Critique My Sheaths!

[Blacksmith Andrew]

Here are a couple of sheaths that I recently made. I have made lots of sheaths between these two and my first. My main thing is knife making but I want to get better at the sheath making part and get some suggestions. I do not take anything personally and I understand that if you give some suggestions then it's for two reasons, 1) I ASKED you to tell me and, 2) you are just giving advice. so please be honest and critique them! These are some of my RR spike knives and their sheaths. It's a lot of pictures but I wanted you to be able to give the best assessment possible.

[Nighthawk]

Well, I like the basket weave, for sure. Not too sure I like the flash side pulled out for the belt loop, though. It makes it look a little unfinished to my eye.

So- you make your blades from railroad spikes? That's some hard steel, man! My son has a tomahawk made from a spike. That's some impressive work.

[Blacksmith Andrew]

What do you mean "flash side". Sorry if that sounds like a dumb question, I just don't know a whole lot about leather.

[Frank]

My guess is that he meant flesh side where you rolled the belt loop over and sewed it. You might want to paste those fibers down a little with gum tranc. or leather balm.

[Blacksmith Andrew]

I was kind of thinking that but I did not know.

Just a thought, do you think that the basket weave looks good the direction that it is going to should I run it from side to side?

[Frank]

I always like basket to go at an angle, not straight up and down or left to right. It's just more aesthetically pleasing to my eye.

[DCKNIVES]

Andrew, I see several areas which you could improve on. One like said above is see the flesh side,if you are going to use that design,then you have two options.One is to burnish the flesh side and dye/seal it, or to line it .Since I mostly do inlays, those are always lined but I usually will line the others too,if not I burnish and seal. You need some work on your edges, both the main seam and the belt loop.Use an edger on all outside edges and sand the main edge to about 400 grit then burnish. On the beltloop, you should round the bottom and stitch in a "U" shaped pattern.The squared end looks doesn't look professional, work a few curves into your sheaths and you'll be much happier.As far as sheath design, I think you need more coverage on the handle, typically use a two-three finger rule on how much of the handle is exposed, of course this is for pouch style sheaths.Your stamping looks pretty good and even but it will get better with practice.I hope you don't think I was too hard but you asked and sheaths are what I specialize in.Dave

[Blacksmith Andrew]

DCKNIVES, you were definitely not too hard, I am like a dry sponge and I soak it all in. This is what I wanted people to say, don't be nice and diplomatic, just spit it out. If I line it, how do I finish the edges? Do I just attach it with contact cement and then cut it out? I took a peek at your site and I would like to eventually learn how to do inlays and stuff like that, you make some nice sheaths.

Frank, I think that angled looks a little better also but I tried to keep it a little more simple this time. I will probably try angling it on the next one.

Nighthawk, RR spikes don't make excellent knives. They do not hold an edge as well as other blade steel will. I have done a lot of work and experimenting with them and I have gotten them as hard as 51-52Rc. A good knife is usually 58-60Rc. Tomahawks are usually 53-54Rc. R stand for Rockwell and the C is which scale it is. That is a scale used for measuring the hardness of blades. Anyway, RR spikes don't make Excellent knives but they are decent. I make knives from regular blade steel as well and I make tomahawks from Ball Peen Hammers.

-Andrew

[DCKNIVES]

Andrew, depends on what you line it with of course, but I typically use a lighter veg-tan and glue to the outside flesh to flesh, so you have top grain inside.Glued properly you can sand and burnish the edges and not see the seam.In stress parts like the beltloop you can run a line of stitching around the edge, but I have found over the years that stitching all around the liner is not needed and sometimes ruins the looks.For something like pigskin liner, you can place the pigskin top grain to top grain at the top edge and sew around the edge, then roll the pigskin over the sewn edge and glue in place, and then trim the edges by the main seam back a quater inch or so, so they are not coming pass the welt.Dave

[Blacksmith Andrew]

I never thought of a thin veg-tan. I was actually thinking of pigskin. I got a little bit of pigskin lining once for a journal project that never happened so I still have that pigskin. I may try using it on a sheath sometime.

By the way, that two-three finger rule is really going to help me out. I have seen these sheaths but I never knew the best way to judge how deep to set the knife in the sheath.

[Nighthawk]

My guess is that he meant flesh side where you rolled the belt loop over and sewed it. You might want to paste those fibers down a little with gum tranc. or leather balm.

Yep! That's it... Stupid typos... I really need to start proofreading my posts...

So- I personally like to use acrylic resolene to paste the fibers down, myself. It seems to me to give them a good moisture barrier, as well as making it look a little polished. And thank you, Frank, for making my garble a little more clear!!