When to cut folding grooves?

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
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I am working on my first sheath. I bought Chuck Burrows DVD. Great DVD by the way Chuck, thanks a bunch for sharing your knowledge.

Ok now I am reading "How to make knives" and Mr. Loveless cuts folding grooves in the sheath something Chuck doesn't do in the DVD.

So any input about when to use those would be greatly appreciated.

Pat
 
I would think really for tighter folds, but I'm just picking it out of the air, as I'm not familiar with that technique.

For what it's worth, I re-watches several parts of Chuck's video yesterday and this evening as I was working on finishing up a sheath. I don't produce in very high numbers (at all), so it's great as a refresher to make sure I'm doing things right. It's really hard to go wrong following what Chuck does. Wet the area of the fold inside and out prior to folding it over, and you'll avoid any cracking. His method of patterning for the knife also works very well and you will get a snug, secure, well fit sheath. Most of the time, it's a bit too tight, so I thoroughly wet the sheath, and then wet-fit the knife, twisting the handle just a bit once it's in all the way to get some extra clearance. It's also a good time to bone the sheath if you desire that look around the handle. Once you've fit the knife in and out several times, set it aside to dry a bit without the knife. Every once and a while, go back and re-sheath the knife and work on fit so it doesn't shrink up on you. Makes for a great fit that you can custom tailor to fit your needs.

--nathan
 
If the leather is heavy, it's harder to make a nice looking fold without grooves, in my opinion. I think most people get into one habit or another and do it for all sheaths.
 
I usually run my groover down the fold of a pouch sheath before I glue it up.

Be sure to sew on your belt loop before glueup. Much more important than folding grooves unless you're using armor thickness leather.
 
I run a grove on both sided of the fold to fold leaving a gap between about the thickness of the leather spacer, That way I dont get any holes at the very tip of the fold.
 
Thanks for the tips guys. Sorry I posted this in the wrong forum. I did not even think to look for a Sheath forum. :(

Patrice
 
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