Small Axe holster

Gary W. Graley

Gary W. Graley

“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 2, 1999
Messages
27,364
NOW before anyone gets ANY ideas, I ain't taking orders for these, ever, as it's just not something I do, but, when it's family, what are ya gonna do? This was a request from my daughter's father in law, he said he keeps losing his axe when he's out felling trees, never had a holder for it he said, I was going to give him directions to either Amazon or Sears, but, he's a good guy and caught me at a good time.

Now the leather that is used in this is already treated and was given to me by my other daughter, her boss had a small bag of this, not sure where he got it from but it's like the leather used on Harley bags, pretty heavy and thick but plyable, but not formable so it's stuff I'd not ever use except in this circumstance, as I say, it all came together.

I was kinda at a loss to know where to start making something like this, one thing I do is use bubble wrap packing material, as it loosely resembles the leather thickness and you can slice and dice it and use that to help see if your idea will work, BEFORE you go slicing up any leather. So I took some bubble wrap and proceeded to try and come up with a holster for this axe. After getting about what I wanted I used that piece of plastic to lay on the leather, a TIP you will want to remember which side needs to be the good side up before you lay down the plastic or you will be cutting it for the opposite hand carry.

His requirement was that he wanted to carry it on his left side, so I made it with the edge towards the rear when worn on the left side, just seems nicer to me.

It took a couple weeks before I got up to doing it as it's a real pain to drag out the leather stuff, the wife HATES when I do that as I'm using up half her kitchen, I don't have any other room I can use, maybe in the next house we get I'll have a room I can call mine.

AND of course I DIDN'T want to actually do this, it's not my cup of tea as it were, if I'm making stuff out of leather, it's for folders, not axes, but again, the family thing gets ya now and then.

SO, how it was done, the bubble wrap gave me the top fold down for the flap as well as the wrap around the Hammer head portion. The tricky part was the rest for the hammer head side, there I took some leather and bent it into a C shape and luckily had some rivets that would work on two layers this thick and riveted that C into place so that the back of the C was now a resting shelf for the hammer's head, some glue to set it and then the two rivets.

The Axe head I had made a layer of leather as a welt so the axe wouldn't cut the thread, I was really hoping those rivets would work there too but wouldn't hold three layers of that thick of leather so it was stitching time for me, all hand stitched. Now as you can see there is a corner of the stitching, when you have a spot where you KNOW you will want to make a turn or come to a point, what I recommend is that you Start your hole pattern from that spot and work your way out from there, makes it a bit easier to stop at the ends instead of maybe coming to that corner and not ending up with a nice pattern of stitching, easier to just put a hole there and go up and west from that point. Again, for me at least.

The belt loop, I had already figured to use my heavy copper rivet to allow the sheath to pivot for when he went to get into his truck or when he went to sit down, you can just swing the axe handle up and out of the way, nice and neat. You do want to find where the center of gravity is, in this case it is NOT in line with the handle so I installed that so when it hangs it will hang nice and straight.

The flap, I decided to make that a nice graphic with the flap wide and then narrowing down, two snaps for security works well, one would work, but it's not much more work to add a second one there.

So here are some images that might help show what I was trying to explain above, for any of you guys or gals that might be taking on an axe project or if you have an axe that is in need of a holder, I hope this may help you, worse case, go to Amazon or Sears ;)

I like how the rivet and two snaps follow in line with each other, gives it a nice flowing look.

axe_cover by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

To get to the center snap I had to put a small block of metal inside the sheath to act as an anvil in order to set the snap there as the snap pliers wouldn't reach and since it had to be done after the holster was stitched up you have to do it in place like that.

axe_cover_open by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

The copper rivet has a washer that comes with them, you have to force that washer down onto the rivet as the hole is smaller than the diameter of the rivet, then you cut down the rivet so you have just a small nub above the washer and then peen it with a ball peen hammer, the leather loop, I glued that together first so it is SOLID at the point where the rivet is past through. Again note that the belt loop is not centered on the handle, but was positioned where it would balance the axe while it hangs from the belt loop, otherwise it would always be tilted and no one likes a tilted axe on their hip...
axe_cover_back by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

the C part acting as a shelf for the hammer head

axe_cover_inside by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

So there ya go and again, DON'T ask me if I am taking orders for these, cuz, I ain't
G2
 
Last edited:
I'll take five of them, please send PayPal info and we'll get things rolling.

Oh wait... ;)

Excellent little holster there, I really like the looks of it.
 
