Custom Sheath

[texback]

Made this sheath for a customer that makes custom knives. Honest opinions welcome.

[TexasJack]

It's hard to see much detail in the photos. Honestly, your photo skills suck ALMOST as bad as mine! (I've pulled up old photos and thought, "Wow! That's really terrible - oh, wait, I did that!) Terrible background, too. But, of course, you weren't looking for photographic comments.

The sheath goes well with the knife. I don't know that I like the way the belt loop is set up, but that's just me. The stitching could use some "love". You put a lot of stamp patterns on the sheath, but they don't all go together and it kinda becomes like random noise. I'd rather see it kept simple, or kept minimal.

I don't want to be too critical because it's really hard to tell much about details in these photos. Like I say, the style does go well with that knife and it's not bad. I always have great respect for a person that sincerely wants to have his work reviewed because he wants to continue to improve. Nobody can do that looking at their own work; you will see certain flaws that may mean nothing to a customer, but miss things that would really improve the quality.

[texback]

It's hard to see much detail in the photos. Honestly, your photo skills suck ALMOST as bad as mine! (I've pulled up old photos and thought, "Wow! That's really terrible - oh, wait, I did that!) Terrible background, too. But, of course, you weren't looking for photographic comments.

The sheath goes well with the knife. I don't know that I like the way the belt loop is set up, but that's just me. The stitching could use some "love". You put a lot of stamp patterns on the sheath, but they don't all go together and it kinda becomes like random noise. I'd rather see it kept simple, or kept minimal.

I don't want to be too critical because it's really hard to tell much about details in these photos. Like I say, the style does go well with that knife and it's not bad. I always have great respect for a person that sincerely wants to have his work reviewed because he wants to continue to improve. Nobody can do that looking at their own work; you will see certain flaws that may mean nothing to a customer, but miss things that would really improve the quality.

I appreciate the comments. Sorry about the photo quality.....I've got to figure out how to take better pics. All I can say is I made the sheath like the customer wanted and he was very pleased with it. As this was a new customer, I wanted to make the sheath exactly as he wanted it. The stitching is a double saddle stitch......not much room to make the stitches pretty. I think I should have stitched the belt loop a little differently and only used a single saddle stitch, but the customer wanted a double stitch. As for the stamp patterns I only used 2 stamps...the basketweave and a border stamp. I did put my maker's stamp on the back of the sheath. Perhaps that's what you picked up on. My stamp honors my heritage and goes on everything I turn out. I think we all can look at what we turn out and can see some areas that we could change or do differently to improve or make it nicer. I know I learn something every time I work with leather, and hopefully I will continue to learn.

[cjg]

Looks well made, maybe brown thread would have looked better. JMHO. That's why I make most of my stuff black, it's easier to match things up.

[saaman]

I like your stamping and stitching--very nice and even! The contrast of white stitching and brown leather looks good to me. What did you use to get the brown color without staining the thread?

Edited July 31, 2012 by saaman

[texback]

Thanks for the compliments. I may need to try brown thread on a sheath in the future....I have been using either black or natural mostly for the contrast in color, but the brown may work very well. I stitched the sheath after I put neatsfoot oil on it.