what's wrong with my leather?

[Hesparus]

I recently made my first reasonably attractive sheath (I'll post pictures as soon as the camera is working again) but it has some wierd things going on with it. As with all of my sheaths, it is a fitted pouch sheath. Normally, after I fit the sheath the leather remains pretty supple - it still feels like leather, I mean., This one, however, for some reason got really hard after it dried. It still looks like leather, but it feels more like wood. It's from the same piece of leather that I've made other sheaths from and all of the other ones acted normally. This one is barely plyable and when I tap on it it clicks like it was made of wood, as opposed to a dull thud like my other leather sheaths.
So what the heck is going on?

- Chris

 

[AwP]

It might have dried too quickly, quick drying is a common way to harden leather. There's probably other possibilities but that'd be my guess.

 

[Mike Hull]

Sounds like you finally got the right type of leather. It's supposed to be stiff after it dries. The last thing you, or anybody needs is a soft floppy sheath.
I soak sheaths that I'm not even going to mold just to stiffen them up. You should be able to crack walnuts with the edge of a sheath. Leave the soft stuff for the reenactors.
A hard sheath will hold the knife much better too.

Honestly, that really is the best way for a sheath to be. I had one on a knife in the service that was soft and floppy, and on an evasion course once, I had to make a pretty far jump to keep away from those tracking, and pursuing me(if they caught you, they beat the shi'ite out of you, and called it interrogation training), the knife had apparently worked it's way around towards the front on my web gear, and when I hit the bottom, my elbow hit the pommel, and drove the point through the sheath, into my left inner thigh quite a ways, and it about paralyzed my arm for a time(crazy bone hit). I got away, but that lesson never left me. I have the scar to this day, and my right elbow is still sensitive to getting hit.

Just finish it like it is.

 

[Will P.]

I had one on a knife in the service that was soft and floppy, and on an evasion course once, I had to make a pretty far jump to keep away from those tracking, and pursuing me(if they caught you, they beat the shi'ite out of you, and called it interrogation training...

Hooah!

Beating the shi'ite out of someone... that's what the sunni's do, right?

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

You may have put it into too hot of water to shape it.That will cook the leather and make it hard as wood.They used to make rock hard sword sheaths by putting the leather wrapped wood sheath in boiling water for a few seconds.