Knife Sheath Template

[Rbarleatherworks]

Hi all

Just looking for some help on a knife sheath I am going to make for a friend.

I have attached a pic of what I was thinking, please let me know if this will work and if I need to consider anything else.

Thanks so much

Regan

[Hildebrand]

Make sure  the wider tip will slide through the main portion of the sheath. Definitely use a welt, other than that it looks good.

Todd

[Halitech]

I'd personally put the  retainer lower on the handle to keep it from jumping out and possibly cutting your fingers when you grab for the handle. And like Hildebrand said, you need to allow more room at the opening for the wideness of the blade to come out. Allow 1/4" more for the welt as well

 

Maybe this will give you a little more insight into putting it together

http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41280

[zuludog]

Similar comments as above

I would make a mock - up or trial from cardboard or stiff card such as the packets for breakfast cereals,  just stapled or taped together

[Rbarleatherworks]

14 hours ago, Halitech said:

I'd personally put the  retainer lower on the handle to keep it from jumping out and possibly cutting your fingers when you grab for the handle

14 hours ago, Halitech said:

Great tip thank you, I was thinking more of trying to stop the knife handle from tipping forward, or being bumped by an elbow so thought the top should be more secure I hadn't thought about what you said.

Is there another way to accomplish both? or if I just put it lower will it be enough?  I was also afraid of the knife possible cutting it if it was lower?

Thank you for your input.

 

[Rbarleatherworks]

15 hours ago, Hildebrand said:

Make sure  the wider tip will slide through the main portion of the sheath. Definitely use a welt, other than that it looks good.

Yes ... you are so right there ... as soon as I read this I looked and had a big head nod.  Funny how you get focused on one thing and forget the most important

[Rbarleatherworks]

13 hours ago, zuludog said:

would make a mock - up or trial from cardboard or stiff card such as the packets for breakfast cereals,  just stapled or taped together

13 hours ago, zuludog said:

Great Idea ... I will do that for sure

Thank you so much

 

[chuck123wapati]

Is this a going to be a two piece sheath? If so I would make the spine side of it straight that will give you the clearance you need for the blade. You will also need space for the welt on both sides. I usually use 3/8" welt and allow at least that much in extra space for the blade. If a fold over type sheath then welt on the one side but the same  extra room. I would also recommend go a little farther up the handle with the sheath then wet form the leather but I'm a fold over type sheath maker.  Defiantly make a  heavy cardboard mock up. 

[Rbarleatherworks]

I made a few adjustments due to the comments above.. how is this one?

[Rbarleatherworks]

36 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

Is this a going to be a two piece sheath? If so I would make the spine side of it straight that will give you the clearance you need for the blade. You will also need space for the welt on both sides. I usually use 3/8" welt and allow at least that much in extra space for the blade. If a fold over type sheath then welt on the one side but the same  extra room. I would also recommend go a little farther up the handle with the sheath then wet form the leather but I'm a fold over type sheath maker.  Defiantly make a  heavy cardboard mock up

Now you have given me some thought ... hmmmm

I have never wet moulded before so Im not sure I have enough confidence to do that...I was thinking of two pieces with welt between.

On the last pic I added another 1/4" all around as suggested above. Do you think that will be enough room for a 3/8" welt?

[Halitech]

1 hour ago, Rbarleatherworks said:

 

If you put it where the first rivet in the handle is and keep it tight enough that the blade won't pop up, should be fine. Going with the option you did in the last pic would also keep it from popping up. Hopefully the blade has more weight then the handle so it should keep the knife and sheath hanging basically straight down.

 

1/4" is 2/8 so if you only added 1/4" and want to use a 3/8" welt, either the welt will be sticking outside the sheath or your blade space will be too small. Normally whatever I want to use for a welt, I add the same amount

Edited May 12, 2019 by Halitech
spelling

[chuck123wapati]

19 hours ago, Rbarleatherworks said:

Now you have given me some thought ... hmmmm

I have never wet moulded before so Im not sure I have enough confidence to do that...I was thinking of two pieces with welt between.

On the last pic I added another 1/4" all around as suggested above. Do you think that will be enough room for a 3/8" welt?

nope you need 3/8 for the welt plus an additional 3/8 or so just for added room for the blade to move freely without cutting through the welt and thread. Wet molding is easy when your done with sewing the sheath wrap the knife in plastic so it wont get wet , moisten the leather slide the knife in and mold it then let it dry with the wrapped knife in it. Then apply your finishes. Much better looking design!!! 

 

[Rbarleatherworks]

23 hours ago, Halitech said:

or your blade space will be too small

Is there a rule of thumb on how much space the blade should have? Is 1/8" enough or too much?

[Rbarleatherworks]

Sorry ...I see Chuck answered my question about the blade space, feel free to disregard my question Halitec

And thank you all so much for your valuable experience.  I have made a few but it has been about 10 years so Ima little rusty

Regan

4 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

Wet molding is easy when your done with sewing the sheath wrap the knife in plastic so it wont get wet , moisten the leather slide the knife in and mold it then let it dry with the wrapped knife in it. Then apply your finishes. Much better looking design!!

I would like to do some basket stamping on it... if I try the wet molding when do I stamp?  Will the molding not distort the basket weave? I am assuming that I need to do it before I would stitch it .....

[Halitech]

2 hours ago, Rbarleatherworks said:

Sorry ...I see Chuck answered my question about the blade space, feel free to disregard my question Halitec

And thank you all so much for your valuable experience.  I have made a few but it has been about 10 years so Ima little rusty

Regan

I would like to do some basket stamping on it... if I try the wet molding when do I stamp?  Will the molding not distort the basket weave? I am assuming that I need to do it before I would stitch it .....

