Starter Tools & Materials for Sheathmaking?

A

AlaskanHunter

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Nov 23, 2013
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I've tinkered with knife making for a few years now, and would like to buy a starter set-up for leather sheath making. All the blades that I want to start with are 3-8 inch fixed blades. What would be a good place to start? While I will be trying to keep the cost down, I also realize that it's better to buy good quality tools once than poor ones over and over. So, with the criteria mentioned, what tools and supplies would you recommend to the aspiring sheath maker? What brands will give me the best compromise between quality and price?
 
I'm very new to this side of the hobby. Others may have better suggestions, but I wish that I had started with the little sewing kit from Springfield Leather. It includes an overstitcher (although I'm not sure which. Going by what I've seen with their other kits it's possible that they might include the one of your choosing. If that's the case, I'd choose a #5), adjustable stitch groover and a sewing awl. Oh, I think they include some waxed thread and some harness needles as well.

Outside of those, an edge beveler (#2 seems to be the recommended choice for 8-10oz leather), a safety skiver, I like my rotary hole punch, bone folder and leather.

As far as chemicals go, I have some Fiebings spirit based dyes. My understanding is that their oil based dyes are top notch. I also have some eco flo (Tandy) water based dyes which seem fine. I also have eco flow contact cement, but Barge seems to be the most recommended brand. Edge dressing and/or beeswax, and don't forget some wool daubers. The rest I'll leave to the experts.

If you watch YouTube videos, Leodis leather has a video on tools.

I believe most of these things are fairly necessary, however, I also believe that some can be worked around. In any case, that's hardly a comprehensive list. I'm finding that for the buy in price for all of this, I could have had the two or three sheaths that I really need made, and no doubt to a better standard. I'd do it all over again though because I like to make things for myself.
 
In addition to the above I'd suggest a decent utility knife, I've used an old Stanly retractable since 1996. The blades are sharpenable which is important to keep a keen edge for cutting leather.

A less expensive, and just as good, alternative to Barge is DAP Weldwood Contact Cement. You can get it in the little bottle with a brush already in it, or by the quart and its under 7.00. WalMart recently lowered the price. :)

Things that make life easier: Drill Press, ensures straight even holes for stitching, my first one was a Dremel Drill Press, a great little multi tasker. Belt and/or disk sander, but you can get good results by hand sanding as well.

Avoid the temptation of belly leather, its cheap as dirt for a reason, its crap for making sheaths.

Tandy does have starter kits for sale, browse wisely and ask a lot of questions of the manager. Things to look for in these kits: avoid those with a wood mallet, its not heavy enough for anything, the poly head is just heavy enough. Watch out for those stamped metal hole punches, they are not strong enough for heavy leather.

There are a few threads here about starting leather craft as well, and a few about tools, you'd be well served to search them out as its great info. :)
 
For some reason my phone Internet connections won't let me view your link. Stupid phone.

Anyway, I believe they only sell one Hand Sewing Kit, so going by the looks of your link, I'm sure that's it. It's around $40.

I'm not sure if you have a Hobby Lobby close by, but if you do, they sell the overstitch kit (same as a regular overstitch only it comes with 3 wheels and a tool to change them instead of 1 wheel) for $20. Then you'll need to order the adjustable groover. Those go from around $20 up. If you don't need the overstitch kit and instead need just the one that comes with the Springfield kit then it's probably cheaper to get the kit since they throw in the awl and thread and needles. That's the way I'd do it, but only if the kit comes with the 5 stitch per inch overstitcher (or if Springfield is willing to sub one in). You'll have to call or email to find out which overstitcher comes in the kit. I can't find that info anywhere.

Leather... Again, I'm not the best person to ask, but I'll give you my opinion anyway. If you look at my thread about Springfields customer service, you'll see that I am more than pleased with their Hermann Oak product. It's not just that they took care of me (and others by all accounts. Also read the comments at Amazon) in spectacular fashion, but also because the leather is outstanding from my limited experience perspective. I've bought a few large (and small) pieces from Tandy in person. Nothing I've bought approaches the quality of the Hermann Oak stuff, although it was several years ago that I bought from Tandy. I imagine that quality for an inexpensive product can vary from week to week as they get new pieces in. The going advice is to buy the best you can afford. This is advice I would follow especially when buying sight unseen. If you can swing a large piece from Wickett & Craig, my understanding is that you can always count on receiving the best quality. I couldn't afford to try a large piece because my (original anyway, we'll see how this goes) intention was to make around three sheaths total.

I intend to buy from SLC as much as possible for the above reasons. At some point scale might price a person out of buying their small pieces, but for now I'm going with them. As I understand it, they are a smaller company than Tandy. I think they may even sell Tandy branded items, but they are competitively priced. The same hand sewing kit from Tandy is around $15 more.

As far as tool quality goes, I'm still looking into this. I'm not totally convinced that the tools from either place are the best quality you can get. In fact, some of the tools wearing either companies names look suspiciously similar. I very much doubt that either company has a factory in China making these products so they must be buying from the same manufacturer.

