Riem

Baie dankie Wreford! Waardeer dit baie. (That's Afrikaans for "Thanks a lot. Appreciate it". And the "baie dankie" sounds much like "buy a donkey"... So it's regularly rendered as that by well meaning Saffers 'helping' tourists and businesses visitors understand some of what they hear locals say.)

Thanks Scooby! And thanks for putting some ideas in my head... You're right - lots of scary and sharp stuff hiding in the kitchen drawer that need trousers... Hmmm - potato peeler sheath? Will have to dream up a design... Or have you made one already? These are actually great little projects to try out ideas and learn from failures... Like using a scribe line on the back to aim for with the awl.

Thanks Plinker! I must confess that I'm addicted to pizza, but I can't afford to buy all the time... So I've been known to try my hand at it. Still - I think I'm better at the cutting and eating part than at the baking! Thanks Falcon! Appreciate it.

Thanks for the affirmation, Munky! No, I didn't scribe this one - perhaps unfortunately. Since the stitch line was on a curve, I scribed the front then marked with an overstitch wheel (I think at 4.5 mm per stitch) and then laid it flat before using the awl to make the holes. If I have to do it over, I'll proceed to the stitch clamp from the overstitch wheel.

Glad you seem to have a way forward. I handed the one I made to the new owner this past weekend (at his daughter's wedding) and phoned him this afternoon. He was ecstatic and couldn't stop showing it around - not sure if he is more taken with the belt or the new son-in-law...

Another sheath for a kitchen utensil with a sharp -ish edge: a cheap pizza cutter. Made from some vegtan scraps. Sheath will likely outlast the cutter it is meant to protect.. Still struggling consistently hit the line at the back... I do little projects such as this to practice - looks like I'll have to look for more scraps!

I've used a combination of neatsfoot oil, leather balm and in one case a stick of fresh very soft beeswax rubbed on and heated slightly with a hair dryer to revive the leather, although it is not a quick and easy process. To restore the look, I've dyed over scuff marks once the treatment of the leather is properly absorbed, and then added another light coat of neatsfoot oil once the dye has dried. In my experience, worn out stitching presents as great a challenge as the esthetic aspects. One sometimes have to almost deconstruct the item and then restitch by hand to get it into a usable state. This can be a pain as the leather between the stitch holes can tear through if you pull the thread too tight.

Thanks a lot, Falcon! Appreciate it.

I acknowledge the concern that the loops may stretch or otherwise become loose over time enabling the cartridge to slip through. I too have that at the back of my mind. In my case, the loops are made from 1.6mm calfskin vegtan. I tried to mitigate by sewing a 10mm strip below the loops as a type of stop. Time will tell whether that will be sufficient to prevent loss of cartridges. a different construction approach is to cut slots through the belt and then loop the cartridge retaining strip through that. If you search for cartridge belt here on leatherworker.net you'll find several examples and good advice about how that is done. I didn't follow that advice due to constraints with the tools I had available...

Thank you!

Looks very good!

Thanks for the info about it - and you're right, it's a cool rationalisation! I also find a certain validation in the Arab proverb: "Haste is from Satan, slowness is from God". Kinda makes sense when it comes to the tempo at which I can turn out projects... ;-)

And scraps mine were before I saw their "potential" as a sheath... The scraps were not exactly sheath sized, so if you deconstruct it, there will be some 'tactical decisions that will make an experienced sheath maker scratch his head and say "hmmmm"... Thank you for the compliments. Yeah, not all plasters on my fingers always come from awls... :-) Thanks RegisD! Thanks bikermutt07! I too love the sourdough although with the kids no longer in the nest, I bake less than before. Pity.

Ah, thanks Cooperk! I feel the love... Thank you Beardzbrothers. I wish I could send you some, but I'm afraid those loaves have fallen victim to the knife long ago. Thanks Munky. I learnt kneading and working with dough from mom. Miss her. Thanks Handstitched, for the positive comments. And lasagne on sourdough... Man, I'll be baking again soon! I've heard somewhere that there are some people who believe that everything one makes has to have a flaw in it, because only God is perfect, and if our creations are perfect in every sense, we're challenging God... Not that there's perfection in that sheath... I know!

