Sheath Drilling and Stitching

C

Chuddy Bear

Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
973
I have noticed that there are several guys here who make their own sheaths, I have sent out a few pm's to try to help guys out with how to get the back side stitches to come out better. I thought I would post it here. I have no where near the experience of some of the other sheath makers, but I think I have learned a lot and if this can help some of you out, thats great. If anyone has a better way to do it please post here. If there is interest in this subject, I would be glad to take and post some more pics.

Getting nice and even stitches on the back side of your sheath requires that the sheath have sides that are pretty close to perpendicular to start, so you need to be careful when sanding the sides so as to not get them out of whack. Next you will need some type of drill press, I tried this with a hand held drill and it is almost impossible to keep the holes straight.

Getting ready to drill, first make your groove for the stitches on the front of the sheath. Next mark your stitch holes. Make a template out of some type of flat wood so the sheath sits level and even, now set the drill press so that the bit comes to about 1/16 from the top of your piece of wood, you want the bit to go to the back of the sheath and make a little reverse dimple without popping through. Drill the marked holes on the front side with a drill press, or dremmel press (39.00 at Sears). Check the back side every third or fourth hole take make sure everything is ok.

When you finish drilling get your groover out and make a groove over the little dimples on back which will open the holes. As long as the sides of your sheath are both at 90% and you had a flat even piece of wood for it to sit on. Your back side stitches should be pretty nice and even.

If you have any attachments on the back of your sheath make a cut out in your piece of wood for the attachment to sit in, you must make sure your sheath is level or the holes will be screwed up.

Stitch the sheath and then go back over your stitches with an overstitcher, this kind of rounds the stitches off and makes them look nicer.

A couple pics. :D

Front side
fbms015.jpg

Back side
fbms014.jpg

Finished
fbms004.jpg
 
Don't make em... but nice of you to help out all that do.

Awesome sheaths!!!
 
Ken44 said:
Don't make em... but nice of you to help out all that do.

Awesome sheaths!!!
Click to expand...

I ruined a lot of expensive leather pissing around trying to figure it all out, if I can save someone else the trouble, I am glad to do it.
 
It is a stitch marker that is kind of rounded between the markers, it can be used to mark your stitching holes and to go over the stitches once they are done. I know some guys use a fabric stitch marker to mark their holes and they are not rounded off between the prongs and they might damage your stitches.

overstitch.jpg
 
Great tip!:thumbup: When I start building up my collection I can get more instead of spending it on leather!!:D :p
 
Thanks Chuddy, nice tips... your holes on these pics are really neat. Excellent work in my opinion, keep it up :thumbup:
 
I only know enough to know that I dont know, gotta leave this to the professionals. I am intrigued with the whole process though and wish I had the skills to make my own leather goods.
The right sheath enhances the joy of owning a good knife.

Would like to see some occasional photos of this process if you have the time. Thanks.
 
Yeah. I was a happy amateur holster-maker once I figgered out using my drill press instead of an awl or punch. OOOF!

I use a piece of wood as a sacrificial backer when drilling out. Leaves less tear-out on the back side of the leather.

Lots of sore fingers and snapped lace/thread/whatever before that. And needles with torn-out eyes. I bust a needle a project, on average. :O

If I could only cut perpendicular to the leather in a straight line, I might be a better leathersmith.
 
Thanks for posting this. I'm in the middle of making a sheath (my first) for my HHFSH. I didn't know that I could use my overstitch tool on top of the stitches as well as for marking.

It's the dying I'm having trouble with. Trying to get a very deep green, but it seems to turn purple-ish on my leather with anything but a light application!

Cheers,
Rick.
 
Take some pieces of scrap leather and practice dying them. Run a little experiment where you do one dry piece, one wet piece and one piece that you soak for a couple of minutes and then dye it while its still really wet, like as soon as you take it out of the water, some of the colors are really tricky to get right especially when you do a large piece. Also try putting the dye on with an old t-shirt or some other soft cloth rather than the wool dauber. The dauber tends to get too much dye on the leather at one time. I would guess you are putting way too much dye on dry leather. You might have to put several coats on the wet leather to get the right color ie.. let it dry for a while and then get it wet again and put another coat on etc. Black is the easiest color to get right the first time.

Let me know how it goes.
 