That leaves Osborne and Seiwa. Both seem to make high end products, but they have prices to match. I think part of my issue with price versus quality for leather working tools stems from my woodworking tools. I've had a number of forged and handmade custom knives made with burls that blow my mind for around $40 here in the USA. I guess I'm just spoiled. :)
 
Strigamort said:
I couldn't afford to try a large piece because my (original anyway, we'll see how this goes) intention was to make around three sheaths total.
Click to expand...

Addictive isn't it?:devilish:
As a helicopter mechanic, I understand that some times its better to make do until you can afford a quality tool rather than buy a cheaply made one and frustrate yourself to no end. I just don't want to waste money on bad or unneeded tools that could have been better used on other things (like better leather).
Also, I live in a very small town that is 350 air miles (no roads) from the nearest Wall-mart, much less a Hobby Lobby. This place gives remote a whole new meaning! Ordering online is unfortunately the only way.
 
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Well fortunately there even IS an internet to order from. :) I think of my modest 50k population town as being small. This town is butted up against another that is around 150k.I guess yours is a tad smaller. :D

Right, I'd rather buy cheap(er) tools that work just as well, or fine tools. If you are fairly handy, and I get the impression that you are, then I see no reason for not working around some of these items.

Things that I have, but don't feel like I really needed, or couldn't figure out on my own include-

Safety skiver. It just shaves leather. Pretty easy to mimic Imo.

Adjustable gouger. As Tal mentioned in his thread, a barrel sanding drum on a dremel could do the job. I could have used one of my woodworking gouges, or simply cut it out by hand.

Bone folder. I bought one, but also made one from scrap micarta. G10 would be even better.

Wool daubers. Nice, but not really necessary.

Awl. Yeah.

Edge beveler. I'm still up in the air about this one. I made a simple tool with a fresh xacto blade and tape. If you hold it just right, it does a laudable job of making a clean cut.

And on and on...

The biggest problem with making my own tools as far as I can tell, is not having a copy to base a design off of. It's hard to make a properly working tool if you don't know exactly how it works. I mean, you can guess, but you'll never know if it's as good as a store bought item.

The bottom line is that I'd probably buy everything if I hadn't spent hundreds (or more) of dollars on knifemaking, and now sheath making supplies. The wife sees all of it as the same thing!
 
It's going to depend on how many sheaths you expect to make. If you plan on making more than a few you may as well buy the right tools the first time and save yourself alot of frustration. A good awl, stitching wheel, line creaser, edge beveler, hole puncher and snap setter are a good starting point depending on what style of sheaths you are building. CS Osbourne makes good tools. For me, I don't really have the time to build a tool, If I need something specialized I just call the tool shop at Weaver and explain what I want, they will build anything.
 
Just received the stitch groover that I ordered from China a few minutes ago. Initially (meaning before I received it) I was bummed because I thought I'd made a mistake ordering it and wished I had gone another way. For some reason I thought it might be junk. I gotta say though that this is a pretty dang nice tool. It's from a company called "estone" and cost about $15 shipped. It works very well and is certainly better than I thought it would be.

Here's a pic.

BFdSUNU.jpg


I don't have experience with other groovers, but I'd bet money that this is every bit as good as a Tandy model.

Just thought I'd share that in case you might be interested in buying your tools piece meal.

I did have to wait about two weeks for it, but I think it was worth the wait.

As a side note, I wouldn't buy every tool from them. Their overstitcher does not look like a good product for our purposes. Looks more like a perforating tool for paper with its long spiked tines.
 
If your going to make sheaths on a regular basis buy quality tools.
otherwise buy tandy tools. Its all about your hands and keeping
them safe. sharp steel is a joy to work with, dull steel is a pain in
the wallet and the quality shows it and your customers will
tell you so, and you knives wont sell because the first thing they see is the sheath.
sharp edges on the leather cut and are unpleasant to hold on a finished sheath.
youll see customers put down a knife right away compared to a sheath with
rounded smooth edges. get your tools from the professionals listed on the
saddlemakers and leathercrafters journal. Made by American Saddlemakers
and leathercrafters they are worth their weight in gold and you can hand them down
to your grandkids or get your money back in full when you sell them.
The glue is contact cement at home depot or loews use the savings for leather.
make you a stitching pony check out youtube for instructions. 220 thread from
leather factory/tandy heavier thread from Cobra or Texas thread the heavier thread
the prettier for cowboy style. finer thread for gentlemans sheaths and lighter leather.
Needles at tandy round point save the fingers. Needle nose pliers from sears or channel
locks. real bright overhed lamp 1250 lumens stay away from fluorescent light ruins your eyes
causes headaches. use the new bulbs that don't generate heat.
Just some ideas youll get more as you.
Most important tool is a professional custom made head knife d2 or 01 steel stay away from commercial
made headknifes.
 
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