New Life For Friend's Knives

[Fonzarellis]

When I mentioned I was doing leather work, during a recent visit with a friend,he showed me two knives that belonged to his dad and asked me if I could make him some new sheaths. I told him I was no pro and there were sure to be imperfections. He didn't seem to mind and we struck a deal on the price.

The knives were beat up, bad edges and leather starting to rot. These before shots tells the tale a whole lot better.

I reprofiled the blades and sharpened them to a surgical edge. Sanded the pommels from 120 grit to 2000 grit and finished up with compound. The leather was sanded down to remove the oils and rot, then coated with Neatsfoot oil, sealed with Tan-Kote and buffed with Atom Wax. The pancake sheath was a lot more challenging and I learned a lot about making holes in three layers of 8-9 oz. leather. also had one rivet bend on me. The 7/16 are flush with the surface and the 9/16 are too long. I ended up carefully drilling out a few and replacing them.

If anyone has any advice on this it would be appreciated.

He was ecstactic when he saw the reconditioned knives. I was concerned about some of my oops places but he was actually impressed with the sheaths. He said the errors or imperfections gave it character. Go figure. Bottom line, I'm a little richer both monetarily and experience wise and the customer is happy. I couldn't ask for more.

[Ferg]

Nice job.

Isn't it great to do a refurb when it comes out so nice?

You done well.

ferg

[dirkba]

Only because we are the ones who KNOW about the oops places, we beat ourselves up too much!

So often the client ignores the detail and sees the item as a whole - then it becomes "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"

Great job!!

[Oldtoolsniper]

You did a really good job on those.

As for the rivets, I had that issue as well so I ground off the stud part to about an 1/8 inch proud of the total leather stack, I copied the crimp bend with some side cutters (the indent on the stud shaft) and applied as normal. They seem to work just fine. I can't pull them apart without destroying the leather.

This was with rapid rivets. Test on scrap first.

I also don't know if that crimp or dent is nessasary but I'm not a rivet maker and I assume it has a purpose so I put it back after grinding to length.

[Rohn]

You did a really good job on those sheaths, very nicely done. The knives look great too.

[Thornale]

Good job on the knifes restoration and the scabbards, they are lovely !

@Oldtoolsniper : The only purpose of the dent you spoke about is to interlock the rivet head on the stud so the rivet won't (theoretically) move sidewards when you set it. When you cut a rivet stud to adapt it to your leather pile's thickness it is more important to round again the stud'section than remake that dent.

[electrathon]

My suggestion on the rivets would be to not use them. They serve no functional purpose on a knife sheath, but can harm the edge on the blade. It is a case of form over function.

Otherwise they both came out fine. I would have cringed when I saw the grinder marks on the blade. It is likely the blade was softened along the leading edge when that was done. Very easy to sharpen, very hard to keep sharp after that. The leather handles cleaned up well.

[Jempy]

Nice job. Beautiful. I like it.

[Fonzarellis]

Thanks for all the kind words everyone.

Electrathon - I used the rivets help to hold the layers together at the top where the most stretch force is applied when sheathing the knife, and at the very tip where is is subject to a bit more wear and tear. They were installed inside of the welt. I am careful about placement so they make no contact with the blade otherwise I wouldn't use them either.

I cringed too when I first saw the knives but on closer inspection I think it was file marks. I could tell they were still hardened when I was in the sharpening process. I had to use a course stone at first to remove the secondary edge on the big one cuz the file just skittered over the metal. I think the temper is still intact.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Fonzarellis

[snubbyfan]

That looks fantastic. Nice straight stitch lines. I like that two tone dye job.

One thing about the basketweave. I like to overlap my stamps, it tightens up the pattern and I think it looks a little neater.

[Tramps Leatherworking]

Nice job! Personally, I like the rivets, everyone has different tastes...

[Fonzarellis]

That looks fantastic. Nice straight stitch lines. I like that two tone dye job.

One thing about the basketweave. I like to overlap my stamps, it tightens up the pattern and I think it looks a little neater.

For the smallish areas on this sheath, I have to agree. The "extended weave" looks better on larger areas but is much more difficult to tool and make it look right. I bought a sheath a couple of years ago with the "extended weave" and thought it looked great. In retrospect, it was a larger sheath and the weave covered the whole thing. Just finished up this scabbard for a spear point and used the tiny basket weave for the fill. I like the look a lot better.

Edited February 20, 2015 by Fonzarellis

[Peter Darby]

Beautiful work.<br /><br />Although I am not a big fan of rivets on knife sheaths either. What I do to eliminate the stress point at the top of the sheath is build up the gusset so it's pretty closely matches the width of the handle/guard where it meets the ricasso. I find this no only eliminates the stress but keeps the sheath from developing that little pouched look at that point.

[stu925]

I think the sheaths look great. I like the look of the rivets. I have had the same issue with rivets when using the cheap rapid rivet setter that comes with the rivets. Once I ditched that and picked up a snap-all/rivet setting kit. That pretty much eliminated my issues. I've had one rivet bend since I bought that kit and I attribute that to not holding the setter straight on the rivet. As for the knives, handles look fantastic and probably didn't look that good from the factory. I'd like to see the blade work too.

Stu

[Fonzarellis]

Sorry Stu, just went back and checked and I failed to take an "finished" blade pics. After mouse pad and 2000 grit then honing on my ceramic rods they polished up pretty well on the blade part but I was hesitant to do much other than remove the rust on the rest of the blade. the larger one had a coating on it and I just left it as is.