Nice work Chuddy Bear, I do most everything the same as you except that I sharpen the shank of the drill bit and plunge it thru while running.I found that this method is much cleaner than drilling and burnishes the hole as it goes thru. Just my $.02. Again your doing some nice sheaths. Dave:)
 
I must say, that stitching looks first rate to me. I was taught to punch the holes instead to prevent removing the stock and in turn have tighter stitches but that may have been just one guys opinion. I have not drilled them but may try it. Your sheaths look really nice.
No knocking of a pro's work (cause obviously its just that, pro quality work)but guys, there is something very rewarding about making your own sheaths. A little research and a few basic tools and you will have some nice leather goods to show, and the pride of having made them yourselves. Intricate detailing like fancy tooling takes a lot more skill and practice but you can make a pretty fair basic sheath with minimal effort. Give er a try.
Thanks for a great thread!!!
 
Dialton, I have used and still use the stitching awl on certain projects and I really like the look of properly done stitches done that way. I think it is much more difficult to get even half way decent looking holes with the stitching awl as compared to the ralative ease of the drill press especially when we are talking about knive sheaths that are almost 1 inch thick. The awl will take much more practice to get right than the press set up.

I am not sure if one way is better than the other. A regular drill bit will remove leather and leave a nice clean hole. A drill bit that has the point sharpened will kind of punch and burnish its way through the leather. I have heard of guys that sharpen the points on nails and run them in their drill press. And finally the stitching awl makes a cut into the leather but does not remove any.

If properly sewed together with good quality thread, I would think that they should all hold up very well for a loooong time.
 
You can get sheets of sheepskin for large projects and lighter-colored dye. I haven't tried it myself, but a friend is a holstemaker and says that's what you have to do to get an even color on a large piece.

I've never had a problem with streaking black. And for the small-ish home-made projects, I like my medium-brown to be a bit streaky.
 
Hey Chuddy Bear,

Thanks for posting on this topic.

I am a complete novice. I have only stitched with an ez-awl before. I hope you don't mind a couple of questions.

I read your post about 5 times now. When first reading it, I assumed that you were using a small drill bit, and actually drilling. Based on later posts, it sounds like you may be just using the drill press for the motion, and have an awl needle in the chuck? I am confused on that.

Second question: You mentioned having the sides of your sheath parallel. How you deal with a fold over belt loop? When they tuck in, they usually cause the sheath to taper, before the sides become parallel. Does this give you problems, or what do you do in that situation?

Thanks for taking time to post this.
 
briangandrews said:
Hey Chuddy Bear,

Thanks for posting on this topic.

I am a complete novice. I have only stitched with an ez-awl before. I hope you don't mind a couple of questions.

I read your post about 5 times now. When first reading it, I assumed that you were using a small drill bit, and actually drilling. Based on later posts, it sounds like you may be just using the drill press for the motion, and have an awl needle in the chuck? I am confused on that.

I use a drill press and a drill bit. I just pictured in my mind chucking a stitching awl blade, me thinks that would be very interesting in a bad way.

Second question: You mentioned having the sides of your sheath parallel. How you deal with a fold over belt loop? When they tuck in, they usually cause the sheath to taper, before the sides become parallel. Does this give you problems, or what do you do in that situation?

By sides I mean the sides of the sheath not the front and back side. Most of my sheaths do not come out parallel as in front side parallel to back side, for the reason you mention along with the welt throws it out of whack.
As long as the back of the sheath is laying flat and even when you drill and your sides are at 90%, your holes that come out the back should look good. If you are still unsure of what I mean let me know.

Thanks for taking time to post this.
Click to expand...

I am off tomorrow, I will try to put up some pictures of the process.
 
Hey Chuddy,

another from me!


RE: the welt....


I've seen many different ways this is done...

So, do you

a) cut to the shape of the sheath and then simply fit in

b) cut a straight strip of leather and wet mold it to the curve of the sheath

or

c) cut a straight strip, and cut little 'V' shapes into the leather where the curves are, so that you can shape the leather and then fit that way?


Cheers,


Alex
 
The most economical by far is to cut straight strips and bend them to fit the sheath body. No wet molding is needed, leather will take the shape with a little over bending.

A note on welts, make them at least as thick as the spine of the knife. 1/4" thick knife = 1/4" thick welt. Welts made too thin will cause that funky bump in the sheath and cause undue rubbing on the coating/steel. I have several weights of leather cut so I can stack them to be just the right thickness. 3/8" is the minimum width I use for welts, it gives some room for sanding.

Welts are the next installment on my Guide, I just need to get back to it. :o
 
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