Farting around with leather.

[hawgrider]

Pretty much a green horn so don't expect much but here is the latest project.

 

 

Been working on 2 sheaths for 2 gut knifes I got for my daughters at Christmas. The knives are identical so I'm making 2 sheaths and got one to the water mold step so far.

My stitching is getting a little better.

This is the sheath that came with those knives.

It sucked!

 

 

 

Got one of the sheaths done for my daughters. 
Went with 2 coats of Resolene cut 50/50 with water (Thanks again for the tip Dwight). One more sheath to go.

[hawgrider]

58 views and not a single you suck. Tough crowd eh!  

Edited February 8, 2019 by hawgrider

[kiwican]

Those are great looking sheaths ! Your girls will be proud of those 

[SaddleBags]

Nice looking sheaths, but if I may ask, how do you expect to draw and replace them knives if the molding covers the tang?  Is that a safety feature?

[fredk]

They look nicely moulded and sewn but

9 minutes ago, SaddleBags said:

. . . how do you expect to draw and replace them knives if the molding covers the tang? . . .

wot he asks, its not the tang tho - its the finger guard

*the tang is the part of the knife metal which runs up into the handle/grip

[hawgrider]

36 minutes ago, SaddleBags said:

Nice looking sheaths, but if I may ask, how do you expect to draw and replace them knives if the molding covers the tang?  Is that a safety feature?

One handed draw and one handed re holster is why I went with the wet mold. It's frustrating to mess with a snap set up after gutting a deer with bloody hands. This way its just slips it back into the sheath and lightly push it down and its firmly held by the molded area.Works good and there is enough tension from the wet molded area to hold the knife while doing summer salts if thats your thing as it will not shake out of the sheath. The finger guard is what holds it in there. 

1 hour ago, kiwican said:

Those are great looking sheaths ! Your girls will be proud of those 

Ah ha!  There are folks in here thanks for the comment.

Edited February 8, 2019 by hawgrider
spelling fix.

[Smartee]

Awesome!

[bikermutt07]

Looking pretty good.

[JazzBass]

5 hours ago, hawgrider said:

58 views and not a single you suck. Tough crowd eh!  

Ok - You Suck. (just wanted to make you feel welcome)
...but they're still nice sheaths. ROFL!

[noobleather]

Some nice work there.

[hawgrider]

2 hours ago, JazzBass said:

Ok - You Suck. (just wanted to make you feel welcome)
...but they're still nice sheaths. ROFL!

There finally a honest comment! 

[VYO]

That looks pretty nice!

[ScoobyNewbie]

They are beautiful. But what warms my heart is they are for your girls.

When my daughters got their first cars, I handed them each a 10” crowbar and told them “every well bred young lady needs one of these on her drivers side door. 

See? Heartwarming.

[fredk]

23 hours ago, hawgrider said:

One handed draw and one handed re holster is why I went with the wet mold. It's frustrating to mess with a snap set up after gutting a deer with bloody hands. This way its just slips it back into the sheath and lightly push it down and its firmly held by the molded area.Works good and there is enough tension from the wet molded area to hold the knife while doing summer salts if thats your thing as it will not shake out of the sheath. The finger guard is what holds it in there. 

gottcha, understand how it fits now. Well thought out then so it is

[hawgrider]

Thanks folks. The comments are great so my work must not be too terrible. I can take criticism too so don't be to nice to me.  

And by the way that's only the first sheath of two. The next one coming soon will be just like it but left handed for my other daughter who is a southpaw. 

See y'all soon thanks for looking!

Edited February 9, 2019 by hawgrider
Error correction.

[hawgrider]

Finally got the southpaw sheath wet molded now to let it dry.

[lhow]

Looks great to me. Only hope I can do as good. Well done.

[hawgrider]

Southpaw sheath is finished-

 

 

 

 

Worked on this one over the weekend. Took a Stab at a border with so so results. need more practice for sure-

 

[battlemunky]

All three look really nice. I really like your edge work on the southie.

[hawgrider]

7 minutes ago, battlemunky said:

All three look really nice. I really like your edge work on the southie.

Thanks I try to improve with each venture. My stitching and edge work did get a little better.  Hole placement when the thickness of the leather is deeper than my hole chisels is a challenge. The welt for the knife sheaths make it difficult to get holes placement perfect. I keep trying to come up with a method that narrows the risk of trashing the piece if I land a the holes in the wrong spot.

