Scabbard Help!!!

Fiddleback

Fiddleback

Knifemaker
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I just posted this on the HI forum, but thought I'd start a thread so the leather experts here could beat me up properly.

I waterformed a scabbard for my JKM last night and now I have some mold, it would seem, on the leather. How do I deal with that? Can I bleach it out? Do I have to start over, or can I just stain over the mold? Why did it mold?

I soaked the leather in luke warm water for 1 hour. Then I coated the knife with pet. jelly and wrapped it with celophane. Then I wrapped the leather around the knife, wrapped a towel around it and clamped it tight around the knife. Today I come home and have mold. What did I do wrong?
 
I've used Ballistol on moldy slings to clean them up and soften them a bit. The mold didn't return. Saddle Soap ought to do the job too.

If you don't have any of these handy, try wiping it off with a rag moistened with whatever product you use on leather. It can't hurt, right?
 
I answered in your other thread Andy. By all rights I oughta move this thread over to the other forum as it is knife related, maybe later, I'm just too lazy at the moment.:rolleyes: ;)
 
aproy1101 said:
Why did it mold?
Click to expand...

Location: Atlanta Georgia

The spores are in the air. Wet leather is ideal for a happy home for mold. Sort of an instant New Orleans for the little critters.

It would have helped if you could have set it out in the sun as the radiation kills the moldies.

Lysol, mixed per directions, works - and for "athlete's foot" too.

Too soon for any real damage to have been done.
 
When wet forming a scabbard, how do you keep the clamps from marking the leather if you don't wrap something around it? I wiped it down with bleach and water. Didn't get it all off, but I figure it may have killed the bugs. You can't tell after staining. How do I keep it from happening? I've been thinking about it all night.

Oh, I finished the scabbard last PM and will post some pics soon. I think its a bit too long as not much of the handle sticks out of the top, but its nice and snug. I'll show pics of both my scabbards so far. First one riveted, and this one stitched.

Now I've got to get to work on my FF handle, then the scabbard. Also got two file knife blades ground. Got to handle those too. I'm very "hobby" busy and haven't done any woodworking for a while now.:( :(
 
quick answer - soaked it too long & didn't let it air-dry.


When wet forming leather for a knife, I put it under warm running tap water for about a minute (controlling where I get it wet). Then I put the knife in (the blade protected) and I starting press-fitting it by hand. This takes about 10 minutes of "walking" my fingers around the sheath and pressing everything down. Sometimes, I'll use a heat gun on low to help dry out the sheath. When the leather starts to return to its pre-wetforming natural color, then it's ok to set it down and let it dry. I let it dry fully before doing any more work on it. I also keep checking it every 10-20 minutes by putting the knife back in, pressing around it some more with my fingers and then pulling the knife back out. I usually do this 5-10 more times before it's dry enough to leave alone.


If you want the sheath to fit a little tighter, rinse it in hot water (instead of warm) for a minute or so, then dry it rapidly (hair dryer works good too). This will cause the leather to not only shrink very slightly, but also harden a bit. But if you then add mink oil (or similar) you will lose that hardening.

So, what I do - and this is not for everybody - is heat up a 2:1 mixture of paraffin wax and mink oil and pour it inside the sheath a few times after it's "hardened". The first time you see this you will freak out because it makes the sheath "splotchy". But the mink oil will eventually "spread out" and saturate itself evenly throughout, so don't worry about it. Just make sure there's enough there. Fill up the sheath, then dump it out - several times.

I also sometimes coat the outside with this same mixture.

This does two things: 1 - hardens the sheath like a rock and 2 - seals the leather with wax so that it won't rust the blade.

The mink oil provides a rich brown color and softens the leather. The wax then hardens it. Make sense?

If you have an unevenness or wax buildup after 8 hours, just hit it with the blow dryer (or heat gun) gently and it will smooth out.

Do NOT be tempted to stick your sheath in the oven or the microwave. Bad results will happen! FAST!



Yes, I should do a tutorial just on this finishing process....but who's got the time? :rolleyes:
 
So you sew up the scabbard before wet forming it?

My process for last nights scabbard (for a JKM) was:
1. Wet forming
2. Trimming
3. Gluing
4. Laying out holes to be drilled (using tools you recommended last week)
5. Drilling
6. Stitching
7. Staining
8. Sealing edge
 
OK here is the scabbard in question, and also my other attempt at scabbarding (What's the proper term here?). Next I'm on to my FF scabbard that is still in the drawing stages. Thanks to the leatherworkers here for their support.







 
aproy1101 said:
So you sew up the scabbard before wet forming it?

My process for last nights scabbard (for a JKM) was:
1. Wet forming
2. Trimming
3. Gluing
4. Laying out holes to be drilled (using tools you recommended last week)
5. Drilling
6. Stitching
7. Staining
8. Sealing edge
Click to expand...


Depends on who you ask.


My personal method for a similar sheath would go like this:

1 - make a paper "model" - check for fit, etc.
2 - cut out leather, welt
3 - glue-up
4 - clean-up edges
5 - groove, drill holes, stitch
6 - wetform, let dry
7 - apply finish to outside
8 - mink oil/wax on inside


I do it this way because after making the paper model, I know that it's going to fit - no need to test it early on. This process works for pouch and pancake style sheaths (I do more of the latter).



