Sheath WIP - FINISHED!!

P. McKinley

P. McKinley

Joined
Jan 27, 2008
Messages
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I'm currently making a sheath for a fairly large chopper I just finished. I thought I'd put up a WIP sequence showing how I do it in the hopes that it will generate hints, tips and nuggets of wisdom from some of the more accomplished leather workers in this community and become a learning tool for all involved.

So, here's yesterday's progress:
I have already done one of my more time-consuming steps.... the layout work with pencil and paper. I spend hours doing this. Its the process where I can envision all the little design nuances and technical steps of assembly. I try to get it right here so I don't have to screw around during the build.

These are all the pieces and parts needed for the basic assembly. I have here:
- a piece of Wickett & Craig 6/7 oz veg tanned leather
- my hand drawn template
- a chunk of Red Maple "onion" burl
- a couple of gouges
- a good straight edge and an Exact-o-Knife with a few extra blades
- more hand tools will come into play later in the process


Using the straight edge and a very steady hand, I cut out the various parts from the basic cardboard template then proceeded to trace the outlines onto the leather


I'll cut out the leather pieces later. Right now I want to get the inlay started. The outline is first traced onto the block. Then I use a brand new, sharp razor blade in my utility knife to cut a "stop cut" along the outline. Finally, it is cut out on the scroll saw.



The lines are cleaned up on the belt grinder:


The piece of approx. 1/2" thick so I have enough material to work with to get a nicely raised-surface inlay.


Now the work starts! Using my dremmel, I begin to "route" out the edges.


Continuing with the dremmel. I find that I can hold it down against the table and move the work piece under the spinning bit.... much like a real table router. I'm just about done with the rough shaping of this piece. I'll fine tune the edge with files and a sanding block to get a perfectly flat, smooth stitching surface.


I want the stitching lip to be THIN. I don't want a bulky hunk of wood restricting the movement of the blade in the sheath.


I removed most of whats needed with my 4"x36" belt grinder, then I finish the job with sand paper and smooth granite block.


The finished inlay ready for Tung oil and polishing:


Did I say I wanted this to be thin? There's still enough meat there to make an underside stitching groove without compromising the strength or integrity of the inlay piece.


It fits!! Yeahhhh!!


While the first coat of Tung oil dries on the inlay, I need to make the welt thicker to accommodate the blade. I'm gluing a piece of split to both sides of the welt. That will do just fine.


On to the belt harness(that will later be changed a bit). I punched and cut out the loop slits:


Now I need to make three brass D-rings. The 1/8" pin is marked and the ends bent:


A production line!


The piece is hammer-bent over a steel rod:


The ends are fine tuned on the belt sander so they meet up just "so".


They get cleaned up a bit.


One down:


Done!!


Now its on to the copper tip piece thingy(the technical term). I have forged out a plate of solid copper that I am now cleaning up on the belt grinder to make it flat and smooth.


Using the original cardboard template, I traced, then cut out the copper piece with a hack saw then cleaned it up on the belt grinder. Now I'm filing it to the near-final shape:


Finally for the day, I cut off two coins from a wrought iron chain link. Here, I have finished rough-shaping the first of two decorative "stars" for the sheath face. These will get holes drilled, beveled edges and a good polishing before being etched in ferric chloride and then final polished.


That's all for today. Stay tuned......

-Peter
 
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Thanks for posting up pictures of your progress. I'm thinking about starting to make a sheath and I like to see what tools/process everybody uses
 
Great work...can't wait to see the rest.
nice job on the copper tip piece thingy...
 
I only had a few hours today, but I've made a bit of progress and a few alterations.

Yesterday's last job was to make two wrought iron "stars". Today I finished them. I used a dremmel with sanding drums to shape the pieces. Then they were polished, etched, and final polished. Stitching holes were drilled in the larger of the two and a single 1/8" pin hole for the smaller. I also modified a brass Sam stud(a studded version, not the one with a screw) and affixed it to the star with JB Weld. The smaller star will be peened onto the leather.



The two stars have been attached to the leather pieces. This photo also shows the first of two modifications. I originally had drawn out a larger mid-section strap, but it bugged me all last night.... it was too large. So I cut out a thinner version and I much happier now.
Poor photo.... sorry.
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This is the underside of the smaller strap with the peened brass pin. This needs to be covered to protect the wood inlay that will be beneath it.
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/dsc0562c.jpg/]

SO.... I cut a small piece of scrap leather split and glued it over the pin.


This 'll work.


The other big modification is to the belt harness. I had wanted to create three points of connection for a shoulder strap, but I just couldn't make my initial design work.... for various reasons. So I scrapped the three-D-ring concept and opted for a single larger D-ring that will allow a tip-down shoulder carry option. I want the d-ring to be hidden and not get in the way when the sheath is worn on a belt.


The inlay piece has been given 6-7 coats of Tung oil and buffed to a high polish. This needs to be finished completely before it gets stitched into the sheath body. Now, I am sanding off the surface oil from the stitching lip so that contact cement will adhere.


The inlay has been glued into the leather face. I'm drilling the stitch holes with a 1/16" bit. I'd like a thinner drill bit, but that's what I have so....


After the holes are drilled I can cut in the stitching groove.


I love my high-tech stitching horse! :p


I worked too damn hard on this inlay to have it marred during this process. Protection is good.


Look good to me.


Nice and snug. No gaps, and a good straight stitch line.


I'm roughing up a thin strip where the lining will be glued and stitched to both faces of the sheath.


I've cut two pieces of old leather jacket to serve as lining. They get a good cleaning before stitching.


