Slip sheath

[Gary W. Graley]

Here's a short tutorial on this slip sheath, sorry didn't have photos of in process, but wasn't a lot to take anyways

Well my ankle is allowing me to be a little more mobile the past few days, I have a few sheaths to catch up on but wasn't quite up to starting in on those, but, took a smaller project to provide protection for my Swiss Army Apocalypse Rancher, a soft leather slip sheath, it will prevent pocket 'stuff' from dinging it up as well as keeping the dust bunnies out too. Along next to it is a very old slip sheath that is showing some vintage leather colour and feel from years of pocket carry for my SAK Executive, both knives will ride together in my right front pocket...from now on until?

Making these I wrap the leather around the knife, pulling the leather tightly as they usually have some stretch to them. Pressing down around the leather once you have it pulled tight, opening the leather up you'll see where it's made an impression in the leather, this will provide you some guide lines as to where the edges of your sheath will be. I take a pencil and draw a line just, barely just, towards the knife side of the impression. I also will slice down the sides, holding it down with a small ruler, so you know where the two edges should meet.
Down at the bottom you'll see it drop off because the knife's spine, just continue the line across the bottom of the sheath, you'll end up with a great big U shape. Apply your contact cement along the outside edges of the sheath, along that pencil line. Like other sheaths when you are making them, don't be stingy with the leather, I allow about 1/4" to 3/8" wide of an area to glue down, this will provide a more solid surface to sew.

After the glue's set and dried, carefully fold the leather over, DO NOT put the knife in there, that will come later after it's sewn up. You should be able to just match up the edges of the leather and press down along the leather, just using your fingers or you can set it under a book and then put a weight on it to make sure it's good and solid.

I put the knife in the opening just enough so I can see where I would want the thread line to be, and then I'll lightly mark that with a pencil just a smidgen more towards the knife side, I can see some of you guys/gals are already understanding why I keep edging closer towards the knife, don't spoil it for the others just yet so keep it to your self

Then I'll take my 4 prong stitching tool and go down and make holes through the leather, evenly spacing the holes. When I near the bottom, I'll switch to a two prong stitching fork and work my way around the corner.

The tricky thing about hand sewing soft leather like deer skin or elk skin is it's just too supple and wants to accordion up on you if you pull your knots too tight, so just sew it gently, letting the knot back into the hole but don't yank it tight, it'll be enough. I start at the top and sew down to the bottom and then back stitch 4 holes back over the stitches. On normal sheaths where the leather is thicker, I just back stitch two holes but with the thin leather I feel better going back 4. Then snip off the excess thread on both sides.

OK, so now it's stitched up, I'll lay a ruler down along side the thread line and carefully slice off the excess leather, around the bottom you can slice straight lines and work around to get it round, seems easier than just trying to cut a curve line for some reason.

OK, finally, you can insert the knife, I usually have the blade side towards the stitching and the spine along the back of the sheath, just cleaner looking I think. And now you'll see why I kept saying edge your lines closer towards the knife, you want it to be SNUG as the leather will give over time as it seats it self into it's new home, but if you didn't keep things tight to begin with, you'll end up with too loose a sheath that won't help you keep the knife inside it. I don't make these for folks as you need the knife to make it and shipping knives around for something simple like that isn't too cost effective. But I wanted to pass along how I do these in case you have a leather guy near by or you can give it a try yourself.

I angled the leather as you can see here at the opening of the sheath it closes up when in the pocket, sometimes I'll have the back side of the opening longer to fold down over the sheath, but not always.

It's a handy way to protect your knife, plus prevent it from sliding out of your pocket into that nasty old couch/car seat...

G2

 

[harronek]

How thick is the leather Gary ?
Is that green Alox really that nice , or have you done some Photoshop voodoo .
If that knife looks as good as that in real life then I'm seriously tempted .


