New sheath. - P.Long makes it look easy.

SBranson

SBranson

Joined
Oct 29, 2006
Messages
2,912
A friend of mine has be rehandling Fallknivens with great success and I have been fortunate enough to get to make the sheaths for them.

Paul Long has been giving me tips and pointers to help me out so I decided to follow some of his work in progress posts and try some of his methods.
THANKS PAUL:):)

The inlay is beaver tail and the sheath is lined with deerskin.

As the title says, Paul Long makes it all look easy but every time I try anything close to what he does I gain ever more respect for his artistry and quality.

This is my first try at this style. I am sure I will try a couple more as I learned from some mistakes on this one. I would have like to have a smaller border tool but that's the smallest I have.

-Stuart

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Nice job Stuart. Looks like you have been listening to Paul very well, very nice work.
 
Very nice! The beaver tail is a classy looking material, I want to try some eventually.
 
Oh Stuart! Veerrryyy nice! I really like that Beaver Tail and the inlay is done so well. Just a great looking sheath overall. The next one will be even easier.

Paul
 
Thanks very much everyone. I really appreciate it.

@Paul.. I looked over your tutorials and followed your patterning system and still I managed to have to stitch right at the edge. :confused:
You're right, the next one will go smoother..

How do you cut the inlay lines so precisely? Also skiving the edges of the opening in a bit of a nightmare. And finally what do you use to lay out the carving line for the tooling around your inlays?

I think I need a sewing machine and a leather splitter.:p:(
 
SBranson said:
Thanks very much everyone. I really appreciate it.

@Paul.. I looked over your tutorials and followed your patterning system and still I managed to have to stitch right at the edge. :confused:
You're right, the next one will go smoother..

How do you cut the inlay lines so precisely? Also skiving the edges of the opening in a bit of a nightmare. And finally what do you use to lay out the carving line for the tooling around your inlays?

I think I need a sewing machine and a leather splitter.:p:(
Click to expand...

Inlay lines cut much more precisely with an Exacto knife with a number 1 blade (the long very pointy one), but the real key is to cut that inlay window in leather about 3 oz. thickness max. Before you get a splitter, you can work with two layers of 2/3 and 5/6 or 6/7. I routinely keep a stock of both 7/8 and 2/3 pre split from Wickett and Craig. You might try doing the same, using 2/3 and 6/7, limiting yourself to just Russet for economy's sake. Doing this, you will also have to cement two pieces together to make a non inlayed sheath if you are not going to have the 7/8 in stock also.

Lay out the entire sheath pattern with window on the 2/3 and block cut it. Cut out the window and put the inlay in place and then contact cement the block cut pattern to the 5/6 flesh to flesh. Then cut the pattern out and you have perfectly straight edges and what appears to be 7/8 oz. leather with and inlay.

Your stitching close to the edge error occurred way back when you were creating the pattern on paper. You had the knife tracing too close to the center line. You have to learn through experience to estimate this distance based on handle size, thickness. etc. Most knives will be about 1/2 to 3/4 inch from the line. If it needs to go much more than 3/4 inch then you have to remember to put a wedge in the welt to increase the size at the mouth of the sheath to make room for the larger handles.

Not sure what you mean by skiving edges at the opening, because if there is a lining the opening or mouth of the sheath is the only place that does not get skived.

On my sheaths the layout line for the tooling around the inlay IS the stitch line around the inlay. The stitch line is put on using adjustable dividers and then a free hand stitch groover. I then tool equal distance from the stitch around the stitch line after it is stitched.
 
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Thanks AGAIN Paul.. I will have to digest this after my cup of coffee...:p
It makes sense and I think I did most of the layout like you said...
The knife's handle swelled to about 1" thick so I went 1/2" off the center line.
I think I still mistake the amount 1/8" or so of the leather changes the size of the opening. I will try moving out from the center line a bit.

The skiving question was about skiving the edges of the cut-outs for the inlay.
But guess of I started with 2oz leather I wouldn't need to.
Trying to skive 8oz leather down to 2-3oz evenly is not much fun :(

-Stuart
 
SBranson said:
The skiving question was about skiving the edges of the cut-outs for the inlay.
But guess of I started with 2oz leather I wouldn't need to.
Trying to skive 8oz leather down to 2-3oz evenly is not much fun :(

-Stuart
Click to expand...

Correct, skiving the inside lines of the cut out evenly would be nearly impossible, and that is one of the reasons to use light weight leather for the top piece with the cut out. No skiving necessary on light weight leather.

Paul
 
Can someone please explain how you do your edging to get it so clean, black, and glassy?

A close up picture would also be great.

My goodness that sheath looks awesome!

TF
 
Talfuchre said:
Can someone please explain how you do your edging to get it so clean, black, and glassy?

A close up picture would also be great.

My goodness that sheath looks awesome!

TF
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I use a belt sander to final shape and smooth the edges and then hand sanding up to 400x. I then applied Medium Brown dye and burnished that. Then gum tragacanth and more burnishing. I find that when applying the gum tragacanth it helps to rub it in briskly so it gets a little warm.

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Sorry that's the best I can do. The sheath is in the mail to the owner.
 
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