bandanaman

We'll see how it holds up this fall on our elk hunts. I offered a do over but my buddy seems more than happy to field test and go from there for now. I don't know why it didn't occur to me run a stich line at the bottom of the loop ....it would have been out of sight except for the backside.....Guess that's why they call it a learning curve.....

Thank you all for your input, I kind of think I'm stuck with a rivet now or live with a hole where it doesn't want one. The rivet does go through the welt and hopefully will never contact the blade. I brought the belt loop down and had it extend into the welt so there would be two rivets securing the loop itself ,hoping not to rely on glue alone as I don't have any stitching in the loop itself....I don't know if a leather/trade bead thong or horse hair tassel of sort as an embellishment would detract from a vacant rivet hole .......The synthetic handle kind of destroys that line of thought !

Also I know my stamping needs lots of work....I miscalculated my spacing on the backside and experimented with antiquing for the first time....

I did put a welt in and felt the rivet might be good insurance but possibly a bit too large of a head...It does throw a bit of a kink in the flow of the sheath ....I got to fooling around with the first keeper while it was still damp and stretched it so I left this one longer and will trim it if my buddy feels it is too long.....The front wrap actually holds the knife quite nicely so should the keeper come undone I thought it would be harder to lose. That's why I left the belt loop part the way it is. I thought it would look better a little narrower as the handle looks off center. Again I could trim it if my buddy doesn't care for the look. Pattern making has been both a challenge and a learning curve especially when planning to do some wet forming......