example is stiff per the customer's request. He wanted heavy. Stiff and hard. Just treated enough to be colorfast and waterproof. (top one obviously and really pardon the pic. Work phone under artificial incandescent light...)
I also don't edit my pics at all. And what you can sometimes see is the natural grain and deviation of the leather along with maybe an errant dust particle... Lol. I'm not a professional photographer by any means. But the edge is smooth. In other words feels uniform all the way down. Just not hard.
Hope that sort of explains. I also don't use any artificially dark edge dye. I use the same color used with the rest of the piece. I hope not, but I know I've probably touched a few nerves, and sorry if I did... I personally like almost anything leather. From the old school, Sheridan carved pieces to the new school funky color no-stitching all glue and eyelet stuff . And as far as the leather work goes I'm a relative noob. I've been working with metal, wood and other materials for 25 years in one form or another. Leather just the last 2-3. And I'm starting to enjoy it as much if not more sometimes than the other stuff!
Cheers. Thanks for the compliments and observations. Truly appreciated.
-Eric
Overmountain Knife and Tool
Overmountain.us.com
