To frame or not to frame that is the question

K

kaizo

Joined
Oct 17, 2014
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I'm on the fence about adding an outer frame for the sheath that I am making at the moment. The back panel is calf the front is crocodile the frame is kangaroo and the fastening strap is going to be cordovan (other than the crocodile its basically recycled material from old projects)... What would you say? Should I frame or not frame this?

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p.s. the knife is actually a buyer's remorse a.k.a a failed custom knife from about 4 month ago... Yup I'm a member of the club now! Annoyingly in a fit of apoplexy and vex I wasn't thinking straight and I ended up making a left handed sheath!! (I'm right handed).

Please let me know which looks better to your eyes :)
 
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I think anyone who has made more than just a handful of sheaths would be lying if they said they never cut out a pattern backwards.

As for the design, personally I think it would look better with the croc as an inlay. However, I think your border needs to be about twice as wide(maybe more) than you have it now as I fear it won't quite look right and you'll likely struggle to maintain your stitch line inside it. Using it in this way might even allow you to trim the croc down and salvage that piece for a right handed sheath. If you don't think you want to cover up that much of the croc, I would then go without the border at all.

In the end, the decision is all yours. Good luck with your project and keep us posted!

Chris
 
I don't think I'd use kangaroo leather for border as it is just too thin.
If the croc leather is thick enough, I'd just go without border.
 
I don't think I'd frame it. Now if you went with a smaller inlay definitly but the whole sheath no. Wait till you make a pair of leggings and you forget to flip your pattern and you end up cutting out two right legs. Had to buy a whole nuther side to fix that oops. All my patterns have R/H scrawled on one side and L/H on the other. There are several that have FLIP added too. What single malt you working on?
 
Thanks for the reply everyone! Looks like the no-border is the winner here :)

I'm just glad that I'm not the only person to have made that mistake. :D

and Horsewright oh dear dear that must have been a table flip moment! Thanks for the advice I'll start writing which is the correct side from now on. I'm afraid the Scotch is Grant's so its blended! I'll move onto the singles when I move up in the world financially :) as for now I'll be running on cheap fuel!

Thanks for your help again everyone! I'll post the pic once its done. :)
 
Hi everyone thanks for your help :)

Here's the photos. I've made so many mistakes but hopefully I will improve on that for my next sheath! :) In the past I have used a lacquering called 'urushi' to fix my kendo armour that had a lovely obsidian colour. I think I will use that to treat the edges for my next sheath.

Thanks for your help again everyone! :)

p.s its my first sheath so please give me some feedback!

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I like it. If I were working on that piece, I'd bevel the edges to help prevent "lift" of the outer layer and then slick it all down to round it off.

I think I'd also have used a smaller snap on the retention thong....or made the thong a bit wider than the snap.

All in all, that's really not bad. Keep up the good work.
 
druid189 said:
I like it. If I were working on that piece, I'd bevel the edges to help prevent "lift" of the outer layer and then slick it all down to round it off.

I think I'd also have used a smaller snap on the retention thong....or made the thong a bit wider than the snap.

All in all, that's really not bad. Keep up the good work.
Click to expand...

Hi thanks for the feedback! Yeah I really should have bevelled those edges. It was a snake in the grass as I only discovered the lift as I was stitching after doing all the dying, edge dressing etc... at which point it was a bit too late to go back. Same story with the snaps I made the slots too small and I only had one set of snaps so I had to default to a snap that is too big for the retention...

I'll make sure I fix that for my next sheath!! :D

I am thinking of doing a shagreen sheath with 'urushi' lacquering (the type of lacquering used on katana sheath and kendo armours) to dress the edges. Now I need to look for a knife to make a sheath for. This forum really is bad for my wallet :P

Thanks for liking my sheath and giving me some feedback! :)
 
Chris, you just jinxed me. I have made more than my share of mistakes, but I haven't gone southpaw by accident. Yet. Thanks a lot. :mad:

:)

I would have gone without the border as well. I like doing overlays and croc is probably great. Shark is excellent. Cobra has worn surprisingly well, but I warn people that it's not the most durable skin, at least in theory. Only thing I worry about is edge finishing. With shark you can use a very sharp edger *after* it's glued down to the leather. Snake is easy because it's thin. After glueing to the leather a #2 edger will take off the skin and leather in a curl together. I have no practical experience with croc but it seems like the bumpiness would make it kinda hard to finish?

