Sheath forming tip

[george tichbourne]

I fell into a new method of forming oiled leather sheaths. A while back I purchased some heavily oiled and dyed leather intended for motorcycle saddlebags or possibly boots but have been unable to mold it like I can the vegetable tanned variety. Last night while stitching a sheath up I began to wonder if simply heating this stuff would do the trick so I threw a piece into the microwave for 45 seconds and when it came out it molded perfectly. Not being a coward I threw in the sheath that I had just finished stitching for 45 seconds, stuck the knife inside and molded the sheath to the knife as I do when water forming.

The finished sheath is just as nice as the water formed variety and doesn't need three days to dry. The next time I have a regular vegetable tanned sheath to form it will go into the microwave to see if the method works on vegetable tanned leather as well.


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george
www.tichbourneknives.com
sales@tichbourneknives.com

 

[totally tactical]

George you weren't using latigo leather were you? I've tried wet forming latigo but you would have better luck wetforming plywood. As to the microwave, my first sheath I ever made molded beautifully. It was made out of 12oz leather I purchased from Tandy (Vegetable tanned?). In order to mold I soaked it like crazy. Desparate to see the final product I thought a minute or so in the microwave on high would be just the thing to speed up the process. After a minute I opened up the microwave and there sat my still wet sheath that looked very similar to a leather raisin!!! Not sure if the same thing will happen to a dry piece.

Regards,

Hugh

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Scraped, burnt, sliced, smashed. AHHHH, knifemaking!!!!

 

[TJ Smith]

You might try acetone. I dip or use a3/4 inch round brushand paint the area I want to form.Wrap the knife in wax paper form when wet does pretty good.
Take Care
TJ

 

[richard rosvall]

Thanks for the tip, George. I've never had any luck forming anything except vegetable tanned leather. I'll give this a try for sure.

 

[Ron Peek]

George, be sure you try that microwave trick on a scrap piece of vegatable tanned leather before pitching in the freshly made sheath. I've tried it twice now; once with a wet sheath and once with a "dry" sheath. Both times I was just trying to speed up the drying time and both times I got the same, shriveled-up raisen mentioned in one of the other replies. I'll have to see someone succesfully use the method before I'll try it again.
Been there, done that and won't do it again!(Some of us learn more slowly than others, but we do learn!)
Ron

 

[george tichbourne]

Thanks for the warning Ron, I work too hard and stick my fingers too often stitching sheaths to risk that effort before testing.

The ability to form and ship a sheath the same day from predyed leather came in handy today, I had a knife ready but no sheath and the customer wanted it as soon as possible. I stitched and formed the sheath while watching TV last night and the knife went out today.

Next trip to the leather supply house I will get some brown to go along with the black that I have now.

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george
www.tichbourneknives.com
sales@tichbourneknives.com