First Attempt - Folding Knife Belt Pouch

[Steelart999]

My first shot at using a Cowboy Outlaw that I just purchased.  Well ... I broke quite a few needles before working out that I needed to bond the welt in first instead of trying to just hold everything together by hand and holding the alignment with a couple of needles.  Then, on my last stitch, after getting the Outlaw working, the needle broke again leaving the broken tip jammed inside the welt ... sigh.  It wasn't until a couple of days later that I realized that my bobbin had run out of thread and forced the needle to jam/break. The bobbin thread was looped and tied solidly to the bobbin.  I hadn't changed anything after receiving the Outlaw and that was how the bobbin had been threaded.  I was able to "sorta" backstitch the last stitch by hand and then added a Chicago Bolt to finalize the finish.  Wow ... quite the learning experience.

I had originally started this pouch by hand stitching.  Thin, tan elephant overlay on about 7/8 oz. cow leather.  

Although I'm embarrassed to show this thing from all sides, I guess I need to if I want to get any feedback and learn more of what I "should" be doing.

Messed up finish on the leather by too much handling and experimenting

Yeah ... messed up the backside stitching while trying to learn the Cowboy Outlaw machine and breaking a bunch of needles

The folding knife I made for my brother many years ago.

Meteorite Damascus blade in a San-mai format.  Damascus bolster and snakewood handle. Thumb-bob inlay and backspine inlay are stony meteorite.  Titanium liners are fully fileworked.

Knife in the belt pouch.  There wasn't quite as much room as originally fabricated.  I had to narrow and move the welt after screwing it up with all the needle issues.

Edited January 7 by Steelart999

[dikman]

Don't sweat the mistakes, it's all part of the learning curve (I'm sure you made quite a few when you started knifemaking). Nice knife, by the way.

[bladegrinder]

I got a CB4500 a year or so ago and ran a lot of practice leather thru it before trying to make anything decent, you just have to get to know your machine. once you learn the ins and outs of that machine you'll love it, just keep practicing on scrap.

One thing I learnt was to watch out where you place the belt loops, you don't want that running under the foot when your stitching the side of the sheath. nice folder there!

Edited January 8 by bladegrinder
spell'in

[Steelart999]

Thanks guys. 

I did practice quite a bit on double layers of 9/10 oz. without any problems.  I went through all the possible adjustments to see how they affected the stitching just to get as familiar as possible with the Cowboy machine.  The 1/2" welt, when I was just trying to hold it in place by hand, was the killer.  Eventually, I did get the machine to stitch through all the layers (after bonding them all together) ... until my bobbin ran out of thread.  Note to self:  Check the dang bobbing before starting any project ... sigh. 

I'm working on a pancake holster now and I'm definitely getting a bunch of the steps out of sequence.  I learn a lot on my first attempts at just about everything.

[Mulesaw]

Great looking knife!
I think the most important thing is that the sheath looks nice from the front, and it does! So never mind that the stitches on the back are not 100% as nice looking as those on the front. If it holds the leather together - that is the main thing.

The only suggestion I have would be to ad some sort of a securing flap. I'd hate to loose such a beautiful knife because I tipped in a canoe and it fell out while I was trying to get back in. 
I am not sure how I would do it on your pouch, but probably something similar to the leather pouches of the Buck 110 knives. 

Brgds Jonas

[Steelart999]

26 minutes ago, Mulesaw said:

Great looking knife!
I think the most important thing is that the sheath looks nice from the front, and it does! So never mind that the stitches on the back are not 100% as nice looking as those on the front. If it holds the leather together - that is the main thing.

The only suggestion I have would be to ad some sort of a securing flap. I'd hate to loose such a beautiful knife because I tipped in a canoe and it fell out while I was trying to get back in. 
I am not sure how I would do it on your pouch, but probably something similar to the leather pouches of the Buck 110 knives. 

Brgds Jonas

Interesting though about the flap.  I'll definitely consider that on the next folder belt pouch I make; Thanks.  This one sets in tightly, but could still certainly fall out during a canoe trip, rock climbing, etc.  I do hate getting flipped upside down.

[Sinbad395]

Sorry you had a learning curve like that.  I just purchased an Outlaw last weekend and am loving it. The Tandy salesperson (who has their own leather shop) and a Tipman Boss (similar machine) was very careful about explaining all the functions and adjustments. It took me about 3 tries to figure out what they meant about holding the thread out the back for the first couple of stitches, but then it was a matter of adjusting stitch length for the project and learning how to follow my stitch line.  I have to work on back stitching some--but that will come with experience.  Good luck to you and keep at it.