Hehe, don't get me started :) but thanks I thought it wasn't too bad and something that others may have need to give it a try themselves.
G2
 
Nice! I've done a few axe/hawk sheaths and covers and none of them were easy, something about that shape that just throws me off. I think its because it aint a knife. :p

I like your variation! :)
 
I keep meaning to make some covers for my hawks. I will have to try that trick with thinner packing foam. The flexible kind. Good idea to try out.
 
Thanks guys, one thing to keep handy while you try to fit up the bubble wrap is a small sharp blade to trim as you see fit, a short blade so you don't cut down too deep into the project and hit the intended victim ;)

Also that 'shelf' that I made for the hammer head, I guess traditionally it was done that you slice tabs from top and bottom and then fold that down and rivet the two tabs but A: I didn't like how abbreviated that made it look and B: well, I'll just stay with A for now :)

BUT that is an option if you wanted to not do the "C" shelf thingy but for me it gives the overall shape and look a more pleasing finish to it.

G2
 
Great looking axe holster! Like the design, very well thought out and has clean lines. Nothing beats custom made. Excellent work!
 
Thanks guys, he was pretty happy with it and didn't know I was going to use the copper rivet to make carrying in his truck easier, a plus ;)
G2
 
Along the same thing, well this one is a medium size ax and not a hatchet. So he didn't want to wear it, the protector he had plumb wore out, now I've had this since long last year, just never got around to doing it and then my ankle was busted so this was a try to see how well I could get back to things, it's not quite time yet ;) I had this leather left over from what my daughter had provided and figured I had just enough bits there to make it cover the, well, the bit of the axe :)

SO as most of you know I'm not keen on straps and while most all of the axe protectors you see made have an edge cover with a wrap around strap to retain it to the axe head. I wanted to do something different and still provide protection and maybe be a little safer as this way it's not as easy to bump that snap open.

Didn't take but a couple images, but you'll get the idea. Using the axe head for an outline, cut out the welt. It will provide protection not only to the thread from being cut, but also the angles on both ends will trap the blade into the sheath.

You would unsnap the sheath, lift the bottom end up and out of the 'well' that the blade falls into.

When returning to the sheath, raise that snap up just a little, slide the axe into the sheath and swing it down into the 'well' area the welt provides and snap down the snap and it doesn't move at all.

Hope this sparks some ideas for you guys and gals next time you need to cover an axe head. He didn't want anything decorative but with the landscape there some nice stuff could have been done, this leather is already treated and doesn't take tooling or embossing very good, so that made it even a better choice for this project.

Here are the two images, first one shows the pieces with glue waiting to dry, the tricky part is cutting out the hole for the snap parts to mate up into.

axe_cover_pieces by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

and on the axe

axe_bit_cover by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

these are just quick shots, so pardon the quality, my ankle started complaining so I'll go raise that up for a while now.

Hope everyone had an excellent 4th of July !!
G2
 
Last edited:
I love Axe's , there is just something about their purpose and simplicity .
It's a bit hard to see , how thick is the leather you used ?

Ken
 
It's about 1/8" thick, I'll measure better when I get back to the kitchen, but it needs to be thick enough to cover the thickness of the snap

G2
 
On the second photo ( completed holster ) near the snap you have cut the leather in a rounded shape . Is that a flap to get a grasp of with your fingers to help open it ?


Ken
 
Yep that's exactly what that's for
G2

And it does measure 1/8" thick and this leather as I say has been treated for waterproofing already so it doesn't take a burnished edge really at all. I left the width outside the stitching a little wider than I normally do but that's again because of this type of leather.
 
Last edited:
Since it took me so long to get around to this, I decided to sharpen his axe while I had it, he should now be afraid, very afraid ;)
G2
 
I tried out my Work Sharp Ken Onion edition. Worked very good!
G2
 
Without that I would use sand paper and a hard foam surface like a mouse pad and strop the blade on that to help keep the convex grind which is important especially with an axe, you don't want straight edge bevels as it's not like a knife but of course is sharp.

I can see myself going through a lot of belts with this but it certainly does a great job, highly recommend it when you can finally pick one up there.
G2
 
Hi Gary, thanks for all the info you give on this site, you actually inspired me to make a sheath for my dad's old GB 2 1/4lb axe I found rusting away. I cleaned her up, hung a handle on her, and finally made this sheath:





Water based dye turned out pretty good, next I will learn how th stitch, this was a very cool project.
Thanks again!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top