Wet Form Knife Sheath & Welt Question

[ChiefFilipino]

Here is a picture of the leather I am going to use to try my hand at wet forming a knife sheath. The question I have though is about the welt. I tried to show the welt I have already cut but then I'm not sure about the length. Will this welt be sufficient or do I need to take the welt all the way up to the top of the sheath. My understanding of a welt is to protect the stitches from the blade, so will this length be sufficient?

Thanks!

[dirtclod]

I put the welt the full length of the sheath.

[kiwican]

I do my welts to the top of the sheath as my stitching goes all the way to the top of the sheath.

[ChiefFilipino]

Thanks for the replies! That makes sense to take it all the way to the top I didn't think about drawing the knife out and putting it back in.

[zuludog]

I'd say make the welt full length. Even if the short welt in your picture protects the stitching from the actual cutting edge of the blade when the knife is in the sheath, there would be no protection to the upper stitching while the knife is being put into or out of the sheath.

Also, without the upper part of the welt the opening might be too tight, and need a lot of stretching or wet forming to accommodate the hilt, possibly too much for the single thickness of leather.

You can increase the size/diameter of a sheath opening by fitting an extra/double piece of welt in the upper part of the sheath and skiving or feathering it into the sewn edge

you might find this website & forum useful. They have a section on sheaths & leatherwork

http://www.britishblades.com

[ChiefFilipino]

Thank you! I will do some reading before I continue.

[1961Mike]

Hi

I'm making a Native American sheath for a butcher knife like that in Kozlov's book "Plains Indian Knife Sheaths: Materials, Design, and Construction. I actually put a triple layer of welt at the top of the sheath. The sheath covers over half of the knife handle. I'm not done yet so who knows if it will work or not.

Later

Mike

[rawcustom]

You want every stitch on that seem through a welt. No matter how out of the way you have it figured, people are very talented at wedging knives into sheaths wrong, or drawing them out at abnormal angles and speed.

[kiwican]

rawcustom speaks truth!, i ve seen this done and done it myself

[ChiefFilipino]

Thank you Rawcustom and Kiwican! 1961Mike I'd love to see some photos when you are finished and to find out how it turned out.

[ChiefFilipino]

Does anyone know of a wet form sheath tutorial, pdf, video, website that goes into great detail? There are some that I've found but it seems like I have more questions than answers.

Thanks

[kiwican]

You tube has many wet forming video, some good, some not so good but that may also depend on your learning style. I'm still a beginner at leather working and ultimately found that experimenting is the best way to figure it out. The one thing that i did learn about leather is that if you use a a low quality leather you will get a low quality result.

[ChiefFilipino]

I have seen some of the videos on YouTube and saw a bunch of different methods, but didn't know which ones were quality (some were obviously not). I haven't braved the cost of higher quality leather yet though seeing as how I am just starting off. I can't justify the cost as of yet. I can't even tell quality leather from not so good leather except maybe by price, is there a tutorial on determining leather quality?