If you want to get into inlays, may I suggest Paul Long's Advanced Sheath Making dvd? He goes over some important steps. Only thing is that he uses a machine to stitch with (only a possible issue if you hand sew), but 99.99% is relative to the job, not to mention all of the other goodness included like making the quilted shield at the top. There's a good reason why most of the top quality inlays are Paul's, or look like them. ;)
 
Omega Leather Works said:
Chris, you just jinxed me. I have made more than my share of mistakes, but I haven't gone southpaw by accident. Yet. Thanks a lot. :mad:

:)

I would have gone without the border as well. I like doing overlays and croc is probably great. Shark is excellent. Cobra has worn surprisingly well, but I warn people that it's not the most durable skin, at least in theory. Only thing I worry about is edge finishing. With shark you can use a very sharp edger *after* it's glued down to the leather. Snake is easy because it's thin. After glueing to the leather a #2 edger will take off the skin and leather in a curl together. I have no practical experience with croc but it seems like the bumpiness would make it kinda hard to finish?

If you want to get into inlays, may I suggest Paul Long's Advanced Sheath Making dvd? He goes over some important steps. Only thing is that he uses a machine to stitch with (only a possible issue if you hand sew), but 99.99% is relative to the job, not to mention all of the other goodness included like making the quilted shield at the top. There's a good reason why most of the top quality inlays are Paul's, or look like them. ;)
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Thanks for the reply and thank you for the info! Shark and cobra is definitely on my list of todo for my future projects (I'll probably reserve cobra after I watched the dvd since it probably be best as an inlay from the sound of it). :)

Croc was a bit difficult to tame in terms of bevel but after using it I think its possible to bevel and smooth it but the stitching probably has to be close to the edge as its not perfectly flush with the surface below. Its a bit difficult to explain in words but when I cut the leather there were parts that cannot easily be glued down due to its structure.

If anybody fancy making one out of croc as well I've bought mine from a company called Pelgio in Thailand (their stingray was very good as well).

Thank you all very much for help again I couldn't be happier with all the kind help I'm getting :)
 
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Thanks for explaining, that makes perfect sense. Thanks for the recommendation on the supplier too. I don't believe I've run across them and I'm always looking for new vendors.
 
You might want to try sanding paper to even out the edges. Other than that, measure your straps to intended snaps.
 
elof_alv said:
You might want to try sanding paper to even out the edges. Other than that, measure your straps to intended snaps.
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Thanks for your advice :) I used a dremel sanding wheel to sand the edges and it did wonders all except for one thing... It exacerbated the lifting if the edges... (One of the reason I couldn't sand down any further). Is there anyway of avoiding this? Other than beveling I am thinking of using a coarser sanding wheel so I don't press on the sheath too hard. Am I on the right track?
 
I'll admit to being too lazy to change the set up of my dremel... I sand by hand :D

I made myself a sanding block from a piece of pine 40*20mm with a piece of leather glued on one of the wider flats. Did it for sanding down a blade a long while ago, since then I adapted it to leather :D

I usually start with 80 grit to shape after cutting and skivvying, that tends to raise both top and bottom edges. At this point I get the edge wet, compress the lifted edges with my fingers and switch to 120 grit, bevel the edges and go to 240. At this point I either take it up to 600, re-dye and burnish, or work it till I'm happy with look/texture and just apply wax with help of hair dryer.

I'm no expert at all, only have done a dozen or so sheaths for myself and a friend so far, but that's my cheap and dirty approach to the problem.
 
Ah that's a good idea! Making a sanding block! :D

I'll give that a go thanks :)

Its a novice mistake but I didn't use water to push the lifted edges back down... Will need to for the next one...

Hmm may be I should invest in a burgundy croc leather for that. I like black as well but burgundy has so much depth.
 
See good things happen when you stop for the single! Nice sheath. I've never worked with croc so don't have any suggestions on your edges. I'd say your stitching on the back side is pretty darn good. You might try a flap wheel on your Dremel instead of a sanding drum. I've had better luck with one of those on some hard to stick down leathers. I'll use it for small places I can't get to with my regular belt sander. Seems like it doesn't rough the leather up as much maybe will help the croc to stay down. I don't know for sure though just a possibility.
 
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