Leather sheath for the awesome BK9 Combat Bowie - New pictures!

M

maethor

Joined
Mar 9, 2011
Messages
1,648
Hey folks,

I've had the BK9 for 2 weeks now, and although folding the belt loop on the stock sheath down and holding it in position with a zip-tie makes it a little bit more comfortable to carry (I actually like it pretty much that way), I thought it would be time to try and make a leather sheath.

I got a piece of 8oz leather in a beautiful dark brown-reddish colour, two saddler's needles, some beeswax and 30ft of black unwaxed "trout twine". Ready to go!

The layout of the sheath was already drawn up on a piece of paper, copied a few times and cut out so that I had a template for every piece of leather i wanted to cut out. I learned that it is very important to fasten the templates to the leather, i just used a few pins that i stole from my girlfriend :D

This first picture shows the two biggest pieces which are the "top and bottom" of the sheath.

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Here I have the pieces just put together to check the fit.

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Since the knife is thicker than one, but thinner than two layers of my 8oz, I had to cut some thinner leather to size. Here are the pieces put together, ready to be glued to each other and then the bottom layer.

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Everything put together, putting the blade in for the first time to check the fit. Looks great so far. Well, great is probably a little bit exaggerated, but it doesn't look too bad, at least to me. This is my first leather sheath after all.

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This picture shows how I prepare the pieces to be glued together. The glue I use (Pattex Kraftkleber) needs rough surfaces to bond them together real good. So I scratch the areas of the leather that will have glue on them with the spine of my Stanley knife.

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My super-duper-advanced hi-tec press to let the glue set. Consists of a few big books and my trusty Thinkpad R500. Real Hi-Tec. Gets the job done.

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Disregard those ugly clothespins, they just had the job to hold the top piece in place while I try if the knife slides in and out nicely.

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Another shot of the sheath glued together except for the "lid" you can see that the idea is to let the knife rest on the forward slope of the thumb ramp. We'll see how it works out.

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At the moment the whole stack is in the press, I think I'll leave it in there overnight. Yes, I actually call that pile of random crap a press. More tomorrow.

take care!

maethor

Oh, and just to probably get some of you to drool: I got 1 m of 10mm aluminum tubing, a piece of 2mm steel sheet and some random rubbery stuff, and I will make something throwable out of it tomorrow or some time later. What is it?
 
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@Maethor

Click on the picture you want to put in.

Next a little magnifying glass will show when you hover over the pic.

Right-click and choose your size.

When the correct size image loads, you right-click again and copy the image adress.

Then you paste that in the "insert image" in here.

Hope that helps.
 
cool project!! What are your plans on the belt loop? I would also like to know how to edit titles.
 
Today was a slow day, I only managed to mark and drill the holes (the leather is almost 15 mm thick, no fun with an awl), that took me about 2 hours. I also ditched my initial carrying/attachment system and made something new. You'll see tomorrow, I didn't really document the process and only took one photo. I'll upload more photos tomorrow.

I have to get a D-ring for my dangler belt loop, and I think that I will make the retention strap out of paracord or thin leather thongs. (Do you really say thong for thin, round strips of leather that are used to tie things together?)

My while room smells like leather and beeswax, I love it.

Have a nice evening.

maethor

PS: slapper, the title can be edited by clicking "edit" on the first post. There will be a box where you can enter your new title.
 
"the title can be edited by clicking "edit" on the first post. There will be a box where you can enter your new title."

Click "edit" and then in the bottm right corner click " go advanced". Change it there.

Ass kicking sheath man, keep going.
 
As the title said - I'm more or less finished. I stayed awake through the whole night tuesday to wednesday, because I just couldn't stop. That caused me to wander around like a zombie the whole wednesday, and now I am back to normal. Well, "normal"... let's say I'm not more insane or zombie-like than usual.

Soo...

Here is what I started with out of the press. Huge hunk of leather, thicker than a .50 cal bullet :D

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Here's the sheath after marking and drilling the holes. I used a ruler to mark a line roughly 5mm away from the edge of the sheath and a caliper to mark the holes. I just set the caliper to 6 mm and pushed the pointy ends into the leather, then move so one point sits in one of the holes, thus making a new hole, move... I marked 102 holes and drilled them using a Dremel drill press and a 1.5 mm drillbit. Drilling fast (about 10.000/min) and with very light pressure helps to keep the leather from burning. Use some scrap wood as a backstop to prevent it from fraying.

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The next picture shows my new idea for an attachment system for the dangler loop and the leg strap. The original idea was to put 3 straps across the back of the sheath and thread another strap with a dangler loop and leg strap on it through them. I ditched that, because it's a bad idea.

I know this could have been done simpler, but the idea came up after I had glued everything together, and I like it that way. I think the less stitching you have, the fewer stitches can break. This sheath is bulletproof :D

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Here you can see the twine I used, it is black trout twine which I waxed with a piece of beeswax. My fingers still smell like it.

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I didn't take any photos during the stitching, I don't know how long it took me. I like to watch old action movies, preferably straightforward, total no-brainers with Aaah-Nold or Steven Seagull while doing boring, repetitive work, so these movies are my only means of measuring time. It took me Predator and Under Siege to sew the sheath. There you go, you do the math.

A little bit of porn of the finished sheath.

Front:

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Back:

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Close-up of the retention... paracord. This is kinda cheap, but it works and doesn't keep the dangler loop from danglin'.

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A few things I'd like to do:

- Burnish everything
- Stain the edges
- Take that sonuvabitch out in the woods.

What should I use to burnish the edge? I don't have a boner but I think about getting one. That would probably work, right?

Can I use the beeswax to stain the edges? If i just rub it on it will create a very sticky surface. (Oh god, those ambiguous statements get worse and worse.) Can I melt it and brush it on or something? I've got sunflower and olive oil in the kitchen, but I've made bad experiences with using that for leather.

There's a story about that leg strap, it is a strap from my grandpa's military backpack which he carried through WWII and which has more than one bullet-hole through it. Looks similar to the thing on the left

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It's pretty ironic that his engagement in the war was ended by an American light tank. Not by shooting him, not by forcing him to surrender. They drove over his leg. He still smiles when he tells how he surrendered to the American soldiers with his smashed leg, being happy that he didn't have to fight this war he didn't want to fight anymore. Anyways, he gave me his backpack a few years ago, i had it fixed, and it still serves me well as a backpack for weekends or my scout adventures. We live out of these things for three weeks every summer. They can really swallow a lot of gear.

So, if anyone knows answers to my two questions or has any suggestions, tell me. I'm here.

Thanks for reading!

maethor
 
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"Holy hunk of leather Batman !"

Nice job. Looks heavy duty. Leg strap story :thumbup:
 
I just measured the sheath, and the caliper shows a staggering 22 Millimeters:eek: at the thickest point which is where the loop that holds the D-ring is sewn together.

--

maethor
 
That's a great job man. Your first leather project turned out a hell of a lot better than mine. For a burnisher I took the nylon wheel from a cheap pulley, used a bolt for a mandrel and chucked it in a drill press.
 
One thing about the Sheath ~~ I don't think you will have to worry about losing it or it coming apart on you.! Nice Sheath.*
 
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