Sheath s and rivots

H

hellgap

Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
1,189
I didnt want to just let one person know about the trouble im having so here goes. I had a guy I did a custom order of 2 guy hook skinners. I use rappid rivots to hold the belt loop attached to the sheath. What is and was happening is the rivots flat part on the inside of the sheath is curling up and scratching and damaging the wood on the handle of the knife. I will be hand stitching all belt loops on from now on. The customer said it only took 2 days of wearing the knife before the rivot started to fail. Whether the sheath was pulled on to cause this or what ever. Saddle stitching the loop will never damage the wood like what a flared rivot will. The tip of all my knives have a rivot as well as the very top. here are a few of my last sheaths .
HPIM1778.jpg
 
After you punch the hole for the rivet (before the sheath is sewn up), you can skive an area around the hole to make a depression in the leather for the rivet to reside on the inside of the sheath. Even this way, I'm not a fan of leaving exposed rivet heads in the sheath to potentially scratch up my blade or handle. For the few sheaths I've done using rivets for spring clips, I've lined the inside of the sheath with a very thin layer of leather. I suppose if the rivet is fairly far in the sheath and not visible, you could just contact cement a small and thin layer of leather or felt over the rivet.

--nathan
 
Nathan the rivots are visible and I will remove them all and hand sew them . I have thought about a rubber type glue but that seems mickeymouse. I should have countersunk the rivot better or just sew them from the start. It will be alot harder to sew them now but I do have some curved needles that should work for the tight spots.
 
I made a lot of cases for straight knives and even now one or two pouch type for folders. What I do is take a spade bit of the right size that will accept the flat part of the rivet and counter sink a hole. The hole size for the bodt of the rivet has already been punched. The spade bit will cut a flat hole. After the rivetting is complete I glue in over top a round circle of thin soft leather that I cut with a large punch of the right size. No scratches even on knives that have been used for many years. Frank.
 
One more thing you can do, besides what Silver Pilate said, is after skiving the sheath so the rivet or stud or whatever is recessed, you can make thin leather scraps by skiving scraps, take one of those thin scraps, and superglue a bandaid inside the sheath. That way, no metal is exposed at all. Just don't overdo it and you won't see it on outside.
Dan
 
Hand stitching..... hand stitching, hand stitching.

If you're going to use rivets put them in the spot where the stitching doubles back so they're not exposed.

Make a stitching/lacing pony for handstitching, get Al Stohlman's book on hand sewing leather (like $4USD) and practice. It's not very hard and I feel adds a lot to the finished package. Bruce Evans used to have some good tutorials on making your own leather tools.

A good way to practice leather techniques and not lose so much money is to make leather paperweights. I've been making and selling them with a variety of lacing, stitching and my feeble attempts at carving. Couple of bucks and it covers my materials but not my time (fair enough I reckon, not good enough to get paid for time yet :p )
 
I do a lot of antique style knives and sheaths to go with them. I like the rivets for a more old-time look they give it. The only rivets I use so far is the heavy copper rivets and I find that if I skive a little depression it resets the head quite nicely. I have not had any problems. Make sure to use good quality, strong rivets. Some rivets are just garbage.
 
R.C.Reichert said:
I do a lot of antique style knives and sheaths to go with them. I like the rivets for a more old-time look they give it. The only rivets I use so far is the heavy copper rivets and I find that if I skive a little depression it resets the head quite nicely. I have not had any problems. Make sure to use good quality, strong rivets. Some rivets are just garbage.
Click to expand...

This is good advise. You need to get harness makers rivets refered to alot as rivets and burrs the number 14 is what i like to use. lightly counter sink and you will not have a problem look here for what you need.http://www.leathersupply.com/downloads/catalog/Hardware/Fasteners.pdf scroll down to 6/9 or the bottom of catalog page 109.
 
Last edited:
Thanks everyone I will use most of what you all said if i decide to use rivots again. Will Leavitt ya ya I know and Ijust watched the video of chuck burrows . I sewed up and laced 30 sheaths in the past 2 weeks getting ready for a big rush. I went back and looked at 10 of the other knives I had made with rivots like that to hold the belt strap on and yup a small burr was sticking up. I will have to figure out how to make a counter sink or just skive a small patch hate to throw out 4 nice sheaths. But what is worse is to sell one and have the guy phone you and tell you its all scratched up on the handle. I find sewing easy[ saddle stitch only] and also do single and double loop lace stitching near in the dark . Thanks again for all the good advice.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top