New Guy Making his First Sheath

[Bigfattyt]

Scratching the smooth leather helps a ton with adhesion, even with the best glue.

I have actually used a sharp awl and really went to town on the smooth side, and had great results. They sell a tool for it, but I don't have one.

My last sheath, I used my skiver and belt sander on the welt. Did not feel as solid with the same glue as when I take the time to really do some gouging on the leather with the sharp awl.

Looking 100% better than my first sheath and that is no lie.

Great looking knife as well.

 

[elkhills]

Scratching the smooth leather helps a ton with adhesion, even with the best glue.

I have actually used a sharp awl and really went to town on the smooth side, and had great results. They sell a tool for it, but I don't have one.

My last sheath, I used my skiver and belt sander on the welt. Did not feel as solid with the same glue as when I take the time to really do some gouging on the leather with the sharp awl.

Looking 100% better than my first sheath and that is no lie.

Great looking knife as well.

That's a good tip, I will try that on the next one, and thanks for the kind words!
Forgot to put up some pics of the finished work yesterday, so here ya go







The accessory pouch is basically the same construction as a Leatherman pouch. I was thinking "how sick would it be to sew a Leatherman on the sheath?", so I kinda did. Even a tiny "Squirt" might do it, but I already had this SwissTool and it fit great with the sharpening stone. The whistle is nice and flat too, and the neck cord is helpful for pulling it all out, though it's not a real tight fit. There's almost enough room left for a Photon light. Almost.
I can get about a half a cotton ball in the pill fob part of the firesteel handle. A little disappointing, but it's better than nothing. Plan on putting an O-Ring in the gap I wasn't planning on in the firesteel. They say a mark of a true Craftsman is how well he hides his mistakes :lol:
All in all I'd give myself a "B" on the project, not great, but not bad. Not for a first try anyway.