Trip to Tandy leather

[jdm61]

Having bought a number of sheaths from Paul, I would say that money is the biggest reason if you can produce a decent sheath on your own. With that said, I have had Paul's sheaths sell a knife more than once. When I first showed up in Belgium with 5 or 6 of his pieces in like 2009, people freaked out and just wanted to buy the sheaths from me. That year, I sold three or four medium sized stag hunters and clip point knives in Paul Long sheaths at full price to the local hunting club guys on Friday before the show officially opened. These guys had no idea who I even was but the combo of Long leather and Bambi horn took the day.

I do all my leather work in two easy steps: 1) send the blade to Paul Long, 2) make a payment through PayPal.
(I do understand wanting to do it yourself if you are making a living at this).

 

[Horsewright]

JT here is how I think that fishscale stamping on that sheath was done. Might be wrong but this is how I'd go about it to reproduce that pattern. Since you're heading to Tandy I used their ID #s for the stamps.

First the border line was cut with a swivel knife. Looking at the pic I don't think the cut was beveled. I think that it was rubbed with a modelling tool to open it up a little bit. Then a border stamp probably F933 was used around the border. A diagonal line was scribed and then veiner F934 was stamped along this line. The end of each stamping tells ya where to scribe the intersecting diagonal line. Stamp down the line with your veiner and then repeat with another intersecting diagonal and repeat until your space is filled. Then use N300 to fill in the fish scales. This sheath was dyed probably with Fiebings Pro Oil Tan in Saddletan and then antiqued with with dark brown antique paste. I think that's how it was done.

There is no doubt good leather sells knives and that is for sure.

 

[JTknives]

Thank you that helps a lot. I had wondered if the scales where bordered with something like this?

 

[john april]

not exact, but the tandy C 2131 stamp looks very close to the border, and the tandy N 300 looks close to the center stamp.

 

[Horsewright]

I believe so JT, a veiner of some type but it doesn't have a lot of arc and its not terribly long that's why I thought F934 maybe even F925? Just don't know for sure.

I can't find C2131 John.