Bernie It is fantastic I also love the yew wood. The grain realy stands out.
Great job mate
Cheers
AL
Bernie It is fantastic I also love the yew wood. The grain realy stands out.
Great job mate
Cheers
AL
Excellent advice Adam, thank you. I followed it step by step and it would've been a great sheath but for the fact that I wasn't sure how wide to make it, and the leather I had appeared to be only just wide enough. So I went ahead and made the sheath but now find that the knife only goes part way into it because the handle is so chunky. Sigh.Originally Posted by crazysaint222
As for the leather sheath, follow this fantastic guide and you'll have a great looking sheath. The stamping/embossing is totally optional, so if you haven't got anything that will leave an interesting indentation, just leave that part out. A lot of sheaths look better for being simple...less is more
At least it's a safe place to store the knife for now. I think I'm going to give it a few days and think about what to do.
You can see here how the sheath is suffering from me forcing the knife in as far as I can push it:
My sewing could do with a little erm... well you can tell:
Overall it looks like a sheath at least, though it needs some shoe polish when it's dried out:
Last edited by Martin; 07-05-2012 at 05:06 PM. Reason: Wasn't me. ;-)
What sort of leather is that? It looks like it's laminated layers, with a textile of some kind. If it's standard leather, dipping it in hot warm to hot water can soften it up a bit, so you can push the knife in all the way, then let it dry to keep it's size/shape. However, don't leave it in hot water for more than 10 or 15 seconds at a time, as it will "hard boil" the leather and make it shrink by up to 1/8 of it's original size.
If you make a fresh sheath from untreated leather, try damping it slightly and scoring a line where the stitching will be, then use a spike of some kind (like a carpenters scratch, or heavy needle) to make the holes (or at least the start of the holes) in the first layer of leather. Once you glue the sheath together (and let it cure for a couple hours or so, depending on the glue used) you can use a small 1mm - 1.5mm drill, to make the stitch holes all the way through, then dampen again and use a wide, blunt screwdriver, to join the holes with short "grooves". You should be able to do this with only hand power, but sometimes a few light taps with a small hammer are needed. This will make the stitching look a little neater and set them in to the leather a little, reducing the chance of snagging the threads on brambles, etc.
That's brilliant advice, thank you again. I'm sure my next sheath with be far better. This one, as you say, doesn't feel like genuine leather.
I have my knife wrapped up in cling film and shoved as far as I can get it into the damp sheath. But alas, it's still not enough. I'd need the leather to stretch quite a bit to get the handle in as far as I want it.
Wondering where I can scrounge some leather now - this stuff I bought at the car boot sale is just thin offcuts.
There are often small pieces on ebay, around the same size as a sheet of paper, for around £10 - £15 in 3mm and 4mm thicknesses. Not sure what's on there at the moment though. I would send you some, but I only have enough for one sheath myself at the moment, which will be used for a knife I'm making for Dave Jones (BCUK Dave53). Sorry buddy.
That is one seriously meaty knife there. Should be great for battoning and you will have to let us know what it carves like.
Design out the sheath on paper, cut out and transfer to thin cardboard (like cereal box), and cut that out, then test fit best you can.
Great advice Mike. I sometimes use thick card (like the corrugated stuff) when I use the 4mm leather. I find it gives a more accurate "feel" to what you're doing.
Here's a good sized piece of veg tan, which will give you plenty of leather to make a sheath from, with a good length belt loop too. I think 6 inches should be enough to wrap around your knife, looking at the pictures, but only you will know if that sounds right or not.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/24-x-6-NAT...ht_3221wt_1031
True, but makes it harder to fold nicely, and ends up making it look like a stealth sheath with all the angles.Great advice Mike. I sometimes use thick card (like the corrugated stuff) when I use the 4mm leather. I find it gives a more accurate "feel" to what you're doing.
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