The lining(s) gets a strip of glue. I do this very carefully so no glue is seen on the finished piece. I use a piece of scrap cardboard(old JB weld from the wrought iron star/stud assembly) to make the clean line.


A grove is cut into both top and bottom pieces for stitching the lining. Holes are imprinted and marked with a ink dot(I have bad eyes).


Drilling the stitch holes with an old, sharpened needle.......


....then stitched in place.


These look fine. I cut away the excess and they are ready for folding and gluing.


Linings are all glued and stitched.


And carefully trimmed.


Now, the welt is glued in place.


The sheath has been glued together..


A few passes on the belt grinder cleans up the edges a bit.


The edges will be further cleaned up.... A LOT!!


That's it for today. Hopefully I can get this finished up tomorrow.

Thanks for watching.

Peter
 
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Today I had enough time to finish this piece.

Here's the final steps:

With the edges of the sheath body cleaned up a bit, I need to get the front pieces added on. This is a piece of split, dyed on the top edge, that will go under the large badge at the top of the sheath.


Because the inlay stands proud of the leather face, I need to raise this piece up to meet flush with the inlay and the lining roll.


With the piece glued down, I'm lightly roughing up the edges that will be glued.


I'm doing the same to the back side where the belt harness will be attached.


The belt harness and front piece now glued down.


The stitching grove is cut on the front face and then marked for holes.


I take my time doing this to get the stitch holes straight and clean.


With the stitch holes done, its time to position the smaller band and get it ready to sew it all together. Yes, I know its cock-eyed... its not done yet!!


Now, finally, its time to finish the copper tip piece thingy. I get the position right, then mark for stitching groove and holes.


Final shaping on the grinder.


Stitch holes are center punched and drilled.


The edges of the copper piece are rounded of and then its polished to 800 grit. Then, back into my stitching horse to get this thing sewn up.


After stitching, I clean up the edges.


The edges are sanded to 320 grit the coated with gum trag. I'll then burnish the edges to get them perfectly smooth.


Then, a coat of black edge coat.


Once the edges have dried they are burnished again to give them a nice polish. Then I rub in a coat of mink oil that will dry and be polished.


DONE!!
I did not show the making of the retention strap or the shoulder strap, but all the steps used in this process have been covered in previous steps. These are just a few quick shots in rather poor light of my shop. I'll take some better photos tomorrow. Oddly, looking at these photos I think the retention strap is just a bit to long. I'll trim it down a bit tomorrow before final photos are taken.







Well, there ya go. That's how I make a sheath... not all my sheaths, just the special ones. Please add in your comments and critiques. I'd love to get some input on how I can do a better job.

Thanks for watching.

Peter
 
Whew - that is the LONG way for sure - meaning - a TON of steps to get that done.

Can I ask these:

1) Why the unfinished leather at the tip?
2) Why the unfinidhed wood at the tip?
3) Why the edge coat - and not just dyed and Gum Trag'd?

Thanks - it looks cool!

TF
 
TF - I'm not quite sure what you are referring to with #1 and #2. There is no unfinished leather or wood on this sheath.... that I'm aware of.

The edge coat - Usually I make sheaths with polished, natural(not dyed), edges. Because I used a black liner for this sheath, some of the black got into the leather when I sanded the edges and made it look dirty. I was going to leave them natural, but it looked horrid so I painted them black.... just a choice I made.

Thank you.

Peter
 
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Nice step by step! Well done!

Just my observations for Talfuchre, the piece on the tip that looks like unfinished leather is a brass tip "thingy" :)

As far as the wood inlay, it looks for all like the tip of the wood is unfinished as its much lighter than the rest of the piece. This has the illusion of being simply sanded.

I hope I'm right here, just by looking at the pics isn't easy. :)

I do like your style Peter, you have found your niche for sure.
 
Here's some better photos and some specs.

Alloyed Force

Sheath: Fully leather-lined Wickett and Craig 6-7 oz. veg tan leather with an onion burl inlay, wrought iron and brass "stars", and a copper "sheath tip thingy". The belt harness on the back side has a 4-position carry option with a brass ring for attaching the vertical carry shoulder strap. The shoulder strap is fitted with onion burl pieces from the same block used in the handle
Stand: A really nice piece of "real" Red Maple burl with my "PM" makers mark stamped into a copper star on the base.

And, some photos:













Thanks for looking,

Peter
 
This last round of pics answered it all for me. The shine in the first pics look like leather at the base - and the bottom of the wooden insert - looked like they were left natural. Now I can see, as Leatherman mentioned - it is BRASS that I am seeing.

Nice sheath!

TF
 
Oh yea! I went back to look and yep! Copper! :p Duh, I blame the cement fumes. Iz kant reed tew gud.
 
"I love the smell of cement fumes in the morning"...... or something like that. I can't remember anymore. :p
 
Very nice WIP, Peter! I really like how that turned out.

One note - to avoid the "some of the black got into the leather when I sanded the edges and made it look dirty"-issue, you could skive back the liner a bit, and just use a slightly thicker piece of lether for the welt. I've also found that I gert a better bond that way - the lining leather tends to be more pliable and moves and rolls when I finish sand it.

Overall a GREAT package! Excellent work!
 
Ted - Thanks for the compliment.

Your comment about the lining answers a long-held question. I'm well aware of the pliability of the lining and that's bothered me. I've wondered about how to remedy that issue and I think you've have given me the/an answer. So, I would just skive off a fraction along the edges?

Thank you!

Peter
 
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