Sheath Q's

[Hayden H]

I got tired of one of my buddies excuses on making my knife sheaths. I got a few peices of leather trimmed and stitched together. How do I get it to fit tighter to the blade? Dampen the leather, and clamp it around the blade? Or dampen it, and dry it successively until its the right fit?

[Drewed]

Make them slightly under size, then soak the leather ( not just dampen ) and jam the knife in. Then let dry with the knife in place.

[Rich Hale]

If youleave a cabon steel blade in a wet sheathe to dry it will most likely rust. May be better to do just wot he said above only carefully slide the blade out and let sheathe dry. AS it driews it will shrink up a little and should be a nic efit. For the sheathe you have you may try wetting it and letting it dry then a test fit. If you clamp it it will likely flatten the leather out and make it larger.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

easiest way to answer this is go to leatherworker.net it is the IFI of leather items. I am on there too. Great group of folks, and lots of pictures.

[Dodge]

Wrap the blade in plastic to prevent rust. For the best fit, I cut leather slightly large. Then I soaked, formed and let leather dry. Then, I trimmed, grooved and then stitched. Are you incorporating a welt? Here's a link to some good tutorials... http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/355923-Sheath-tutorials

[ThomasPowers]

NOTE: the TYPE of leather makes a difference! Some leathers you can't case as they don't stretch and tighten when wet.

Veg Tan, (oak tanned, etc) leather is preferred for making sheaths do to it's wet/dry properties---it's also the type of leather you can tool.

You probably know this already but I have run into several "new" people who can't understand whey the chrome tanned leather they are using won't work right---right up there with the folks who forge a knife out of mild steel and then get upset cause it won't harden!

[Dodge]

Yep. Forgot to mention leather type. (sheepish grin) Under the right conditions, vegetable tanned leather can get as hard and machinable as wood. Chrome tanned leather stays soft by design.

[swink]

if you use acatone an soak the sheath in it. Put the knife in and shape sheath to knife. Take the knife out before the leather dry's all the way an it will tighten a little an give a snug fit after it is dry. will dry in about ten mins an not rust your blade.

[Willis]

I always make a brown paper pattern for my sheath's and test fit the knife before I cut the leather. Saves a lot of wasted leather. I also keep every pattern I make in a notebook. After the leather dries I do any tooling to the sheath I want then I waterproof the sheath with a homemade repellent I make myself. A lot of commericial waterproofers work just fine I just prefer making my own.

[ThomasPowers]

Note that acetone may have negative effects on MANY handle materials and glues!

[Hayden H]

I get scraps and have bought 3 half hides (Hurt my $ a bit). I have 1/4 inch thick saddle leather as a spacer for larger blades, up until now, I've never had to make a fitted sheath.

I made the sheath a little under sized, riveted it as tightly as I could, dampened the leather, jammed the knife in, and put the blade portion up until the gaurd inbetween two 5 pound granite corner stones I had laying around. I oiled the knife lightly with gun oil, didn't soak into the sheath surprisingly. While the sheath was wet I got a polished deer horn tip (Its amazing the things you find in a tool box) and used it as a groover/rounder to make the leather fit closer to the blade. Got up this morning pulled the blade out, and its a good fit. I'm keeping this knfie for myself so it doesn't have to be pretty, just functional

[Rangerdave]

Great info Bigg. I was wondering the same about sheaths as I just bought leather etc... Love the knowledge here. Thanks a bunch.