Ken

 

[Gary W. Graley]

It does look that good, very impressive, that was just a quick snap shot at our kitchen table next to my laptop

Thickness not sure will update tomorrow
G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

The leather on that particular sheath is about 2mm thick, so it has some comfy built into it. Maybe you guys there can get Roo that is soft like that too?
G2

 

[harronek]

To tell you the truth Gary I'm not a great fan of the pocket sheath .
My only real experience with them has been recently with one I that came with my Le Thier .
I fully understand the protection they offer , but I quickly got annoyed with having to extract the knife from the pocket , then extract the knife from the sheath , then find a safe place for the sheath so that it doesn't get lost or misplaced . Then go through the whole ordeal in reverse when putting the knife away .
The simplicity of a belt sheath wins every time in my world
I have about zero confidence in belt clips after a recent incident . I traditional pocket carry sometimes but not with anything real enthusiasm .
Belt carry just ticks all the boxes for me .

I'm still in awe of the colour of that SAK .

Ken

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Yep, I agree, my Compagnon also I feel is just a bit too big for slip sheath, but the ones that come with the knife, doesn't really 'hold' it tightly like these softer ones do, so they'd probably really tick you off as it's like getting toothpaste out and back in again, but, for me, the other knife I carried I didn't wrap it up and it was always full of dust bunnies after a very short while, maybe I need to try different pants? but for this green beauty, it's to help keep gunk from getting in but also to help keeping the scales as pretty as they are now, that's my intent for a while at least, she is striking!

G2

 

[darkmatter35]

Thanks Gary,
I'm making one now for my wife's Kershaw 3000. She likes to throw it in her purse, the slip sheath will be perfect.
John S.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks John, I have a black Alox Victorinox Cadet due in soon, I'll take some photos of what I was trying to explain above to help fill out this tutorial.
G2

 

[Techno]

Thanks for the tutorial! Love the green on that knife

 

[Gary W. Graley]

double post, there was trouble getting it to take...ugh...
G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

You're welcome and yes, that green is super nice! Just got my Black Alox Cadet in tonight, wow, I wish I knew about this one sooner, very cool, while I would probably rather have a small coping blade instead of a fingernail cleaner/file, it'll do just fine...very sleek thin folder, while I would most likely carry this in just my watch pocket, I made a slip sheath for this thread, pardon the images, still recuperating from my busted ankle and not the most mobile person yet.

Here you can see the impression the knife left on the inside of the leather, now the outer edges could be a little wider, but I found this small piece and saw it would JUST work for this knife so I used it, otherwise I'd have a bit more room to the outside of the threads.

marked the inside edge with a pencil and put some weldwood contact cement along the edges;

I do not use a bone folder on this, as it's very soft leather, so just pressing by fingers, you can also set under a book and put a weight on top but usually not necessary to go to that extent. Here is where I insert the knife part way, I don't want to push too hard, don't want to separate the glued pieces, and lightly mark where the threads will go.

using a mallet and a 4 prong stitching tool to put holes spaced down along that line

around the bottom I switch to a two prong one I made from an old 4 prong tool, makes it easier to go around the corner

I use an Awl n Awl for sewing, always have, probably always will. See more info in the tutorials at the top of this forum on how I sew, basically one thread on one side, one on the other, poke it through, pull back to make a loop, put the thread through the loop and pull back down into the leather

Ending up with as clean a looking set of stitches as you can, on the back side you will probably see the loop, not to worry, it happens and most likely will

I'll start from the opening down to the bottom and back stitch several holes to lock the stitching in, once it's stitched up, use a straight edge and a sharp knife, just happened to have Tina on hand to help, clean cutter she be too, thanks again Ken!

Here's three that I have right now, the bottom one is for the SAK Executive and has seen a lot of travel, the top is for the Green one and you can see the outer edges of the leather are starting to roll with use, it'll become curled up along side in time and the middle is the one just made for the Cadet.

That's it folks, again these are made to be quite tight, for a couple reasons, mainly to protect the knife from hits and dirt and also it will help keep the knife in your pocket as the leather will grab a bit and not slide out as easily as just the knife might.

Hope that helps,
G2