Chicago Screws On A Knife Sheath

[TN leather]

I am making a horizontal carry knife sheath similar to this one.

(Beebe knives, excellent tutorial for sheath makingas well. Thank you Mr. Beebe)

I have a decent amount of experience but I have not used Chicago screws before. I am looking at screws in case I must replace wear parts later on (belt loops) since in theroy the screws would allow me to do that. The customer does not want anything flashy (i.e. no tooling, shiny buckles etc.) the black coated screws only come in ¼ inch size (from the local tandy, and quick turn around does not give me time to order from elsewhere.)

1. How much leather thickness can I use 1/4inch screws on?

2. If I must go to a larger size due to leather thickness; with all brass screws how can I dull them down?

3. Any other issues I need to worry about or that you have experienced with Chicago screws?

[TwinOaks]

Thickness will vary by how much you want to compress the leather around the CS. You need to have at least half of the threads on the post inside the 'nut' side for it to be good and secure. Loctite is HIGHLY recommended to prevent it working loose. If you need to significantly dull down the brass, google "tarnish brass quickly" and you'll get some threads on how to do it. If you REALLY need to dull it down, lightly sand the surface and apply some dark epoxy.

Other issues....it's pretty easy to strip out the shallow notch on the CSs, use a large enough screwdriver to fill the slot.

.....have a 'grippy' surface to place the smooth side against when you tighten it. I use my 'poundo board'.

.....If you bottom out before it gets tight, you can put an regular 8/32 nut on the threaded side, file/sand the threaded section down, and then take the regular nut off ....which straightens the threads out as it's removed.

[RunKittyRun]

Well

Leather is measured in 1/64 of inches. 1/64 inch == 1 ounce, basically. So a 1/4 inch screw would be 16/64 or hold 2x 8 ounce pieces together. You might be able to stretch that a bit.

So get a few more sizes, that will make you happier, like 1/2" and even 3/4".

[TN leather]

Well as I feared……finished work is a little over 3/8^" so the ¼" CS would not do it (the work was skived so it was not clear on exact weight/thickness at the edge.) However when I went to Tandy the only 3/8 they had was plated not solid brass. WORD OF WARNING: plated does not tarnish up well at all (it gets a weird anodized look)! On the he solid brass ¼" CS, that I already had, I used a homemade sulfur/acid solution and got a great looking aged brass. I think that I will use the aged solid brass head on the front of the work from the ¼" and on the back side use the "aged" plated 3/8 post. In my mock up last night is seems to work ok. I just wish I had solid brass all around…..sometimes Tandy's hardware really lets me down.

One time I used some "solid" brass rivets from them….and it did say so on the packet, but after a year of wear all the brass has worn away to a shiny silver.

Edited June 3, 2012 by TN leather