Whacha Been Up To......

[Redmeadow Knives]

Still can't get over the concentration of talent here.. truly impressive.

Are you allowed to post sheaths you've made for yourself if you don't have a "craftsmen" membership?

Yessir, as long as you're not selling or linking where to buy you're good to go. The main issue is folks that try to solicit sales by linking to their website, insinuate that they take orders or repeat their business name. If you want to draw customers on this platform you gotta pay the piper which I think is fair. Looking forward to seeing your work.

 

[SwissHeritageCo]

Yessir, as long as you're not selling or linking where to buy you're good to go. The main issue is folks that try to solicit sales by linking to their website, insinuate that they take orders or repeat their business name. If you want to draw customers on this platform you gotta pay the piper which I think is fair. Looking forward to seeing your work.

Thanks for the clarification John, and I couldn't agree more!

Here's a couple of backsewn sheaths I finished recently. They differ from the usual fair in that they are thicker 9oz leather and are made without wooden inserts:

 

[John Cahoon]

And the horse be like (read it in Jerry Seinfeld's voice) : I got new straps, I got new straps and they look great, they're better than yours, bet I get extra oats tonight too!

 

[duramax]

Small scout carry style sheath

 

[Horsewright]

Wow some verynice work and some very nice pics guys.

 

[AndreasB]

Dave,

This thread is now almost three years old and I regularly visit it to admire your and the other guys' work. Thanks for starting it and keeping it alive.
I have a question regarding your rough out items. I would imagine that they are proneness to collect dust and dirt. How do you treat those to prevent this? I tried tan kote and rubbing it with a slicker, but it kind of eliminates the rough out look and feel if you slick it too much.

Andreas

 

[Horsewright]

Dave,

This thread is now almost three years old and I regularly visit it to admire your and the other guys' work. Thanks for starting it and keeping it alive.
I have a question regarding your rough out items. I would imagine that they are proneness to collect dust and dirt. How do you treat those to prevent this? I tried tan kote and rubbing it with a slicker, but it kind of eliminates the rough out look and feel if you slick it too much.

Andreas

Ya bet Andreas. Yo know ya would think that but the reality is just the opposite. Seems like the roughout shrughs off dirt grime and life better than the smooth out.Thats why I think ya see a lot more roughout saddles in the cowboy world than not. I'll try and find some pics to illustrate.

 

[Horsewright]

Dave,

This thread is now almost three years old and I regularly visit it to admire your and the other guys' work. Thanks for starting it and keeping it alive.
I have a question regarding your rough out items. I would imagine that they are proneness to collect dust and dirt. How do you treat those to prevent this? I tried tan kote and rubbing it with a slicker, but it kind of eliminates the rough out look and feel if you slick it too much.

Andreas

Hadn't had a chance to take the pic I want to take to show ya what I'm talking about yet. Getting ready for a show this Friday and Saturday. But I haven't forgot. To further answer your question though, I don't use any finish on roughout leather. I'l oil a project lightly after or during construction but thats it. My own rooughout items will get an occasional cream conditioner treatment (Oakwood or Skidmores usually) maybe once a year, saddles twice probably. Ya can use sandpaper judiciously to roughen smoothed roughout back up.

 

[000Robert]

Well it took a few months before Brownell's got some brown epoxy in. The M1 was on the back burner by then. Last night I decided to get it finished up, and it turned out pretty good. At least I had more time to work with this epoxy. The Recoil Plate fits in good and snug. I also remembered to clean the wood with lacquer thinner. And I roughed up the wood a little more with sandpaper before I applied the epoxy. I cleaned out the slop and drops of epoxy that you can see in some of the photos and used some small files to clean up the edges of the epoxy after it was hard enough to work with after about 4 hours or so.

