crazyjz

Thanks to all who responded to this request. Yes, I was finally able to obtain some from a knife and sheath maker who purchased them bulk from the manufacturer. Just to make things clear, what I needed was eyelets that would go through three layers of leather. The hole in the eyelet could be either 3/16 or 1/4", I didnt care. I ended up w some 1/4" which works great. I hesitate to mention my source for these eyelets since they are not in the parts and pieces business and I would not want to be the cause of a deluge of requests to them for eyelets. Again, thanks to all who pitched in to help!

Yeah Gary, that's the only solution that we can come up with as has been discussed. It's sorta like running recaps on a race car though. I spend a lot of time and money on my knives and sheaths and find those sort of short cut's kind of cheesy. I think for now, I will submit my sheath to my customer with well burnished holes and include an invitation for him to send it back for eyelets when I can find them. A pure shame with the amount of so called leather supply houses in country and out. I know of at least 5 knife sheath and holster mfg. companies that use eyelets of the length that I want. I know that they don't make them, they get them SOMEWHERE! (Yep, called their customer service to see if they would sell/give me some--nope, no cigar!) Yet, they do not seem to be available for sale? Go figure?

I think luck is the only option I have left. I have spent a dozen hours on the internet following leads, calling leather supply houses and sending messages to members of this forum and others with no results. Hard to believe that an item that seems so common would be so unavailable. I could understand if I lived in timbuktu or someplace but geez, this is supposed to be the land of plenty! For the time being, I guess I am going to have to glue two eyelets in, one from each side. This is total cheese and I am ashamed to do it but I don't see where I have a choice. I have a leather sheath to make that requires 7 eyelets be installed around it's perimeter, apparently so it can be lashed to a pack of some sort. The leather is 8 oz with an 8 oz welt. This leaves me with three layers of 8 oz leather to go through on one side, two layers on the other. I actually tried to make some long shaft eyelets with some thin tubing but it was a nightmare and the end result was ugly. At any rate, if anybody out there reads this and knows where some of these unicorn eyelets are, a heads up would be greatly appreciated!

Don't feel like the lone ranger! I have been following up on leads for long shank eyelets for the last 8 months. I make sheaths and holsters. Often this results in 3 widths of 8-10 oz leather. Trying to find an eyelet to accomodate tie downs is impossible. I will keep looking and drop you a line if I find anything.