Sheath make-ification

i've seen alot on here about the price of the leather, but nothing of the type. is chewed rawhide or saddle leather the best to use? i've never made a sheath that looked half decent before i'll spend 2 weeks on a stag bowie and 30mins on it's sheath. i'm wanting to do a high quality one soon but not to sure of the best way to go about doing it. thanks,
Sterling
 
It takes me hours to finish out a sheath across several days.

You've got to cut the pattern out, cut the welt, contact cement the welt to one side and let it set up, mark your hole spacings, punch holes through one side of the sheath and welt, fold the sheath over and contact cement it, let it set up, finish punching holes through the second sheath side, sew it up, run the overstitch wheel over the stitching, wet mold/fit the sheath to the knife, let it mostly dry, even up the edges, run the edger over all edges, and burnish them, deglaze the leather, dye it, let it dry, hand buff to remove excess die, apply gum tragacanth to the edges and re-burnish, oil it, and then hand buff it again.

That's a quick summary of the way I make sheaths, and I'm sure I've left something out even in that list. There are surely better ways to do things or different orders, but that's how I've learned. It's a lot of steps, and to make a quality leather sheath, you've got to take your time and do it right. My sheaths are still ameature at best, but they sure beat what I use to make. Here's one of my more recent sheaths:

IMG_0316.jpg


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Contrast my work to an expert's work. This is the sheath Paul Long made for the Bruce Bump auction knife:

PaulLong.jpg


Paul, I hope you don't mind me using this picture. I copied it from Bruce's forum. If so, just let me know and I'll take it down.

--nathan
 
No offense meant to Paul, but I actually much prefer your sheath out of those 2 pictures. I really like how clean and simple it is. I wouldn't be too down on yourself about being "ameature" you do quality work from the looks of things.
 
Wow. Thanks, Nelyous. I think it's probably the issue of design taste. If Paul and I both made a sheath of the same design, I guarantee you'd see the difference, especially in person. Thanks you very much for the compliment, though. I've always preferred simple and functional, and I try to do my best at what I do. Hopefully my best just keeps getting better. :D

--nathan
 
I'll add to the pile recommending the Chuck Burrows DVD. I believe it has advanced my skill set by years (I started with zero leather experience,) and I refer back to it frequently. The only problem is that a bunch of guys (myself included!) seem to be making the Chuck-Burrows-DVD-pouch sheath ;) Here's the last one I made, I think it was my sixth sheath, so not perfect but again would have taken me several years to get to this point without the DVD.

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