My very first sheath almost complete, thanks to Chuck's DVD!

G

GrizzlyBear

Joined
Dec 5, 2009
Messages
1,528
Well here is where I stand with my first, ever, knife sheath.

I followed Chuck's instructions as closely as I could to the point where I'm at now.

Leather is 4/5oz veg. tanned leather from Hobby Lobby (their pieces are from Silver Creek Leather Co.).

This is the 2nd attempt on my first sheath. The first one, I had cut out, but when I put the knife in and folded it over, it seemed like it wasnt going to be able to be stitched up from being too tight. So, I redrew my design and added a bit to the width. This one is actually, probably, a bit too wide. But, it's all in the learning process.

Wasn't sure how to do it proper since the knife is one sweeping curve rather than a straighter blade.

I still need to stitch the main seam, sand the edges, wet form, dye and
finish.

DSCN3579.jpg

DSCN3582.jpg

DSCN3584.jpg


I wish the basket weave had turned out a little deeper...my hammer wasn't heavy enough to give me a good solid hit, I'm fixing that tomorrow.

This sheath is just practice, cheap piece of leather and one evening after work got me this far. It's not near thick enough, but I have had fun with it this far and can apply what I've learned to the next sheaths!

I thought it was a pretty good first attempt. Only real major mess up that I did was my groover got away from me on the belt loop and, I ran the groover for the stitches (on the back) BEFORE I punched the holes...so, naturally, they didn't line up completely.

Thanks for looking and any comments are welcome! I will post finished pics tomorrow (hopefully).
 
Nice work! Nice knife, too. It all looks good to me, where did the groover go off? I'm just learning, are you supposed to drill the holes and then put the groove over them? I thought it was the other way around :confused:
 
Thanks! You're attempt looks good so far too!

Groover went off on belt loop, right hand set of grooves, inside groove towards the middle...kinda got off line a bit.

For the front stitch groove, you do the grooving, then run your wheel, then punch stitch holes. For the back you can either not grove it and run your wheel or, run a groove to sink the stitches into (then wheel it).

I ran the groove on both sides BEFORE punching my holes so the front didn't exactly line up with the back. :) Should have grooved front, ran wheel, punched, flipped over, grooved and ran wheel for back.
 
Geez... that's a whole lot nicer than my first. Good job. Get some quality leather and your results will pay off, particularly in the tooling.

Looks like a very sound sheath.. Great dvd isn't it.:)
 
Thanks! I've watched that DVD over and over and even let it play while I'm sleeping to get a kind of subliminal effect ;)

Yeah, I had several things playing against me, but I wanted to try a practice run anyway.

-No really heavy/hard base for tooling. Used my 2" thick acacia cutting board.

-No rawhide or dead mallet. Had a heavier rubber mallet, but it rebounded too much. Bought a 9oz wooden mallet for $3 and it didn't have enough 'oomph'. Thinking about getting a piece of walnut or hickory about 2-3" in diameter and making my own mallet.

-Cheap leather from Hobby Lobby :). However, this piece tooled a lot easier than the piece used for my sheath. This was my real first attempt at decorative tooling:
DSCN3547.jpg


Guess with cheap leather you run into pieces that tool easier than others. Same 4/5oz too.

But anyway, thanks again, I got high hopes for my attempt using REAL leather! ;)
 
You're right about the base being important. I think it may be more important than the mallet. I had been using a rawhide mallet and put the work on a pad of paper on a hard board and my tooling was always light. I used the paper because I didn't want the marks on the hard board to scar my work piece.
Well I switched to a piece of granite, a sample from a granite countertop place and with that you don't even have to hit as hard. It's just a solid thump.

Great work on that tooling. I'd say you're a natural for this stuff.
 
Thanks again! I can probably attribute some of my knack back to being a Boy Scout and doing a few leather projects at camp, but that was like 17 years ago lol. I dunno, it's one of those things that when you see it, you just know you can do it too.

Just like with this 60 year old CVA Hawken Mountain Rifle I have. It was given to me as a gift for making Eagle Scout. Well, sad to say it wasn't taken care of properly before it was put in storage and then just fell out of memory due to a lot of things going on with my family. During my move, I found it...stashed away in a soft zipper case; barrel all rusted, wood looked like crap. It just looked horrible. I dove into this thing head first and never looked back, having never, ever restored a gun before. I took it down piece by piece and restored every inch of that gun back to it's original glory; from finishing the stock to re-bluing the barrel and polishing the German silver furniture. I've had people ask me how much did I pay to have it professionally restored...then I tell them I did it with no experience at all. :) But anyway...

I'm going to contact a local granite countertop business and even a couple of the monument companies and see if they have any scrap or samples that I could buy on the cheap.
 
Well here she is stitched up and dye drying. I couldn't wait for my Fiebings dye to arrive so I ran to walmart on the way home from work and got a box of black RIT dye. Mixed according to instructions and dunked the sheath. I noticed immediately that the dye was more of a purple than black, but after several dunks and soaks it turned a nice deep black.

I wet formed the sheath first, then dyed while it was still wet. So I wrapped the knife in plastic wrap and reinserted it into the newly dyed sheath to finish forming it as it dries.

Since I don't have a belt sander yet, I used my dremel and a fine grit drum bit to sand the edges, then burnished with the handle of my modeling spoon.

Anyway, enough talk, here she is! :)

DSCN3585.jpg

DSCN3586.jpg


You can tell now where I messed up the groover on the belt strap. No worries, it's all practice!
 
Nice! The tooling looks awesome, good job :)
I'm still waiting on a firesteel from Dealextreme. How long does it take to ship from Hong Kong? Sheesh!
 
Craig, I think you have done an excellent job.I also have Chuck's DVD and watch it over and over, but do yourself a favor and get Paul Long's DVD. Between these two guys you will be well on your way to making some great sheaths. Again you work looks great. Trav
 
Thanks again guys, I think I will invest in Pauls DVDs...perhaps I can get the fiance to buy them as an early Bday present ;).

I have a small update on the sheath, checked on it yesterday morning after it had time to dry and it turned purple!! LOL, guess that's what I get for using RIT dye hahaha. Ah well, it's only a practice piece.
 
Thanks again! As soon as my good quality leather gets here I have 2 sheaths that I need to make, one for an order and the other for my EDC. Will post pics when done!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top