 

[Horsewright]

Well it took a few months before Brownell's got some brown epoxy in. The M1 was on the back burner by then. Last night I decided to get it finished up, and it turned out pretty good. At least I had more time to work with this epoxy. The Recoil Plate fits in good and snug. I also remembered to clean the wood with lacquer thinner. And I roughed up the wood a little more with sandpaper before I applied the epoxy. I cleaned out the slop and drops of epoxy that you can see in some of the photos and used some small files to clean up the edges of the epoxy after it was hard enough to work with after about 4 hours or so.

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That looks great filled in perfect.

 

[000Robert]

That looks great filed in perfect.

Thanks, Dave!

 

[duramax]

Well it took a few months before Brownell's got some brown epoxy in. The M1 was on the back burner by then. Last night I decided to get it finished up, and it turned out pretty good. At least I had more time to work with this epoxy. The Recoil Plate fits in good and snug. I also remembered to clean the wood with lacquer thinner. And I roughed up the wood a little more with sandpaper before I applied the epoxy. I cleaned out the slop and drops of epoxy that you can see in some of the photos and used some small files to clean up the edges of the epoxy after it was hard enough to work with after about 4 hours or so.

View attachment 1623234View attachment 1623237View attachment 1623239View attachment 1623240View attachment 1623242

Very nice !!

 

[000Robert]

Very nice !!

Thanks!

 

[Horsewright]

We've been getting stuff ready for our little Rodeo. We always have a booth there. Some knives:

And some totes NIchole made up: Unlined water buffalo.

Lined water buffalo:

And canvas and water buffalo:

And a little video of our set up:

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[duramax]

Foldover for pocket carry. 4” blade knife

 

[Horsewright]

Foldover for pocket carry. 4” blade knife

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Those look great!

Here's our booth from the weekend. We always set up at the local rodeo. A few pics:

My booth babes, Alyssa our daughter and Nichole:

Nichole checking out the booth next door. Thats our ranch in the background.

First show we've done in almost 2 years.

Friday had a lot of tire kickers. We didn't sell anything but did take a couple orders. Sat was much better with quite a few sales. Nichole sold both of her leather totes, which was cool. Could of sold one of em twice. A guy bought a holster and the tote and paid for them and I was getting the tote for him and a lady was looking at it and said I'd like to buy this. Sorry ma'am, he just paid for it.

 

[Horsewright]

Dave,

This thread is now almost three years old and I regularly visit it to admire your and the other guys' work. Thanks for starting it and keeping it alive.
I have a question regarding your rough out items. I would imagine that they are proneness to collect dust and dirt. How do you treat those to prevent this? I tried tan kote and rubbing it with a slicker, but it kind of eliminates the rough out look and feel if you slick it too much.

Andreas

Andreas check out this thread:

Dust Resistance: Roughout vs Smoothout

We've talked a little about this before but I thought I'd post up some pics here. Roughout leather work is very popular in the cowboy world because of its durability. I was asked how I treat roughout and what kind of finish that I use. The simple answer is I don't. When making something out of...

www.bladeforums.com

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Some nice work guys and Dave, looks like a good setup there too.

Well, here's a TIP folks, when you go to grab your stitching prongs to set the stitch spacing, BE SURE TO READ the number on the tool I recently picked up a couple sets to give me some more options as I started doing the two needle sewing thing. I have this Ritter knife made by Hogue and while the knife is nice, the sheath is one big compromise, trying to please everyone and missing the purpose, my opinion of course, but if you unsnap the strap, it gets bouncy and that's a dangerous condition. So I got some thicker leather in, as I don't take in fixed blade sheaths, just something I am not keen on doing, got some Weaver 8/9 oz leather, very nice. And then proceeded to figure out a pattern I wanted for it, I was going to do a wrap around pouch but ended up doing this one instead. I layered the welt with the main welt in the center and a tapered welt above and below it to make it centered, worked well but as you can see, it be thick. I could have wet molded around the knife so I wouldn't have needed such welts but didn't want to make one like that, go figure

