Little SAK pouch

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WhiteKnuckle

Joined
Mar 9, 2016
Messages
95
My girlfriend's father's birthday was coming up, and since staying on his good side is important to my health I decided to make him a little something. He owns a small restaurant so I figured a SAK Climber would have plenty of useful things he might need around the place.

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It came out OK, but definitely not my best work, in fact it's a bit of a downgrade from the friction sheath I made a few weeks back :grumpy:

The thickness of the SAK made it difficult to get the bottom of the pouch to sit flat and wrinkle free, and I cut the darts too far in so I had to push my stitching line right up to the edge. Then once the leather dried I found it had shrunk a lot, so I had to glue in a welt just to get it to work at all.

And worst of all, I still can't for the life of me get a straight line of stitching on the backside of a piece :mad: It's seriously ugly on this one, but this is a problem for me in general.

He liked it, so it's all good. But I think I'm going to buy another SAK for myself (never actually owned one, was far nicer and less-gimmicky than I thought it would be) and give it another shot.
 
This is outstanding work and you have given a very nice gift of your thought, time, and effort. Nothing wrong with it anywhere.

I have found that the even stitching on the back has to do with the angle at which the needle enters and exits the layers. The holes in the side you're looking at determine the straightness of the stitch. So you want to have the needle drive straight down, plumb, every single time. That way the front and back will mirror one another. Since I don't use a sewing table or a machine, but tend to work by hand at a workbench or holding my pieces in my hand, I get the uneven result, only ten times worse.

Great work!

Zieg
 
Thanks for the kind words Zieg.

I know why my stitching is coming out crooked, I just don't know how the heck to stop screwing it up.

I could have sworn I kept the awl perfectly straight up and down, but then I flip it over and it looks like I was blind drunk, or maybe blind and drunk, while doing it. :grumpy:
 
WhiteKnuckle said:
Thanks for the kind words Zieg.

I know why my stitching is coming out crooked, I just don't know how the heck to stop screwing it up.

I could have sworn I kept the awl perfectly straight up and down, but then I flip it over and it looks like I was blind drunk, or maybe blind and drunk, while doing it. :grumpy:
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Fortunately there are those here who can coach us. Follow my directions and it'll end up worse! Lookin forward to your next pics.

Zieg
 
Actually, the back's stitching looks pretty fair to me. Much better than mine, but I understand what we see when we self critique.
 
Spyder59 said:
Actually, the back's stitching looks pretty fair to me. Much better than mine, but I understand what we see when we self critique.
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I may have strategically taken the picture of the back so that the belt loop is in the way of all the really ugly stitching ;)
 
Very nice work! Really like it. On the stitching ya might try a light groove on the backside. Then when piercing with the awl you can see where you are coming out and adjust. This is where a stitching pony or stitching horse really comes in handy. It will hold your work and allow you to se the backside at the same time. You can get to the point where you can just begin to see the tip of the awl beginning to start to stick out of the leather on the backside. If its not right (in the light groove on the backside), back the awl out a hair, adjust and then push back through. pretty soon it'll become muscle memory.
 
Thanks Dave.

I do have a stitching pony, but I only use it for the actual stitching, the holes I'm making beforehand with a stitching chisel. I guess this is one of those "the old ways are the best ways" things, but frankly I have enough trouble just holding a needle in each hand, let alone putting an awl into the mix like an old time craftsman would.

But I'll try putting a line on the back, using the chisel or an overstitch wheel to just mark my holes and then actually push them through with the piece in the pony. Slower than what I'm doing now, but since this is the one area I'm having trouble with it'd be nice to get it squared away.
 
As an idea, something I do with thick leather is use the chisels to mark the stitch holes and go about 1/2 way through. Now you have the nice diamond holes, finish with the awl as Horsewright suggested. I have done this many times. Not as clean as a sewing machine, but I don't have or want one. Also check out Gary Grayley's how-to on pouch sheaths, easy enough to modify for a flap and a really nice bottom edge. rtmind/randy
 
I asked myself same question and managed it with first going with sharp needle with lookin where it will be on the other side which has a groove so I can see where it will come out, and after a while it goes fast and after thatmake hole with regular awl. I made one sheat like that, I think that was good considering 4 layers on the wedge
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