New Bk-2 Sheath

[vaalpens]

I just finished my first complete sheath and is happy how it came out. The sheath is for my BK-2 and will probably be used for day hikes where there is no need for survival items to be added to the sheath. I think it is called a Randall type sheath and I have decided to dye it to go with the black BK-2. The only Issue I found was that it seems that some of the wax from the stitching thread remained on the sheath, which resulted in some spots where the dye did not take that well. The stitching holes were drilled with a sharpened stitching needle, since there was no way I could use a diamond awl through 3/4" of leather. Sheathe was finished with neatsfoot oil and then leather balm with wax.

Thanks for looking and any comments will be appreciated.

[jackd942]

Nice job. Looks good!

[vaalpens]

Nice job. Looks good!

Thanks!

I have seen some of the holsters you have done and they are pieces of art where mine are just holsters and sheaths fit for personal use. Hopefully one day I can get to the point where the finish on my holsters looks as professional as yours.

[dbusarow]

Nice work.

To punch holes in 3/4" of leather, chuck your diamond awl into the drill press and use the leverage of the press to punch the holes. NO POWER! You have to line the awl blade up carefully and check on it as you go to make sure it doesn't rotate into the wrong angle.

Dan

[jackd942]

Thanks!

I have seen some of the holsters you have done and they are pieces of art where mine are just holsters and sheaths fit for personal use. Hopefully one day I can get to the point where the finish on my holsters looks as professional as yours.

I appreciate it, but I think anything you make with your hands is a piece of art in some way and yours looks good. Some are more ornate, some are more utility, but art nonetheless. I just got into leather work a couple of months ago mainly because I couldn't find a holster I liked. After trying some finishes out on test pieces that didn't look good, I dug out my old Iwata airbrush and started using it. That was the key for me. It allows so much flexibility in the look from the shade to doing effects like the sunburst look that most of mine have. The improvement was drastic. That's just my newbie $.02 FWIW.

Jack

[vaalpens]

Nice work.

To punch holes in 3/4" of leather, chuck your diamond awl into the drill press and use the leverage of the press to punch the holes. NO POWER! You have to line the awl blade up carefully and check on it as you go to make sure it doesn't rotate into the wrong angle.

Dan

I never thought of putting the diamond awl in the drill press. Thanks for the great idea! My diamond awl is one piece with the handle and I will have to cut of the handle or buy just the diamond awl without the handle. This is definitely I want to pursue. It can't be much more difficult than using a drill press and a sharpened needle. Even with the needle I have to stop the drill, line up the hole, start the drill and then lower the drill, one hole at a time. At least with the drill press each hole should be straight, and you just need to make sure the blade is at the correct angle.

[vaalpens]

I appreciate it, but I think anything you make with your hands is a piece of art in some way and yours looks good. Some are more ornate, some are more utility, but art nonetheless. I just got into leather work a couple of months ago mainly because I couldn't find a holster I liked. After trying some finishes out on test pieces that didn't look good, I dug out my old Iwata airbrush and started using it. That was the key for me. It allows so much flexibility in the look from the shade to doing effects like the sunburst look that most of mine have. The improvement was drastic. That's just my newbie $.02 FWIW.

Jack

Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I am also lucky that my wife also think the pieces I am creating looks great. I only started a few months ago because I received a small starting kit and I wanted the create a holster that was functional for me. I also had a tough time finding a holster for my gun, since it is not a Glock. From most of the posts I have seen it looks like using an airbrush is the way to go if you want to be more artistic with shading. I will only probably get into airbrushing once I can get to a finish that I like. Currently I finish with leather balm atom wax, which looks good, but I don't think it gives you that professional look yet.

[chiefjason]

Another plus for the awl is it will make your stitches behave better than a round hole. You can buy replacement awl blades. I got mine from Springfield. I use my floor drill press to punch all my holes.

[renegadelizard]

Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I am also lucky that my wife also think the pieces I am creating looks great. I only started a few months ago because I received a small starting kit and I wanted the create a holster that was functional for me. I also had a tough time finding a holster for my gun, since it is not a Glock. From most of the posts I have seen it looks like using an airbrush is the way to go if you want to be more artistic with shading. I will only probably get into airbrushing once I can get to a finish that I like. Currently I finish with leather balm atom wax, which looks good, but I don't think it gives you that professional look yet.

Try angulus 600 or mop and glow cut with water...using an airbrush, you have to remember that your dye isnt going to penetrate very deep into the leather, and any scratch is gonna show releatively quickly...

[jackd942]

Try angulus 600 or mop and glow cut with water...using an airbrush, you have to remember that your dye isnt going to penetrate very deep into the leather, and any scratch is gonna show releatively quickly...

While I agree that the dye penetration with the airbrush isn't as good, I have found (in my brief experience) that as long as you follow the dye with neatsfoot oil and finally a good sealer (I use resolene), scratches are not an issue. I have worn one of my original holsters every day at my job which involves getting in and out of a truck constantly all day....no issues with scratches at all even though it is riding next to the seat belt. You definitely have to be careful not to scratch it between the dye and oil stages though.

[vaalpens]

Try angulus 600 or mop and glow cut with water...using an airbrush, you have to remember that your dye isnt going to penetrate very deep into the leather, and any scratch is gonna show releatively quickly...

Thanks for the advise! I have seen Angelus 600 and mop and glow being mentioned a few times in the forum and will have to put them on my growing list of things I should try out.

[vaalpens]

While I agree that the dye penetration with the airbrush isn't as good, I have found (in my brief experience) that as long as you follow the dye with neatsfoot oil and finally a good sealer (I use resolene), scratches are not an issue. I have worn one of my original holsters every day at my job which involves getting in and out of a truck constantly all day....no issues with scratches at all even though it is riding next to the seat belt. You definitely have to be careful not to scratch it between the dye and oil stages though.

