Camp10
08-09-2010, 08:03 PM
..but not in one post.
Here is two different style sheaths all in one thread! I use heavy leather for my sheaths. These are made from 8-9 oz double shoulder. It makes more work but the finished sheath should last for a very long time.
There are a ton of pictures because a picture is worth a thousand words and I am not that good at talking my way through this.
First style is a basic pouch sheath and the second is the classic Marbles style sheath. These are pretty basic and neither require many tools but there are a few that will make things easier for you, I picked up all these tools from Tandy and none was more than $15. The snap setting tools came with snaps, but the other two, the overstitcher and the v-gouge are worth the few $$ they might cost.
V-gouge
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0211.jpg
overstitcher
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0212.jpg
First you will need to make a pattern for the sheath. I just used a scrap for the pattern. Fold a piece of paper about 1/3rd of the way across. Place your knife on a piece of paper on it’s side so that it’s spine is just off the crease you made. Now, on the side of paper that the blade is facing follow the shape of your knife with a pen but keeps the lines about 1” away from the knife. It should look like this.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0193.jpg
Once that side is drawn, fold your paper onto itself with the knife still in place and trace the line onto the other side of the paper. In good light, you should be able to see the pen marks through the paper. This side wont go into the belt loop so it can be brought back to the other side when you have enough height to keep the blade firmly in place. I usually will go to about 1/3 to ½ the length of the handle.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0195.jpg
Notice that when I brought the strap that will be the belt loop I went beyond the fold. This will make the mouth a little better looking (IMO) on the finished sheath
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0196.jpg
Next is to lay the pattern on a piece of leather. Pay careful attention to the direction the pattern is positioned on the leather. If you cut it out wrong, you might end up with the rough end out or a sheath made for a lefty. Talk your way through it if you need to. Also notice I added a few extra inches to the belt loop, I like my knives to hang a little low on my side.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0200.jpg
When you have it right, mark it and cut it out of the leather. I use a razor knife and score my way through the leather. Don’t worry quite so much about perfect cuts just keep to the outside of your marks and work the corners slow.
Next, put the pattern back over the leather this time leave it folded and mark the fold line on the leather. Be careful not to run the mark high enough to be seen when the sheath is finished.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0204.jpg
Use this fold mark and place the knife back in the same position as when you first started your pattern. Now fold the leather up and make a mark where the high side of the handle meets the leather.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0207.jpg
With this mark and the center mark, you have the areas that need to be worked with the gouge. These two marks are the thickness of the handle of your knife and so it is the thickness you need to keep through the part of the sheath that the handle needs to fit in. The blade thickness is much less, so the higher mark only needs to run the length of the handle. I taper it back to the center mark about half way down the blade. With these marks in place, gouge the leather so it looks like this.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0214.jpg
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0213.jpg
Next step is to wet the leather and brand it…no, you don’t need to do this but it is a shameless way to stick my brand name out into the world..
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0218.jpg
Once the leather is dry, I will put the knife back on it and this time mark where the blade will sit in the sheath. This mark can be made close to the edge and once again, be careful not to get the mark high enough to be seen when the sheath is finished. Make a pattern of this mark and cut it out of a scrap of leather.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0237.jpg
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0238.jpg
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0239.jpg
Because this knife had a guard, the sheath needs to be a little thicker then what a single leather spacer can give but only through the guard and handle area. Use your pattern again but this time, you only need the lock portion of the spacer to be thickened. When you cut this out, make sure it fits perfect to the other spacer. Use your knife to taper it down so that the leather will follow smooth down the side of the sheath.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0240.jpg
Two things I need to mention at this point. First, make sure that the belt loop strap is where it belongs when you make the pattern for the spacer so that when you start gluing and sewing everything fits. Next, notice the notches in the leather around the guard. This is the lock that keeps the knife in the sheath. The first portion of the lock needs to be rounded so the knife can glide over it but it needs to be tight to the knife in order to hold it in. The guard has to be pushed beyond the rise and fit into the notch in order to keep in place. When it is stitched and wet formed, it will hold very tight into this sheath. It isnt nearly as complicated to make as it is for me to describe.
Now you can start to glue things together. I use Barge contact cement. Fold your belt loop down and glue it in place. Next, glue the spacers in place. Be sure to stitch the belt loop before you glue the rest of the sheath together.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0247.jpg
Once the sheath is glued together, I use the overstitcher to mark out where the stitches are going to be. Next step is to drill out my holes so I can stitch this..remember, this is 9 oz double shoulder!
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0248.jpg
Stitch it up and trim the extra off the edges. I used a very basic stitch on this sheath. I will sometimes saddle stitch and sometimes double the thread but with this sheath I simply went up and back with the thread and knotted at the ends. I use my disk sander to get an even and square edge.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0257.jpg
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0262.jpg
Now, I wet fit the sheath to the knife. Simply get the sheath very wet and place the knife into it. Use your fingers to shape the leather to the blade. With the lock in the leather, it is important to pull the knife and put it back in place a few times while it is wet to be sure that it will work right.
As soon as I am happy with the fit, I get the knife dried. I don’t want a new knife to rust on me.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0259.jpg
All that is left to do (once it dries) is to dye and treat it. This one I used a dark brown dye and sealed it with Resolene
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0264.jpg
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0268.jpg
Both are applied with a cloth in light coats. Here is the finished sheath. It looks a little spotty but it is still wet with the resolene.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0267.jpg
Stay tuned for the second sheath…it looks like this right now. It is lefty because it is for me.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0258.jpg
Here is two different style sheaths all in one thread! I use heavy leather for my sheaths. These are made from 8-9 oz double shoulder. It makes more work but the finished sheath should last for a very long time.
