sheath finishing

H

hobbitling

Joined
Aug 16, 2013
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I'm thinking of making a sheath for a Scandinavian style knife. It will be a traditional friction fit puukko sheath.

My question is about the mouth of the sheath, and how to give it that smooth, rounded edge I see when I google "Puukko sheath", instead of just a raw, fuzzy cut leather edge. Do they fold the edge and sew a hem? or is there some secret to making the edge look smooth?
 
There is a "sheaths and such" sub-forum on this site with lots of great information. If you are referring to the smooth finished edge of the mouth of the sheath it is just burnished. Basically, you use a tool called an edger to knock the square edges off the rough cut edge. The edge will then have three facets, the center edge and two 45˚ angled facets on each side. Then the stretch of leather at the mouth edge (or that will become that edge when stitched closed) is coated with a gel called Gum Tragacanth. You can probably use other things as well. Then the edge is burnished by rubbing briskly with a smooth tool like a piece of antler or a wooden disc or dowel with an appropriately sized rounded groove in it. The heat and pressure generated by the rubbing will compact, smooth and round the edge.
 
Yep, I use a piece of polished bone, and saddle soap when burnishing edges on my sheaths. It helps if the edge in question has been finished on the belt grinder to 400 grit or so, or if no grinder, if a sharp edge beveler has been used to prepare the edge.
 
Your better edgers will cut more of a rounded edge and not so much of a 45. But they are spendy, look at Barry King or Bob Douglas edgers. Darn near the best. This rounded edge makes finishing it easier too. If you have two or more layers of leather coming together always sand first as Salem suggested. If you can't find gum you can use beeswax, paraffin or even saliva. You can also rub with a piece of denim or canvas and produce a great edge. One of the secrets to making it long lasting is to put several coats of a leather finish on the edge after burnishing. I use Fiebings Bag Kote. Go with the grain. Definitely look at the Sheaths and Such section here on BF. Lots of good info there and plenty of help too.
 
I like to leave at least 3/16" from stitches to finished edge. Often it is a bit more, but on many sheaths I find it looks a bit neater to have the tooling close to the stitches, and the stitches fairly close to the edge.
 
The old "rule" was your stitching groove was suppose to be the same distance from the edge as your leather or layers of leather was thick. I break this rule more often than not. Like Salem said 3/16" is about right, sometimes about a 1/4" on thicker items cause I'll use a bigger edger. I've got a buddy that is a professional chap maker. It's what he does for a living. He tries to get his stitching as close to the edge as possible. Doesn't always work for me visually.
 
For this scandi sheath I used a how to book on scandi sheats (only available in Swedish and German as far as I know)
They showed that you can cut the leather thinner towards the top and fold it inwards. That way you only see grian side leather.
Do this after you've sewn the sheath and cut the top the way you want it to be. Use a small knife or scalpel and start app. 1/2" from the top
A scandi sheath is a lot harder to do than it seems.

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Well, I ended up burnishing it with a screwdriver handle and some Kiwi shoe polish. It worked surprisingly well. first I trimmed it carefully with a new x-acto blade to round it, then applied the shoe polish, then rubbed it like crazy with the grooved part of a screwdriver handle until it squeaked and looked shiny.

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rubbing shoe polish with fast movement and (very) light pressure with nylon (wives pantyhose etc.) after it dried gives it extra sheen.
Also works on shoes :)
 
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