Need Help With Pancake Style Knife Sheaths.

[The Grizzly]

Hey guys.

I'm having some issues when making pancake style pouch knife sheaths. Pancake may not be the right word...basically a pouch that has been split and sewn on both sides instead of 1.

My issues start rearing their ugly heads when I test fit my knife. Is it normal with these types of sheaths to have to put in 1 or 2 extra welt spacers at the top of the sheath to allow the knife to slip into it properly?

Take this last sheath I just made from one of those 2.99 black horse butt strips from Springfield.

I laid out my back pieces, 2, since I didn't want a curved belt loop, sheath style is similar to a Bark River Gunny sheath.

I added my welt around the entire perimeter.

I cut, tooled and laid down my top piece (no glue) and held it with clamps to test fitment. The knife did not seem like it was going to fit at all. So I added a welt spacer at the top. Still didn't seem like it was going to fit. So I added another. At this point, we're at 6 pieces of leather thick. The knife goes in well, but the retention is soft.

This horse hide never stiffened up, so the sheath is fairly supple.

My handle isn't overly thick either. I think the scales were 5/16 and the blade about 1/8".

Should I have just added one spacer, sewn it all up and soaked the crap out of it in hot water and forced the knife in?

I've ran into a similar issue with my pouch sheaths. Ill get my pattern cut, per instructions I learned from Chuck Burrows' DVD, but when I wrap it around the knife it seems like it's going to be too tight of a fit...so I have a mini freak out and add a wedge to open the mouth of the sheath up.

I guess I should just bite the bullet, sew it up, soak it and stretch it.

[TwinOaks]

One issue you may be having is that the leather you're using isn't thick enough for a single welt. That can easily be remedied by having some thicker scrap pieces on hand. And should you need to add additional welts, cut the welts at a taper.

The other that I can see is, yes, you need to form the leather for the handle....or stop the pouch below the scales. You could even go so far as to have the welted section stop below the scales, and use a slightly wider pattern for the containment of the handle. You cut the pattern out in somewhat of a wedge shape, and when you stitch the sides 'straight', the excess leather of the wedge will bow 'up', giving you the room you need.

You still might need to do a little wet forming for a snug fit, and you'll want to play with tooling on an arc, so that the pattern will come out straight when you bow it.

[katsass]

Well Griz, I'm not an expert in knife sheaths, however, this is how I put this type of sheath together. Outer shell of 4/5oz, each piece lined with 2oz, welt in the center is 10oz. It's how I did each of the following. Hope it helps.Mike

[The Grizzly]

I seriously considered trying to do the "bow" effect on the leather to open up the mouth of the sheath....just had no idea how to do it lol.

On my normal veg tan cow hide sheaths, I've been using 8/9oz for a pouch, and an 8/9oz strip for the welt. In my brain I just cant figure the leather will stretch that much when it's wet. But, I guess it does.

[katsass]

Well Griz, if you notice, there is a slight indentation about 1/3 of the way down from the top (mouth). That is where the welt actually begins on my stuff. The welt thickness is determined by the thickness of the knife blade. The pattern is cut a little bit wider at that point up to the top of the mouth (sort of billows out on each side a bit in that area) -- and no welt is applied in there. That allows a bit more room for the handle to be molded, but ends up maintaining an (almost) even shape in the overall design after molding Probably clear as mud ....... but that's how I do it. Mike

Edited March 3, 2013 by katsass