So off I go, making all the pieces and getting them glued up and the time came to mark the stitching holes I figured I'd give the 4mm prongs a whirl. I reached for the boxes and didn't realize that they both have the same picture on the front, both indicating 4mm prong stitching irons....didn't realize until I went and hammered in the first set of holes and thought, hmmm tighter than I expected, shrugged and hammered in a few more and then seeing the long string of TIGHTLY spaced holes my pea brain decided to look at the stitching iron...oooops it's 3mm....duh so...all that work and time, had to keep going with them. I thought well maybe I can stitch every other hole? but didn't sit right with me so a longish night of hand stitching. And lemme tell you a mighty long length of thread!!! I was getting nervous as I rounded the tip and headed up the other side, I'd have hated to run out of thread but ended up with about a foot of thread when all was said and done...whew !!! that was close.

Here's the box of the stitching irons;

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr
Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

This is the knife, longish guard extends out, blade humps out past the handle spine, everything to make my day the guard is good though as I like setting the stop inside to catch the guard, but the spine higher than the handle means you need to leave the opening wide enough to accept the knife.

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr



I like using a copper rivet swivel belt loop on longer fixed blades, allows you to angle the sheath up when you go to sit down and still has strength so when you go to draw the knife it doesn't buckle like some ring swivels can, this is a good way to carry a large knife. Inside I laid down a layer of thin pig skin to cover the head of the copper rivet but it was sunk into the leather pretty good anyways. I use a ball peen hammer and use the peen portion and strike that with my mallet to make a concave area for the head to sit down into, this also strengthens that area, as some will try and cut out leather to make room, but I don't like weakening an area that I'll rely on to hold the knife.
I glue the belt loop together first, and then punch in the hole that is very tight to the copper rivet diameter, then I put some mink oil paste between the belt loop and the back of the sheath to provide some smoother rotation, after a few months of wearing it will swing a little more as right now it is quite snug, which I prefer anyways.

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

I ended up having to drill out the holes, I hate drilled holes but at 3mm spacing I couldn't get clearance for the needles and thread and as you can see the welt is pretty thick, 3/4" worth at the top.

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

while I really don't like the stitching on this, it ain't going anywhere !!

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

Untitled by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

So...dats dat, I like it a lot better than the sheath it came with. And with the wider opening of the sheath, it's easier to return the knife back without seeing it, I just pinch down around the tip of the blade, feel for the opening and there it is.

G2

 

[DavidZ]

That sheath looks great Gary!

 

[Horsewright]

Thanks for that write up Gary vey nice work!

Been busy this week since the rodeo. Ground 17 blades for a new batch of knives and still have 3 more to do. Have 2 sheets of 26C3 that I'm cutting up, have 42 blades there and on the leather front finshed these off"

This is an extra long scabbard made for a specific rifle, fits 26" barrels whereas the standard scabbard I make fits up to 20" barrels.

Tooled with initials and Carlos Border stamping.

Ya know how things kinda go in groups? I hadn't made a belt and matching sheath in a while. So of course I had 2 sets to do.

First was a roughout belt with Carlos Border stamping and a matching pancake sheath for a Benchmade knife:

This is only the second or third roughout belt I've ever made. Kinda cool, might have to make me one.

Next up was a black basket stamped belt with matching pancake sheath. This was for a Randall dagger. Leather used here was drum dyed Herman Oak. I won't dye leather pretty much and using the drum dyed veg tan allows ya to tool normally and have the color without some of the problems of dyeing, such as color transfer etc.

When I make a belt for a specific handmade buckle like this, I do require the customer to send me the buckle as lots of times we need to adapt the belt to the buckle some. I've just learned the hard way on this deal. This belt needed to be skived quite a bit to fit into the loop of this buckle and needed the tip sanded a bit more than normal.

With the Randall sheath:

Also as part of the same order the customer had me make another sheath for this knife to match a previous belt I had made him.