There are a ton of pictures because a picture is worth a thousand words and I am not that good at talking my way through this.
First style is a basic pouch sheath and the second is the classic Marbles style sheath. These are pretty basic and neither require many tools but there are a few that will make things easier for you, I picked up all these tools from Tandy and none was more than $15. The snap setting tools came with snaps, but the other two, the overstitcher and the v-gouge are worth the few $$ they might cost.
V-gouge
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0211.jpg
overstitcher
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0212.jpg
First you will need to make a pattern for the sheath. I just used a scrap for the pattern. Fold a piece of paper about 1/3rd of the way across. Place your knife on a piece of paper on it’s side so that it’s spine is just off the crease you made. Now, on the side of paper that the blade is facing follow the shape of your knife with a pen but keeps the lines about 1” away from the knife. It should look like this.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0193.jpg
Once that side is drawn, fold your paper onto itself with the knife still in place and trace the line onto the other side of the paper. In good light, you should be able to see the pen marks through the paper. This side wont go into the belt loop so it can be brought back to the other side when you have enough height to keep the blade firmly in place. I usually will go to about 1/3 to ½ the length of the handle.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0195.jpg
Notice that when I brought the strap that will be the belt loop I went beyond the fold. This will make the mouth a little better looking (IMO) on the finished sheath
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0196.jpg
Next is to lay the pattern on a piece of leather. Pay careful attention to the direction the pattern is positioned on the leather. If you cut it out wrong, you might end up with the rough end out or a sheath made for a lefty. Talk your way through it if you need to. Also notice I added a few extra inches to the belt loop, I like my knives to hang a little low on my side.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0200.jpg
When you have it right, mark it and cut it out of the leather. I use a razor knife and score my way through the leather. Don’t worry quite so much about perfect cuts just keep to the outside of your marks and work the corners slow.
Next, put the pattern back over the leather this time leave it folded and mark the fold line on the leather. Be careful not to run the mark high enough to be seen when the sheath is finished.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0204.jpg
Use this fold mark and place the knife back in the same position as when you first started your pattern. Now fold the leather up and make a mark where the high side of the handle meets the leather.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0207.jpg
With this mark and the center mark, you have the areas that need to be worked with the gouge. These two marks are the thickness of the handle of your knife and so it is the thickness you need to keep through the part of the sheath that the handle needs to fit in. The blade thickness is much less, so the higher mark only needs to run the length of the handle. I taper it back to the center mark about half way down the blade. With these marks in place, gouge the leather so it looks like this.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0214.jpg
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0213.jpg
Next step is to wet the leather and brand it…no, you don’t need to do this but it is a shameless way to stick my brand name out into the world..
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0218.jpg
Once the leather is dry, I will put the knife back on it and this time mark where the blade will sit in the sheath. This mark can be made close to the edge and once again, be careful not to get the mark high enough to be seen when the sheath is finished. Make a pattern of this mark and cut it out of a scrap of leather.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0237.jpg
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0238.jpg
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0239.jpg
Because this knife had a guard, the sheath needs to be a little thicker then what a single leather spacer can give but only through the guard and handle area. Use your pattern again but this time, you only need the lock portion of the spacer to be thickened. When you cut this out, make sure it fits perfect to the other spacer. Use your knife to taper it down so that the leather will follow smooth down the side of the sheath.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0240.jpg
Two things I need to mention at this point. First, make sure that the belt loop strap is where it belongs when you make the pattern for the spacer so that when you start gluing and sewing everything fits. Next, notice the notches in the leather around the guard. This is the lock that keeps the knife in the sheath. The first portion of the lock needs to be rounded so the knife can glide over it but it needs to be tight to the knife in order to hold it in. The guard has to be pushed beyond the rise and fit into the notch in order to keep in place. When it is stitched and wet formed, it will hold very tight into this sheath. It isnt nearly as complicated to make as it is for me to describe.
Now you can start to glue things together. I use Barge contact cement. Fold your belt loop down and glue it in place. Next, glue the spacers in place. Be sure to stitch the belt loop before you glue the rest of the sheath together.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0247.jpg
Once the sheath is glued together, I use the overstitcher to mark out where the stitches are going to be. Next step is to drill out my holes so I can stitch this..remember, this is 9 oz double shoulder!
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0248.jpg
Stitch it up and trim the extra off the edges. I used a very basic stitch on this sheath. I will sometimes saddle stitch and sometimes double the thread but with this sheath I simply went up and back with the thread and knotted at the ends. I use my disk sander to get an even and square edge.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0257.jpg
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0262.jpg
Now, I wet fit the sheath to the knife. Simply get the sheath very wet and place the knife into it. Use your fingers to shape the leather to the blade. With the lock in the leather, it is important to pull the knife and put it back in place a few times while it is wet to be sure that it will work right.
As soon as I am happy with the fit, I get the knife dried. I don’t want a new knife to rust on me.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0259.jpg
All that is left to do (once it dries) is to dye and treat it. This one I used a dark brown dye and sealed it with Resolene
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0264.jpg
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0268.jpg
Both are applied with a cloth in light coats. Here is the finished sheath. It looks a little spotty but it is still wet with the resolene.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0267.jpg
Stay tuned for the second sheath…it looks like this right now. It is lefty because it is for me.
http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad337/lewisknives/100_0258.jpg