If you try to stamp after you've molded it, you'll end up with anger management issues   Do your stamping but try to avoid the areas where the bend will be. If you can do your stamping fast enough that you can do your bend while the leather is still wet, it won't distort the stamping too bad

[RockyAussie]

On 5/13/2019 at 2:15 AM, Rbarleatherworks said:

I made a few adjustments due to the comments above.. how is this one?

Your retainer now looks a lot better. I don't usually do a welt on the top of the blade unless it is sharp as well. I make the welt about 10mm or 3/8" if you like and that normally gets sanded back some at the finishing stage. You can make the retainer part of the back if you want to give it a go as shown in the pictures below. Note: that I generally wet mould the front piece and let it dry overnight. If I am attaching an exotic that is done dry with glue at this stage and trimmed up and then attached to be stitched. I Do NOT attach the male part of the clip until the pouch is nearly finished as that allows a good tight fit then. I punch the hole for it with a piece of wood covered in leather and set the snap by using a piece of metal or an anvil tip poked inside the top hole. If the knife is a show piece I then generally make a thin disk of leather and glue it inside to cover the back of the snap. In answer to your question about how much blade space -1/8" loose fit inside should be fine but a little more could be safer until you get more experience.

[Rbarleatherworks]

Wow ... Thank you RockyAussie I sure appreciate your input. 

Did you make all those sheaths in the last pic?  Those other two are beautiful.... Is that Crocodile? I think that is a bit too fancy for this application but its sure nice to see what can be made ... beautiful, thanks for sharing

[Halitech]

Of course, leave it to the Aussie to show off with the knives

 

Those look great Rocky. Those croc/gator pieces are cool with the way the edges lift up down the middle.

[RockyAussie]

1 hour ago, Rbarleatherworks said:

Wow ... Thank you RockyAussie I sure appreciate your input. 

Did you make all those sheaths in the last pic?  Those other two are beautiful.... Is that Crocodile? I think that is a bit too fancy for this application but its sure nice to see what can be made ... beautiful, thanks for sharing

Yes the top ones are Australian saltwater crocodile, the top one is from a large elbow section and the bottom one is near to the tail tip.

As for the sheaths in the last picture ....I made them along with a jeweller friend whose hobby was making the knives. I only made the exotic leather working parts and he made the silver attached parts.  He won awards with his knives for so many years they actually have an award named after him today. Maurice (Morrie) McCarthy Here is a link that shows better some of his work - https://www.australianbladeforums.com/vb4/knife-show-pictures/787-melbourne-2011-maurice-mccarthy.html

1 hour ago, Halitech said:

Of course, leave it to the Aussie to show off with the knives

 

Those look great Rocky. Those croc/gator pieces are cool with the way the edges lift up down the middle.

Thanks mate... I am going to have to find another knife maker so I can try out a few more of these I reckon.

[Rbarleatherworks]

3 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

silver attached part

Amazing... absolutely beautiful ... Love the Blue one :-)

Curious how do you attach the leather to the Silver?

[RockyAussie]

2 hours ago, Rbarleatherworks said:

Amazing... absolutely beautiful ... Love the Blue one :-)

Curious how do you attach the leather to the Silver?

That was done to start with 2 pieces of wood routed out to receive the blade nicely then attached together. After that I sanded down until I liked the shape in relation to the knife and the thickness of croc  that covers it. The tip and the other end were left short in the covering and from there Morrie made his silver pieces and trimmed the excess croc to the shape. The silver parts are then araldited and pinned onto the wooden section just covering slightly a little of the croc skin. Best as I can remember on that one. Some of them were really quite detailed in the making. 

[dikman]

I used to meet Morrie every year at the Adelaide Knife show, real good bloke. Shouldn't be too hard to find another knifemaker to work with, there's always plenty from Qld at the shows, and I suspect many would love to work with someone who can do the sort of stuff you do Brian.

[RockyAussie]

1 hour ago, dikman said:

I used to meet Morrie every year at the Adelaide Knife show, real good bloke. Shouldn't be too hard to find another knifemaker to work with, there's always plenty from Qld at the shows, and I suspect many would love to work with someone who can do the sort of stuff you do Brian.

Small world isn't it. I still miss him a lot, as you say... he was a real good bloke. Loaned me $10,000 when I got into ostrich products manufacturing many years back but of course I then had to give his work priority at least until I paid him back. You never seen someone so unhappy to get his money back.. It didn't really change though as I still did my best when I could for him. You know ...he never told me he won all those years in a row or that he ever won anything at all. I only found that out at at his funeral where of all things they had a big screen showing all of his knives and awards. I had to leave a bit early  

[Rockoboy]

On ‎5‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 8:19 PM, chuck123wapati said:

moisten the leather slide the knife in and mold it then let it dry with the wrapped knife in it

I made a sheath using this method. I found it did not work out very well because it bellied out both, the front and the back of the sheath, rather than leaving the sheath flat-backed to sit against the wearers body.

Any sheaths I make in the future, I will be wet forming the front of the sheath around the 'plastic covered knife' before assembly. This will of course necessitate the front of the sheath being made oversize, then cut and sanded to match the back of the sheath after assembly. 

[chuck123wapati]

7 hours ago, Rockoboy said:

I made a sheath using this method. I found it did not work out very well because it bellied out both, the front and the back of the sheath, rather than leaving the sheath flat-backed to sit against the wearers body.

Any sheaths I make in the future, I will be wet forming the front of the sheath around the 'plastic covered knife' before assembly. This will of course necessitate the front of the sheath being made oversize, then cut and sanded to match the back of the sheath after assembly. 

yup you can do it either way that suits you but Its kind of hard to just wet mold the front of a fold over type sheath that I was talking about.