Thanks again for the help. Do you use an oil based dye with the airbrush or is there some special dye that should be used? Also, do you use the airbrush to apply the resolene, or is that done with a dauber or something else.

With all this great advise I am receiving, looks like my only limitation is now time and budget.

[jackd942]

Thanks again for the help. Do you use an oil based dye with the airbrush or is there some special dye that should be used? Also, do you use the airbrush to apply the resolene, or is that done with a dauber or something else.

With all this great advise I am receiving, looks like my only limitation is now time and budget.

I use Fiebing's spirit dye. The consistency is just right for the airbrush. As a matter of fact, the caps to my airbrush bottles fit perfectly on the dye bottles...I just screw one onto the dye bottle and spray. Like renegadelizard said, it doesn't penetrate as deep as if you flood it on, but you can make medium brown look brown instead of black. Once thoroughly dry, I apply a couple coats of neatsfoot oil and let that dry thoroughly. This will darken it some, but also makes it more resilient. As a final step, I spray (with the airbrush) a few light coats of acrylic resolene and then let that sit for at least 48 hours. It's also not necessary to go buy a high dollar airbrush...the Harbor Freight one works well from what I understand. As I said, this is my process and it has improved my finishing drastically although I haven't been doing this nearly as long as most of these guys and gals. Experiment some and see what works for you. There are a lot of YouTube videos on these subjects and I'd recommend checking out Eric Adams (Adams Leatherworks) (username Particle on here) channel for a similar process. He does it pretty close to the way I do it. I have also found, for me at least that it is better to spray the resolene...if you apply it with a brush, it may pick up some pigment and mix it around in the finish. Once it is thoroughly sealed, this is no longer a problem.

[vaalpens]

I use Fiebing's spirit dye. The consistency is just right for the airbrush. As a matter of fact, the caps to my airbrush bottles fit perfectly on the dye bottles...I just screw one onto the dye bottle and spray. Like renegadelizard said, it doesn't penetrate as deep as if you flood it on, but you can make medium brown look brown instead of black. Once thoroughly dry, I apply a couple coats of neatsfoot oil and let that dry thoroughly. This will darken it some, but also makes it more resilient. As a final step, I spray (with the airbrush) a few light coats of acrylic resolene and then let that sit for at least 48 hours. It's also not necessary to go buy a high dollar airbrush...the Harbor Freight one works well from what I understand. As I said, this is my process and it has improved my finishing drastically although I haven't been doing this nearly as long as most of these guys and gals. Experiment some and see what works for you. There are a lot of YouTube videos on these subjects and I'd recommend checking out Eric Adams (Adams Leatherworks) (username Particle on here) channel for a similar process. He does it pretty close to the way I do it. I have also found, for me at least that it is better to spray the resolene...if you apply it with a brush, it may pick up some pigment and mix it around in the finish. Once it is thoroughly sealed, this is no longer a problem.

Thanks for the how-to steps you have provided. It will help me start the new process with more detail which should help me get going quicker. Interesting that you are using the spirit dye. I have just decide to try out the Fiebing's oil dye since I have heard that the spirit dye leaves the leather harder than the oil dye. You are correct that the medium brown comes out very dark. What I have found is that if I wet form first, then the brown comes out lighter since the dye does not penatrate as well after forming and drying.

[renegadelizard]

I use the angelus spirit dyes as well, cut 5 to1 with denatured alcohol...i dont think you can really tell any difference in hardness, i cant anyway, but then again, i bake all of my stuff to make it harder, so maybe im not the right person to judge that..after it comes out of the oven and dries in front of a fan for 24 hours, i dip the whole shebang in a bucket of the angulus/water mix, shake it off a bit, and fan dry it for another 24 hours...even on some of the stranger dye jobs ive done (zombie green on ring lizard), ive never had any issues with the dye running...it took me a while to fix my how to steps in an order that worked for me, but once you do, you will rockin..best wishes!

[vaalpens]

I use the angelus spirit dyes as well, cut 5 to1 with denatured alcohol...i dont think you can really tell any difference in hardness, i cant anyway, but then again, i bake all of my stuff to make it harder, so maybe im not the right person to judge that..after it comes out of the oven and dries in front of a fan for 24 hours, i dip the whole shebang in a bucket of the angulus/water mix, shake it off a bit, and fan dry it for another 24 hours...even on some of the stranger dye jobs ive done (zombie green on ring lizard), ive never had any issues with the dye running...it took me a while to fix my how to steps in an order that worked for me, but once you do, you will rockin..best wishes!

Thanks again for the advise. I have bought some oil dye and will see if it makes any difference. With holsters I like the harder result, but with a sheath I prefer something that feel more natural. I see you indicate you cut the angelus finish by water. What ratio do you cut it? So when you cut it, does it give it a more natural less shiny look?

[renegadelizard]

Thanks again for the advise. I have bought some oil dye and will see if it makes any difference. With holsters I like the harder result, but with a sheath I prefer something that feel more natural. I see you indicate you cut the angelus finish by water. What ratio do you cut it? So when you cut it, does it give it a more natural less shiny look?

I cut it 50/50...less shiny...full strength would look pretty plastic like i think, and the 600 is a satin finish to begin with...the 400 would look like glass...

[vaalpens]

I cut it 50/50...less shiny...full strength would look pretty plastic like i think, and the 600 is a satin finish to begin with...the 400 would look like glass...

Thanks for sharing the ratio you use. I prefer the satin less shiny look and would start with a 50/50 ratio when I try Angelus 600 for the first time.