Skinning Knife Sheath

[CelticPrint]

Haven't picked up the craft in over a decade so excuse the prototype. I am making sheaths for a skinning knife blank that I found in bulk. So far this is just a test run. Being a skinning knife the blade is much shorter than the handle is long so that is why the proportions look off. I already broke one of my cardinal rules buy having a stitch line that the blade will cross ( eventually one slip of the blade would fray or cut the stitch) so I am going to make some adjustments to delete those. I will stitch it together tonight and then rotary tool the the edges into alignment and burnish it to see if it is going to work. It's not beautiful but it's free hand and my first project in over 10 years. Once I am comfortable with a solid prototype I will groove the stitch lines and add tooling or personalized details to a few of them. It's 8oz veg tan with Fiebings black dye, so far no sealer or finish, rubbed the dye til it stopped bleeding and conditioned with mink oil paste. The only template I used was the one I drew free hand off the top of my head so adjustments will come and critique's are welcome.

[Retswerb]

Cool! Can we see the blade to go with it too?

[CelticPrint]

5 hours ago, Retswerb said:

Cool! Can we see the blade to go with it too?

This is the knife that the sheath is for. Got a few of these blanks as gift ideas, the patterns are different on each. They came razor sharp and feel pretty heavy compared to a lot of knives I've made. I will try a few different sheath ideas and see which one works best. Some sheaths will be just for design but a few will have to be purely for purpose because some of the people that they are gifts for will use them daily and probably throw them in and out of gear bags and or drag them through the brush when out for the day.

[alpha2]

A welt can help keep the blade off the stitching.

[CelticPrint]

I have a welt in the section where the blade rests, it's just the 4 stitches above that are only on the belt loop not the entirety of the sheath, should have never added them. I added the 4 holes on each side last minute and didn't need them, the blade won't rest on them but it will slide past and eventually cause a problem so I'm starting over. That and in a rush I accidentally bought Fiebings standard dye and not Fiebings Professional. Let's just say I buffed it for a week straight and if you rub it with a piece of white cloth it still has a little black rub off. I didn't even dip dye it either, just one coat with a wool dauber. I'll remake it this week and and post the template too. 

[sheathmaker]

While you are prototyping, why not try a spilt toe pouch style tailored for a deep seat?  Eliminate the need for a retention strap and make the handle to blade ratio not even a consideration, let alone a design problem.

Paul

[CelticPrint]

Thanks Paul, I have seen many like that but myself have never handled a sheath in that style, will it hold the blade if I take a tumble? No seriously, we live in the mountains and sometimes you wind up arse over tea kettle if you hit a patch of ice or loose gravel. I might just go with that idea, do you wet form it so that it sits snug? 

[sheathmaker]

The deep seat of the knife, plus the friction fit generally provides more than enough retention.  This assumes the sheath has been designed specifically for the knife it carries.  I always start out with a paper pattern in the design process.  This can and does spot problems before they even get a chance to occur.  Since everything I make is fully leather lined, the wet forming is generally not possible is the usual sense, but I do "soft form" in the later stages of construction which does enhance retention.  I have more then 9000 sheaths out there in the world and this style sheath is well represented among them, and so far in over 20 years of sheath building no complaints.  Give it a try,  I think you'll like it.

 

Paul

[kiwican]

This type of sheath design (didn't know it was called split toe) has more and more come up on my radar. I think I'll give it a shot.! Thanks for the post 

[TargetRockLeather]

On 2/3/2019 at 4:36 PM, sheathmaker said:

why not try a spilt toe pouch style tailored for a deep seat

sheathmaker: That's a beautiful sheath. I'm not familiar with the term "split toe". I'm assuming that the way it's stitched along the spine of the blade is what makes it a split toe design? What is the advantage of that over simply folding the sheath in half and letting the full length of the blade spine rest inside the crease? From the photo it looks like the blade spine and handle are in a straight enough line to do that with.

[sheathmaker]

@TargetRockLeatherThe design allows you to follow the blade shape of the knife much more closely.  The straighter the spine of the blade the less the split becomes effective, however even with a slight angle the friction retention of the knife is enhanced with the tighter split toe design, as was the case in the photo I presented above.

Paul

Edited March 10, 2019 by sheathmaker

[TargetRockLeather]

Thanks for that explanation. I'm going to give that a try.