Swivel style sheath

Gary W. Graley

Gary W. Graley

“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 2, 1999
Messages
27,445
Every now and then a close friend, or in this case, my boss at work ;) will entangle me to make a fixed blade sheath, which is NOT something that I would be taking orders for but in his case, pun intended, he needed one to hold his aged knife as his old sheath disintegrated and fell off his belt recently. And wanting to keep peace in the office I grudgingly complied.

The leather is not as thick as I would like to use making a fixed blade sheath but it far out does his old sheath so he will be ok with it.

I made the entrance of the sheath a bit wider opening to allow easier return of the blade, while the lower portion of the sheath is just snug enough to help retain the knife if the snap comes undone by accident. Also this makes the handle not push back against the back drop of the sheath.

But he wanted to be able to swivel the sheath, as he saw one I did on another large knife recently. Thinking that if he could swivel the knife forward when he goes to sit down it would be handier and I agree that is a big help.

So on this I have a back drop of leather coming up from the sheath which protects the wearer and behind that I put on a glued together belt loop and fastened it to the backdrop using a large copper rivet. I put some mink oil paste between the two pieces to help to make it swivel smoother.

He enjoys hunting and looked over my embossing stamps and liked the deer one but also the fish, but settled on the deer. So I went ahead and embossed the back of the belt loop with the fish, in retrospect I would have placed my markings and month/year a little lower but didn't want to be too low, as that was all done before the belt loop piece was glued up.

There are three inner layers on each side of the welt, with the center one running the length of the sheath. The two smaller welt pieces were sanded down to help blend it in and not be too abrupt.

Here are some images, I hope it will give some of you guys and gals some ideas about using a swivel like this as well as making the opening a little wider to make a better fit up, it was much fun hand sewing this up ! NOT lol

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr


Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Lying next to his old sheath, the center of his belt loop slit torn apart from dry rot.

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr


The snap strap I placed behind the leather of the sheath, this way when unsnapped it will naturally spring more open and out of the way.

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Always good to not run stitching straight across, as that becomes a perforated line and a good place for it to tear in years to come, so I angled them and set two of them, back stitched to keep it from coming undone, also glued in of course.


Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr


G2
 
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always enjoy seeing your work ... looks like a well used knife ... deserving a new piece of leather ... he should be pretty pleased with it.
 
Thanks, it is a pretty old knife, I cleaned up the blade and sharpened it also, quite keen now.

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr


Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

As I don't have a belt sander to do a super job, just hand sanding got most of the rust off

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

G2
 
I personally think it looks better this way ... leaves a bit of character it's earned though the years ... and still looks really nice.
 
I agree too, I had fixed up a very old knife of his father's that was marked on the back of the old sheath written in ink 1938. The blade on that was broken about an inch down so it looked like a BIG screw driver tip, I hand filed down the spine to meet the edge and made a nice clip point, you would not know the knife wasn't originally made that way. I removed the almost 90 year old thread and just sew'd it back up with new thread, but kept some of the fragile light thread and put that in some clear plastic food wrap and set the whole thing in a small wooden box with some carved out sections of foam so it would be a keepsake. My boss said he had never seen his dad get so emotional...ever. And on that the same thing, cleaned up the sides but didn't sand down to remove all pits and stuff, came out pretty nice. Smaller knife, an old Marbles it was.

So I guess I became his "Go to Guy" for things like this :)
G2
 
Well done my friend! I really appreciate the old PAL knives, a lot of history in that line.
 
Thanks Amy and Dwayne, it was an interesting build, my sewing needle barely made it through the thicker sections, luckily it did get through. I spaced the stitching holes using a prong, and went back through with a ground down small screwdriver to get all the way through.

G2
 
Thanks Dave, using the sewing awl is how I've always sewn leather, never did the two needle thing. And with this as I am pushing the needle through, the handle of the awl is against the top of my stomach, so...it's like getting a work out on my abs at the same time as I tense them up to push against the awl handle and pull the sheath towards me, well, maybe not an abs of steel workout, more like abs of leather ? :)
G2

edited to add, he was quite pleased with the outcome, did not expect it to be as nice and as solid as it is, always good to see people smile when you hand them something you made !
 
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Wow seriously I never could get one of them things to work for me when I was handsewing. I was always an awl and two needle kind of guy. Ya need to make ya a weight lifter's belt and wear it backwards for the belly bump awl handle technique!
 
Hah yes, that'd be a good idea but it'll be ok without, trick is not to stress the needle too much, years ago I'd break them left and right :( now one needles lasts me a very long time.

The other trick is to guess how much thread you'll need, rule of thumb is double the length of stitching and a bit more, but since this had very thick welts, I had to be a bit more generous with the thread.

Using the sewing awl, you thread the needle, half of the thread goes through the sheath so it's on top, the other half is on the other side to form the loop, it's worked well a long time now.

G2
 
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