What angle?

C

Chris 54326

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Sep 13, 2017
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I'm making a sheath for one of my knives. Customer want's a cross draw folded sheath. What is a "typical" angle for the cross draw? My first thought would be 45 degrees, but I'm wondering if 30 degrees would be better. If it makes any difference, it's for a woman. Figured maybe you guys who make a lot of sheaths would have some recommendations.
 
When I make them I usually lay them out with about 30 degrees. This seems to work well for most customers. With shorter knives (say 4 inch blade or so), you can go to a greater angle without having the knife stick out too far in the front or back but longer blades tend to get hung up on things if it is too steep. I have made some with 45 and a few with 60 degree slants based on customer wishes.
Randy
Merry Christmas.
 
Thanks, Randy. I was leaning toward the 30 degree angle but just wasn't sure. This is a folded sheath and I'll be using a loop strap, so I'm sure it'll move around a bit, but I at least wanted the top of the loop to let the knife set at a specified angle. Customer didn't want a pancake sheath that set "hard" on her belt.
 
I couldn't tell ya the angle but here is what I do. The belt loops on my Horizontal sheaths are 1.25" wide. I sew the top on the sheath with the leading edge about one inch from the throat of the sheath. Then I make up the rest of the sheath. They are sewn in three steps. First the top of the belt loop. Then the welt is fitted and the sheath is glued up and sanded. Stitching grooves are made after sanding. Then I sew the upper welt line. Finally the other end of the belt loop is folded over and glued down and stitched. I offset the loop one half of its thickness towards the tip of the sheath when glueing it down. This results in the sheath carrying at a little bit of an angle up from horizontal. Mostly its for perception of the customer. Angled up slightly makes folks feel better about retention. Get the welt right and the angle has nothing to do with retention.

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The sheath I'm making has the wrap around belt loop. Don't personally care for the look of that style, but it's all I know how to do at this point. Won't look anything like your good lookin' sheaths. Ya gotta know what you're doing (from experience) to do it the way you've shown.
 
Yeah a guy has got to make some mistakes. Don't be afraid of em. One of my horsemanship mentors use to say that "good judgement came from experience and that lots of experience came from bad judgement." Secret is to learn from our mistakes. I saw a lecture hall one time that had a banner across the front, above the black board. It said there were only three ways of learning: 1) Through your mistakes, 2) Through someone else's mistakes and 3) Not learning at all. I've sure made bout all the leather mistakes that can be made. Maybe that experience from poor judgement can help some guys on here with #2!
 
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