Well,... If the stain IS wine, then sacrifice a bottle of WINE as a dye... Brush it on evenly in an inconspicuous place, see if it looks same/similar before committing the whole sacrificial bottle. That way, if you sit in the chair with a glass in hand and someone asks about the smell, you can always claim it comes from the chair...

Thanks all, appreciate the positive responses. Love the idea of the rouge in the sheath! Not sure if it will work well with a serated blade, but definitely something to keep in mind for a straight blade. Would have loved to bring around a couple of loaves... Some photos of loaves past - I'll do some baking again this week for colleagues at work.

In our kitchen there is a serated knife for slicing sourdough loaves - another of my hobbies is sourdough baking. The knife is around 30 years old, and still as sharp as when it was bought. I've always wanted to make a sheath for it, but never got round to it. Until this week. Here's the sheath. ("Broodmes" is Afrikaans for bread knife) Here's the back of the sheath with the knife unsheaved (and placed strategically to hide some wonky stitching...) The leather is 3.5 mm vegtan, from a bunch of scrap I bought from a local shop. The sheath is about 11.5 mm thick, as it has a welt of the same scrap leather. Stitching was done by hand, 1mm brown braided thread I discovered at a shoe repair supply store. It was an absolute challenge to keep the stitch line at the back relatively straight.. Stamping on the front also not as straight as it should be, and the "s" has a horrible bounce shadow... Learnt a lot making it...

That looks like a very comfortable walking stick! Nicely done - I like the way the leather is flush with the end trim without any ridge. Should be very comfortable.

Because - "so much to learn, so little time"... And "envy" is one of the seven deadly sins. I think I'll just call "that thing"... an aspirational piece...

Shoh, of this thing - not the thing that belongs to the other thing, but this... thing - it's not a brute. It's a refined, exemplar thing, a thing of joy to behold. Sigh.

Wow, I like the playfulness of your tooled images! Do you draw the images yourself? Good artistic skill. Excellent stitching and contrasting colours too.

Sure that's not some 'shrooms just sprouting outa the leather? Man that's great art!

I use Snapseed on my android tablet to resize photos for posting here. Slight learning curve, and if you look in its setup settings you can specify the output size of the images. It allows you to reapply the same settings to later photos, saving lots of time. It leaves the original photo intact, and saves the compressed photos in a folder of its own, making it easy to find only the image you want to upload without having to look for the right one among all the photos in your phone's Gallery. Hope it helps.

What you describe is what I did to make my "homebake maul". Only, I don't have a lathe, and used a water pipe I pushed through the molten hdpe plastic to make a "proto handle" of sorts. Still not satisfied with it although the maul works fine for the limited amount of tooling I do. A couple of points: The plastic should be clean with no milk residue clinging to it. The more uniform you can get the pieces you are going to melt, the better you will be able to get a tight lump of plastic. You don't need to use a blender to grind up the jugs, but it will be helpful if you can. If you use your wife's new blender, you might just have to add the cost of a new blender to your budget... I cut the jugs into small pieces of roughly 1 cm by 1 cm with kitchen scissors and a carpet cutter. The plastic will not attain a liquid state when heated but the pieces will fuse together. You may have to use some heavy object to press it into your mold else you might end up with air pockets in the lump. Sounds obvious but use a metal mold with smooth sides. It takes a long time to melt the plastic - took me about three hours to get the mass I wanted. The hdpe does not stink badly - the smell was gone before my wife returned from work... Temperature - I worked at 180°C. Higher than that and the hdpe plastic might start smoking and charring. Hope this helps.

Welcome to the forum, Tony. You're right - this is the place to learn and be inspired by the sheer craftsmanship. There is a great amount of jaw droppers here and all the advice and guidance you can desire. I'm learning a lot every day by just reading older posts. Very nice creative design on the quiver! The contrasting colours make it pop. Is the design your own or a pattern?