New Leather for New Ratmandu

S

savage_here

Joined
Aug 22, 2009
Messages
23
OK, so I'm new to Swamp Rat knives and got my first as a b-day present recently (yeah, I had a considerable amount of input regarding the present!).

So, it's such a fine looking knife that I decided it needed a nice leather home. I have some experience in leathercraft, making custom watch straps, but have/had never tried to make a sheath.

I don't have a sewing machine as I hand-stitch all my leather watch straps. So, I decided to take on the project with only hand stitching. Wow, it's tough getting stitch holes punched through four thicknesses of fairly tough leather. It's also tough saddle stitching through those thicknesses.

I would never consider this commercially, but if I did, I would HAVE to have a machine. Much respect to those makers that do this for a living! And, I must say that I did borrow some design ideas from several makers. Again, this is not a commercial venture, just a one-off for my own use!

Anyway, enough of that, here are the pics:

First, the knife:

Ratmandu1.jpg


Now, the sheath:

sheath1.jpg

sheath2.jpg

sheath3.jpg


Thanks for looking, let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Savage
 
Nice looking combo, well done. :)
 
That's a beautiful job! Simple, functional, and the knife looks GREAT in it. I hope the belt-loop suits your belt-widths.
 
I wear a Widerness Instructor 5-stitch belt 98% of the the time and I made it to fit that snugly. If were to go wider than that belt it wouldn't work, but I really don't see that happening.
 
I wish I could do that. All my sheaths come out looking like something from a cub scouts summer camp.
 
Very seldom do I believe that Micarta and G10 goes well with leather, especially brown. But I think this works out very well.
 
savage_here said:
I wear a Widerness Instructor 5-stitch belt 98% of the the time and I made it to fit that snugly. If were to go wider than that belt it wouldn't work, but I really don't see that happening.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you planned it very well :thumbup: If you ever DO need to go with a wider belt, you could add a drop-leg loop pretty easily.

And I agree with the above post - micarta or g10 often go less well with leather, but you really pulled it off! Gorgeous.
 
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