[GeneH]

Hawgrinder your sheaths look really good. What drew me to chime in though was your comment, "trying to come up with a method that narrows the risk of trashing the piece if I land a the holes in the wrong spot."  I looked closely at the stitched ones and they look really even. When I looked at the not-yet-stitched, very closely, I could see holes pretty large and out of alignment. Consider my experience has been 4 pieces stitched so far, but here is what I've learned from the good folks here.

Oh-this will ring true for your as a hunter: aim small, miss small. (I don't know who to credit that saying to)  Make the guide lines for your chisel very fine, and the chisel point should not be wider than than very fine line. You'll catch the tinesy mis-alignment right away. I'm stuck with a 2 prong diamond chisel, but if I pay attention, the alignment is really really good. I first just press marks with the chisel points for the whole length,  then go back again and punch the initial holes in the first layer, and not using an existing hole to align my chisel. Make sense? I punch 2 holes at a time, using marks only, not a just-punched hole. That way I land exactly on that tiny mark. But I have to be very careful with each time I set the punch down. 

the finished holes actually work well to guide my diamond awl through the other layers (if I use a light hand) so the backside looks pretty good - not perfect, but acceptable as a backside. 

Edited February 18, 2019 by GeneH

[hawgrider]

1 hour ago, GeneH said:

Hawgrinder your sheaths look really good. What drew me to chime in though was your comment, "trying to come up with a method that narrows the risk of trashing the piece if I land a the holes in the wrong spot."  I looked closely at the stitched ones and they look really even. When I looked at the not-yet-stitched, very closely, I could see holes pretty large and out of alignment. Consider my experience has been 4 pieces stitched so far, but here is what I've learned from the good folks here.

Oh-this will ring true for your as a hunter: aim small, miss small. (I don't know who to credit that saying to)  Make the guide lines for your chisel very fine, and the chisel point should not be wider than than very fine line. You'll catch the tinesy mis-alignment right away. I'm stuck with a 2 prong diamond chisel, but if I pay attention, the alignment is really really good. I first just press marks with the chisel points for the whole length,  then go back again and punch the initial holes in the first layer, and not using an existing hole to align my chisel. Make sense? I punch 2 holes at a time, using marks only, not a just-punched hole. That way I land exactly on that tiny mark. But I have to be very careful with each time I set the punch down. 

the finished holes actually work well to guide my diamond awl through the other layers (if I use a light hand) so the backside looks pretty good - not perfect, but acceptable as a backside. 

The holes on the last pic were nice diamond holes from the chisel set I have. Just before the pic I opened up the holes with an awl as I me getting ready to sew it up. Those holes will shrink up and take the diamond hope shape again as soon as I wet mold the sheath to the knife. 

 

The problem Im having is not so much from the top side. Its the back side that is the issue from not being perfectly straight while hammering the chisel through. The thickness make its impossible to do it in one pass with my new set of diamond hole chisels from Tandy.

So sometimes the holes on the back side are out of alignment. 

[hawgrider]

Here GeneH you see how the holes closed back up.

 

 

Here is the backside and you can see I'm haveing a problem getting thru in good alignment. 

 

 

Maybe I should doing the holes front and back without the welt glued in. Then just prick the welt from one side or the other.

[GeneH]

5 hours ago, hawgrider said:

Maybe I should doing the holes front and back without the welt glued in. Then just prick the welt from one side or the other.

Good to know the holes can close that well.

 The key for alignment that I need is the leather has to be laying flat, and I can look almost horizontally at the chisel so I can estimate a vertical at 90 deg from the table and leather. I can do this with the welt in place on one half, so I can punch most of the way through 2 - 8 oz thicknesses. I place a piece, same thickness as the welt,  under the unsupported part so it is level, and even placed a weight to help. 

Everything has to be prepped so I can get a line on the backside to help. Then after folding and glueing the other side it goes into the stitching pony.

That gives me a guide hole I can slide, very lightly, my diamond awl into. Any sensation of cutting until I know I’m far enough, or if I see the leather puckering out of alignment just before exit, I pull back a little and correct.

It’s really slow but the results are worth it until I find a better way. I tried punching the back but that didn’t give good stitching on practice runs. Alignment with the front, even with registration holes aligned with needles was off. 

[hawgrider]

Got it finished. Nice snug retention from the wet mold. 
2 coats of Resolene.