Farting around with leather.

[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.

 

 

 

 

[battlemunky]

Nice job!

[GeneH]

Looks good! Is that a tapered welt?

[hawgrider]

2 hours ago, GeneH said:

Looks good! Is that a tapered welt?

No but its a little skinny which contributed to some of my holes for stitching being a little to close to the edge on the back side.

 

Thanks all for the comments! Not sure what I'm doing next maybe a sheath for an old Bowie Knife Ive had for a few decades?

[hawgrider]

One of my Bowie Knives has been needing a new sheath for a few decades the original has been dry rotted.

It's going to be close in design to the original sorta.

 I have 2 Bowie's this one I've never used because of the rotted sheath 

Got it glued up sewn up, stained, snapped and riveted. 
Had an issue with the snap cap but its about 30 years old. My dads snap anvil may be crap too? Still have to sand the edges and burnish then finish top coat. 

[hawgrider]

Have been making a gun belt rig with this sorta crappy 5 oz piece of double shoulder I picked up for cheap. Going to glue up 2 pieces to make a 10 oz thick belt.

And... I think I'm going to cheat a bit and re-purpose some of an old to small belt.

Making some ammo loops for .38/.357 I decided to go with 2 sections of 9 which will give me 3 reloads for my Blackhawk.
I'll mount them something like this leaving the small of my back open with no ammo poking on my lower spine while sitting.

Got the glue up done and made the parts I need for the ammo loops.

Waiting on some Tiger thread to come in the mail.

Finally got my Tiger thread in the snail mail today this stuff looks like exactly what I needed. Its braided and waxed polyester. The diameter is 0.80 which should be perfect to fill the holes from my diamond hole chisels. 

This stuff is hard to come by no local sales at all.

Got my ammo loops built a few days ago.

Glued up and rivets in. A little stain touch up and some another coat of leather balm with atom wax for the top coat finish and they are ready to mount to the belt.

My woman scored me a new 1 1/4"  thick work surface last night. Price was right as in you pick up... sweet! 

Obviously from somebody's kitchen counter top venture.

Made some progress over the weekend. Got it stained and 2 coats of leather balm with atom wax topcoat. Still need to mount the ammo loops, burnish the edges of the belt and trim the belt at the strap end.

Might try to darken the holster to see if I can get a better match.

Close ?

 Trying to end up spaced evenly with the buckle centered. Once I figure out if they are in the right position I'll try to center them in the width of the belt.

Pretty much done for now on the belt. Mounted the ammo loops and made a keeper for the belt strap and the overlap section.

All in all I'm pretty happy with it for a first time venture.

The goods-
 It fits my fat ass, its sturdy, the color is pretty good, the match of colors is not to bad, the ammo loops are snug and I landed them on the belt pretty darn close to where they needed to be.

The bads- 
because the belt is 2 glued pieces thick my edges didn't stain and burnish as well as I'd liked. So at some point I'll order some edge paint from Tandy to fix that.

Either the stain or the leather balm atom wax changes color and leaves a weathered cracked look when the belt is bent or flexed which I'm ok with but I didn't expect it to do the when the leather is bent or flexed. I'm betting it's the stain which is Pro dye. Maybe an oil stain would have been better?