Testing of Leather Sheaths

[Horsewright]

So in a recent thread we were talking about different types of belt loop attachments and just how much strength was actually needed, what kind of stitching pattern was strongest, etc. The subject of testing came up. I've done a lot of testing on my knives but have pretty much left the testing of my leatherwork to the school of hardknocks and thats School with a capital S. I make stuff that I know is going to get used and abused. Lots of life is gonna happen. Over the years my designs have evolved to take life into account. I stand behind my work and will fix or replace as needed.

Sometimes I will do this even when its not my fault .........if the story is good.

Here's one of those times. I built this customer a new sheath at no charge. The story was just funny. A little vague at times,....... like how he ran the sheath and knife over with the lawn mower..... but there ya are. Strig said he liked testing and I'm afraid that my sheath failed the lawnmower test.

The knife blade was damaged too. I was able to straighten it out some and regrind the secondary bevel. I'd say I got the knife back to 98 percent but don't think there was much fixing to be done to the sheath. AEB-L steel at 61 RC by the way...I really like AEB-L.

So I just built him a new sheath. On this sheath the belt loop is sewn on with a box pattern at the top, folded over and then sewn across at the bottom. Guess I'm a sucker for a good story.

Kids don't try this at home!

 

[Omega Leather Works]

A good story like your customer that was inserting his knife edge up?

 

[Horsewright]

Yeah ya look at that sheath and you ask yourself how hard is it to figure out edge up or edge down? I did have a knife returned (the only one) for being too sharp. Guy kept cutting himself. He called and said the knife was too sharp and I said thank-you. He didn't want his money back he wanted me to make him basically a blunt nose butter knife. So I traded him out.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

That's bananas.

I completely disagree with the generalized notion that a sharp(er) knife is a safe(er) knife. I have an Opinel that I reprofiled to try and pass the hht (hanging hair test, didn't quite get there but I got to where a hair would break) the total angle is 14°. No guard and a slippery wood handle it's a slip from a hospital visit for sure. I'll take the sharpest knife I can achieve in any case.

I guess its like how the Brits look at super high powered bikes. The throttle goes both ways.

 

[Horsewright]

Us kaboys say: go big or go home. Which roughly translates into your'e gonna be a bear, might as well be a grizzly. Actually castrating calves is a job where a knife can be too sharp. Knife will slip instead of cut as it should. A fresh 220 grit with a light stropping is about right.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

Us kaboys say: go big or go home. Which roughly translates into your'e gonna be a bear, might as well be a grizzly. Actually castrating calves is a job where a knife can be too sharp. Knife will slip instead of cut as it should. A fresh 220 grit with a light stropping is about right.

Oh yeah, I've tried a lot of different degrees of polish on the bevel. 220 is perfect for fibrous substrate but not as good for push cutting. Things like tomatoes like something less than a super high mirror polished apex for the same reason as ball sacks.

I got so silly with the different types of edge finishes I had different sharpening procedures for each of the intended uses for the blades on my slipjoints. The carvers would be polished to a high level with a very gentle convex, the blade for cutting apples would have a 400 grit finish. It started getting to where I'd choose a finish for particular steels (m4 loves 220 SiC followed by 2k ceramic and responds well to various types of strops etc) and had to stop because sharpening gets really expensive when it becomes your focus.

Once you start taking photos of the apex from a microscope it's more of a novelty imo, but don't go into the maintenance & tinkering forum with that train of thought!

 

[leatherman]

Us kaboys say: go big or go home. Which roughly translates into your'e gonna be a bear, might as well be a grizzly. Actually castrating calves is a job where a knife can be too sharp. Knife will slip instead of cut as it should. A fresh 220 grit with a light stropping is about right.

Like minds, I much prefer a "working edge" I want it to bite into what I am cutting. I have a fine diamond stick that works very well for that. Doesn't take a lot to get a nice grippy edge.