Both of those sheaths look good to me! :thumbup:
 
They both look alright to me as well Andy.:thumbup:
Just remember that a scabbard is a hard apparatus that holds an edged tool or weapon, generally with wood or metal involved in its construction and is puncture proof.
A sheath is made from a soft material such as leather and is not puncture proof.:rolleyes: ;) :D

Lots of folks these days use the terms interchangeabley but the old die hard officiandoes prefer a more accurate designation.:rolleyes: ;) :D

IIRC you're allowed to jump from an airplane with a scabbard with multipoint restraints for the piece enclosed but I don't think you're allowed to jump with a sheath, except the kind that teen age boys used to carry around in their wallets, maybe still do.;) :o :D
 
Yo bro,
I am with Dan...Both of those sheaths look just fine...If they work for what ya want, then it is all good..:D

I make gunholster's and belts 99% of the time NOT KNIFE SHEATHS so this may be a little bassackwards but here goes...

The way you keep from marking the leather is this...

ONE...cut your fingernails:D

TWO...Wet form AFTER you get it glued and stitched...

Here is one trick that might help...(I use this with belt holster's when a high degree of fit is required...And since I dont charge much I need to crank them out

you will need...

2 pieces of foam

2 peices of wallboard or pressboard

Glue

A piece of belt thickness material for the belt loop (if ya need a piece let me know)

A nice soft old pillow

A really kewl horror movie:p

A beer

A sandwhich or Burrito

A very fat friend:eek: (I am the fat friend so I use a pressbrake for this:D )

Here goes:

Cut the wood and foam to match each other and glue together (2x2) (blatantly ripped off the foam and board idea from Dans site...)

After the knife sheath is ready to be fitted, ya wanna get it wet like Dan described

Place belt material where it goes

Set one piece of foam/board on a towel on the floor in front of the tv

Put wrapped knife in wetted sheath and place on foam

put other peice of foam/board on top

Put old pillow on top of this (think sandwhich)

Put fat friend on top of pillow

Hand fat friend sandwhich and beer (so he doesnt move!):D

Let him set there for a few mintues more like 30 but ya feel me

Viola you have a fitted sheath without marking the leather and ya didnt have to worry about missing wrestling

Now you can seal it however ya want and after it sets for a while ya got a sheath that will last
 
Since I intend to make knives I can say those look great :thumbup: I'm more of a kydex guy,but I don't mind leather.

One thing you might want to try:make an inner liner of kydex,this will make the thing very safe for carry,also you can rivet the thing together instead.

*edit*
Oh-yea I forget...kydex makers have a press to "form" the stuff...no reason you couldn't use it to form leather too.
 
How did people learn this stuff before internet forums. I thank the Higher-Ups, and I don't mean my wife this time, for this place and all the wisdom here. I guess you'd have to have gotten it from your dad, or grandad, or from a tradesman before, but it would have been much more of a headache. Thanks guys. I'll start making paper models more often. I'm doing so with the FF scabbard.
 
ya learned it by asking and talking on the phone I guess...:D

Krull, my wood/foam fat friend thing will work just fine for kydex as well (takes alot less time than leather does)...Those forming presses are sweet...knifekits.com sells them IIRC....mine is the cheapskate way of doing it and it works just fine:thumbup:
 
on the bigger knives/khukuris you might need to go to cardboard (rather than paper).


Unless you're an expert leatherworker, have low sheath-fit standards, or just pretty dang lucky...you'll end up actually saving time by making a paper mock-up first.
 
Leatherface said:
ya learned it by asking and talking on the phone I guess...:D

Krull, my wood/foam fat friend thing will work just fine for kydex as well (takes alot less time than leather does)...Those forming presses are sweet...knifekits.com sells them IIRC....mine is the cheapskate way of doing it and it works just fine:thumbup:
Click to expand...

Mm-hm I've seen the homemade presses like you've got...well I ain't seen one employing a 300-pound friend-yet! :D

But I'm one of those nutty persons who'll sink a few hundred bucks into getting the right piece of kit....and then find a bunch of "other" uses for it! ;)
 
aproy1101 said:
How did people learn this stuff before internet forums....
I'll start making paper models more often. I'm doing so with the FF scabbard.
Click to expand...

I took leather shop in Jr. High:D Tandy has several books by Al Stohlman that are full of great tips.
My favorite material for paper patterns are old file folders. Just stiff enough to trace around, and flexible enough to bend around things.
 
excellent suggestion, Brian. I bet old cereal boxes would work too. :thumbup:
 
If I guess and cut a little short on a pattern, I just tape on a piece and re cut until it's right. And be sure to mark which side is the grain side and which is the flesh side. Nothing like cutting out a big piece of leather, and discovering you just made a left-handed model. (Or a right-handed one, as the case may be:D )
 
Those are great suggestions. I happen to have posterboard (my daughter (3)loves the stuff) around, but file folders are around too, so I don't have to raid her stash now. For this FF sheath I'm defininitely making a pattern, and testing it first. That's a lot of leather to mess up.
 
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