Leather question

[ANovinc]

So I made several sheaths this past weekend. A couple turned out great, a couple not so much. On one of the not so great sheaths, the problem I had became evident after wet-forming. The leather has remained soft towards the top of the sheath and near the mouth. This keeps the knife from snapping into place like it normally would and renders the sheath useless as far as I'm concerned due to the lack of retention.

Any thoughts as to what may have caused this? To much oil applied to the leather, perhaps, or did I choose to cut from and area of the leather that should have been avoided? (It came off of a double shoulder).

 

[Horsewright]

If ya can post pics that might help. You would probably have to seriously over oil it to cause that. Might guess would be a softish, bellyish spot on your double shoulder. Shouldn't have that on a double shoulder but it happens sometimes.

 

[ANovinc]

Might guess would be a softish, bellyish spot on your double shoulder. Shouldn't have that on a double shoulder but it happens sometimes.

That sounds logical to me, as I am sure I cut the leather near the edge as there's not a lot of it left. Is there a way to determine that there is an area of the leather that needs to be avoided? Or is it just experience gained over time to be able recognize an area that is going to be to soft?

 

[Horsewright]

Yes of course experience. But look for the hair cells on the grain side to be not as tight. On the roughout side ya get more fuzzy. Is it near a wrinkle? If ya lay the double shoulder out was it near the outside edge of the short sides? That where you are getting down towards the belly on both sides.

 

[ANovinc]

Yes of course experience. But look for the hair cells on the grain side to be not as tight. On the roughout side ya get more fuzzy. Is it near a wrinkle? If ya lay the double shoulder out was it near the outside edge of the short sides? That where you are getting down towards the belly on both sides.

Thanks, Dave . That is very helpful. I've been wondering all along how to determine belly leather, but just hadn't gotten around to asking.

I've cut so much off of the double shoulder at this point that I'm not sure which side is up, down, or sideways. But interestingly enough, one of the other sheaths I made this weekend ended up with a very fuzzy belt loop (I was not happy once I realized it was not going to smooth down), which seems to further confirm that the leather has some belly cut on it since the roughout had been fairly smooth on my other work up to this point.

Of course, as with all things in life, you get what you pay for and while this leather was not the cheapest, it certainly was not the most expensive, either. I'll likely be finding a new source once I've used up the rest of what I currently have.

Amy

 

[Hengelo_77]

you can shrink leather with heat.
You can try shrinking the sheath a bit with a heatgun