Pancake Sheaths and how I go about them. (PIC HEAVY)

hey Dave, first off thank you so much for putting this together!

It’s probably not a problem for you, but my leather keeps getting dirty/dingy as I’m working on it. What do you recommend and a product and a process for cleaning it up before finishing the sheaths?

Also, do you let the sheath dry completely before going into the oven, or is damp ok for this step?

Last, why the paper? Why not a baking sheet?

Thanks!

Horsewright Horsewright
 
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gruntinhusaybah said:
hey Dave, first off thank you so much for putting this together!

It’s probably not a problem for you, but my leather keeps getting dirty/dingy as I’m working on it. What do you recommend and a product and a process for cleaning it up before finishing the sheaths?

Thanks!
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Sorry brother, I think you sent this to the wrong guy.
 
gruntinhusaybah said:
hey Dave, first off thank you so much for putting this together!

It’s probably not a problem for you, but my leather keeps getting dirty/dingy as I’m working on it. What do you recommend and a product and a process for cleaning it up before finishing the sheaths?

Also, do you let the sheath dry completely before going into the oven, or is damp ok for this step?

Last, why the paper? Why not a baking sheet?

Thanks!

Horsewright Horsewright
Click to expand...

Ya bet Fallbrook Forge Fallbrook Forge .

I do struggle with that by the way. I have one shop and as a knife maker I try to keep the dirty all on one side. But Tehachapi where I live is a windy dusty place. Just is, so its a fight. Couple of things I do. One make suer your hands are clean when working with leather. I'll wash just before starting. Two make sure your workspace is clean as well. I have a large brush I dust everything off with before starting and then I use a "green" cleaner and spray the benches, rock and cutting boards down and wipe off with paper towels. Three even with this ya'll still get the occasional smudge or mark or what the heck. I have a galleon jug of Behr All in One Wood Cleaner from Home Depot. I will dampen a paper towel with it and you'd be surprised at the smudges etc it will take off. Rinse with another paper towel in plain water. Four sometime its your water. We're on well water and I struggled more with this before I started using Pro Carv in the water. It made a big difference for me. I know folks that will only use distilled water. Five good leather. Seems like the USA leathers are less susceptible to these problems than the imports. I did have a side of HO one time that everytime you got it wet white waxy stuff would come to the surface of the leather. Returned it and they were testing it and had the same problems. But it seems to happen less with the better leathers.

No I only bake damp items. Thats part of the idea as it helps set your shape and also drys from the inside out I believe. Paper because damp leather and a baking sheet probably would not be good.
 
Horsewright,
If I’ve never told ya how much this tutorial has helped me.....thank you very much. If i could figure out how to post stuff to this forum i would send you some pics.
 
Thanks, glad its been of help. Its pretty easy to post pics.. Make an Imgur account. Drag and drop your pics there. Then open a pic ya want to post, copy the BB code, then paste in the the post here in BF.
 
Not perfect, but I'm very happy with the progress and learned a ton! The next one will be better! Thank you so much for sharing hard won knowledge so freely!
Merry Christmas!

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Good deal! Glad this helped out. Looks pretty good to me. Inlay your stitching groove a little further farther in. Will give ya a little more room to work with when the occasional wobblies in the stitching happen.
 
Horsewright said:
Good deal! Glad this helped out. Looks pretty good to me. Inlay your stitching groove a little further farther in. Will give ya a little more room to work with when the occasional wobblies in the stitching happen.
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Yessir!
Did that bit backwardso_O like I said, learned a ton!
 
Dave,

I looked this thread up a few times lately - and I have a few follow up questions.

In your original post I saw that you skive your welt with a head knife. I was having trouble, though, seeing what you skive. I think you are skiving the welt down to the edge of the sheath - so that there is a welt on the interior but the exterior (edge of the sheath) is only two layers. Am I reading that right?

Also, your slot punch - can you tell me what make and length that is that you use? It looks like 1 3/4" but I wanted to check.

Lastly - I searched for you Rough Out tutorial - but I can't seem to locate it - do you remember what you titled it?

Thank you so much for your time.

Jason
 
Diomedes Industries said:
Dave,

I looked this thread up a few times lately - and I have a few follow up questions.

In your original post I saw that you skive your welt with a head knife. I was having trouble, though, seeing what you skive. I think you are skiving the welt down to the edge of the sheath - so that there is a welt on the interior but the exterior (edge of the sheath) is only two layers. Am I reading that right?

Also, your slot punch - can you tell me what make and length that is that you use? It looks like 1 3/4" but I wanted to check.

Lastly - I searched for you Rough Out tutorial - but I can't seem to locate it - do you remember what you titled it?

Thank you so much for your time.

Jason
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Howdy Jason

On the skiving I will pre skive the edge of the welt, the tip where it meets up with the apex of the sheath. This is to get a smooth transition from two layers on the top of the sheath to the three layers on the bottom, front back and welt. I don't always get the placement right or the skive right and will do any additional skiving needed on the welt after its been glued on the top but before glueing the top and welt onto the bottom. This is where I'll careful use the long end of my roundknife to skive that clean. i can do that with the roundknife with more of a slicing action rather than a pushing action to save cutting into the top layer of the sheath.

I use Weaver 2" slot/bag punch for that. Most belts are 1.5" so the 2" size seems to work just right. Weaver, (although I'm not a fan of their new business practices, the company that starts with a W and shall not be mentioned) hands down makes the best punches I have ever used. They have however broken the cowboy code and are deeply frowned upon in my world.

I'll see if I can find it and bump it to the front page. Nothing super special though really outside of picking a piec of roughout ya like. Just do everything inside out.
 
Hi Dave. Thanks for the write-up.
My question is, when you make one of these for a knife with a new shape, is there any way to know if you have your pieces the right shape after gluing them together, but before stitching it up (ie, with my pouch sheaths, it's fairly easy to cut the pattern a bit big, glue in the welt and then just fold the leather over and get the shape just right before final glue/stitching)?
Or do I just have to go ahead and finish/stitch up the sheath and then hope the knife fits for wet forming at this point?
(I hope that was clear....)
Thanks.
 
weo said:
Hi Dave. Thanks for the write-up.
My question is, when you make one of these for a knife with a new shape, is there any way to know if you have your pieces the right shape after gluing them together, but before stitching it up (ie, with my pouch sheaths, it's fairly easy to cut the pattern a bit big, glue in the welt and then just fold the leather over and get the shape just right before final glue/stitching)?
Or do I just have to go ahead and finish/stitch up the sheath and then hope the knife fits for wet forming at this point?
(I hope that was clear....)
Thanks.
Click to expand...


You are welcome. Mostly you are eyeballing it through experience. These two knives are seated in their pocket so to speak. i will sometimes move them in and out at this stage with the welt glued in to see how they interact and make sure everything is good before final glue up.

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The important part for the fit is how the widest part of the knife interacts with the cam part of the welt which creates the greatest space restriction. Thats where I want about a total of 3/8" clearance. As far as different shapes go upswept points are the trickiest and I'll often put a welt all the way around for that type of knife. On real pokey type knives like the Tapadero on the right below:

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I will construct the welt so there is a stop that interacts with the finger guard before the point of the knife gets to the bottom of the sheath. Hope all this helps. I can't say I get it right every time and thats for sure. Out of a big batch of say 60 odd sheaths, its not unusual for me to have to remake one because of fit. Sometimes a couple.
 
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