TexasJack

You're already on the right track - you can skive whatever you want. If you just want the edges thinner, skive both edges of the sheath and the welt so that the final thickness is closer to what you want. You are using VERY thick leather for a sheath, so it's understandable that you'd want to reduce that a bit. There are a number of tutorials around here - try a search.

Get a copy of Stohlmans, "The Art of Hand Sewing Leather". It has all kinds of great info. Once you've been through it you'll realize that it's not a problem to add more thread as you need to. Use the length of thread that is comfortable to sew. You can always add more or re-use thread that is left over. The book recommends about 8 feet, but that is a bit long for me and I tend to get it tangled.

There have always been folks who try to pawn off crap as quality. Go to a knife show and you'll see tables full of shiny knives that are absolute junk. It's always been that way. Roman writers complained of the same thing. If you can't find someone who's doing a good job, then you're just not looking hard enough. Guys like Paul Long, Sandy Morrissey, and Chuck Burrows (and Dave Cole!) are out there doing work that would be considered first class in any generation. While the internet allows any idiot to open for business, it also allows the transfer of information from people who do quality work down to people who are striving to learn. Just look at the range of people who turn out on this message board!

Your description is far too vague. Give more details and people will be more able to help.

Went to a museum exhibit about Pompeii and noticed in one display that they had some old tools. They could have just as easily been in my grandfather's shop. Lots of tools were developed over hundreds of years and only changed when technology made it possible. Egyptians used bronze saws that look pretty much like ours today, but the teeth had to be fairly large as it had to be sharpened often. Steel made it possible to refine the design a bit.

B E S T P O S T O F T H E M O N T H !! (at least!) Wow! Very nice job.

There's no harm in putting it on the back. BUT, no mark at all should mean a price increase. 1) Your mark is advertising and 2) without a mark, someone else could claim to be the maker.

Very nice job on the videos, Eric!

Yeah, sometime it just is what it is. I've seen teens try to "soup up" a Honda Civic or an old Pinto. They sometimes go to great lengths to add spoilers and fancy wheels, but it doesn't change the basic car beneath all that. But sometimes a person just needs to get from here to there and an old Civic will do that pretty reliably. No use in being upset because it won't pass a horse cart.

You obviously have a good eye for leatherwork. Great job on both sheaths. Post more!

The knife and sheath complement each other! Nice work by both of you!

Nice job! I just attended a Friends of the NRA dinner a week or two back. Did not end up with any good stuff (though I was smart enough to buy a necklace for my better half.) I would have been ecstatic to have picked up a holster half as nice as the one you're donating!

Your family is in our prayers.

Yes it did!

Chuck Burrows - one of the real experts that hangs around here - did a BEAUTIFUL western style 1911 rig for a friend of mine. The 1911 was a very popular gun among the Border Patrol folks years back when they furnished their own rigs and western style holsters were not uncommon. In fact, Al Stohlman's "How to Make Holsters" has a western style 1911 pattern in it.

Nice looking rig!

Are you using wax on the thread and needle. That helps. As for 'locking' the thread onto the needle, try this: Thread the needle, pulling enough cord through to go well past the tip of the needle. Unwind the thread slightly where it meets the point of the needle, then push the point between the strands of the cord. Push the needle through that gap you've made in the cord and then pull the thread tight to the eye. Put a little wax on the thread near the eye and twist the thread (actually hold the thread and twist the needle) so that the cord on both sides of the eye are joined. Since you describe bending the needles and (indirectly) thread coming off the eye, it sounds like you're not getting a good hole with your awl. Could be the needle's too big or the awl is too small or you just aren't getting the awl deep enough to make a satisfactory hole.

The books are a bit dated - "mobile phones" are the size of cement blocks! And you can't start with No. 3 because the later books refer back to No. 1. But they do give some pretty practical advice on making different types of cases.

I just bought a kindle, so I've been thinking about a cover. Amazon is trying to sell me one that you can leave on the unit while you read. I think it also has a light. But, as someone else pointed out, I think I'm really more interested in something to store it in so it doesn't get messed up when I'm not reading. BTW, if you haven't thought about getting one of these things, you really should look into it. It's maybe one of the best purchases I've made in years. One last thing - and I don't want to hijack the thread so I'll be brief - there are surprisingly few books written on leatherwork outside of the Tandy/Stohlman reprints.

Nice job on the construction. Terrible color, IMHO.

Try using the "search" box at the top of the page for tutorials. As for joining leather without sewing, yes, you can use rivets or do lacing. You might try dropping by a Tandy Leather store, or looking their web site up online. They've got some kits that will let you do that. If you get really interested in sheath making, Chuck Burrows and Paul Long both have great DVDs that will guide you through the process.

There have been some copies posted on here before: Serentity/firefly - mal Serenity/firefly - Zoe The show must have had a pretty small budget because they kept most of this very simple.

Great tutorial and great photos!

There are several ways to do it. Do a search on here for Will Ghormley and tutorial. He showed maybe the easiest way to make cartridge loops and included good pictures. (You can check out any number of western movies to see the quality of Will's work!) He gets the first cartridge in a loop, then measures that to pre-punch holes to sew the rest of them. There are only a couple of stitches for each loop by this method. You can also use rivets between loops, which is also pretty fast. At some time or other, Chuck Burrows showed how to stitch loops. That's the only method I've used, and it wasn't very hard to do. You sew one end, then put a cartridge in and sew it down. Then move to the next cartridge loop until done. A bit slower than Will's method. As has already been pointed out, you can put in regularly spaced slots and "weave" the strip for the cartridge loops through that, fastening it at both ends with either stitching or rivets. Very simple and fast, but you risk the loops becoming loose if one cartridge is missing. All of these methods have been used for many years and will work. Oh, you wet the leather that is going to make the loops before you start. That way it will bend into place and mold tightly.

Nice work!