Advice needed for sheath

[DaveP]

I've made a couple knives recently and now I'm wanting to make sheaths for them. Experience level is zero...don't have any of the correct tools.  I  do have a vegetable tanned belly to practice on.  Watching every video I can on sheaths and stitching. Plus tool reviews. For the skinning knife leaning towards the wrapped type sheath. The smaller knives I really don't have a direction. They are 4 inches total length. .  What would you do?

Thank you 

David 

[Dwight]

I like wrapped sheaths, . . . with a welt to protect the stitches, . . . looks like it would work for all three of em.

Nice part about wrapped sheaths, . . . you can do it in two pieces, . . . the sheath and the welt, . . . 

May God bless,

Dwight

[khill]

Search for Paul Long butterfly sheath  . You should be able to find some info out there some where .

[YinTx]

Also Al Stohlman's "Art of making leather cases" will be of use.  

YinTx

[battlemunky]

That belly leather stretches quite a bit too so try and keep that in mind.

[TexasJack]

If you can find a copy of Chuck Burrows "Custom Knife Sheaths", the DVD is well worth the price.

Fortunately for your efforts, those are pretty easy knives to fit.  Some knives - like those with big guards - take a lot of extra work.

Take a manila folder and open it halfway.  Place the spine of the knife against the upright part of the folder.  Now you can trace the knife on the side of the folder that it's laying on.  Once done, remove the knife and draw a line outside of your tracing about 1/2 inch larger (or slightly more).  Now fold the folder backwards from how it started out.  Cut out the outer line that you drew.  When you open that cut out part, you will have a good starting pattern to cut out the leather you need for the sheath.

 

[chuck123wapati]

Here's how I do mine for bigger knives. The folks around here, Wyoming, are really going for the crossdraw style sheaths , the smaller knives would work and look great that way.

[DaveP]

I've ordered the Chuck Burrows DVD about a week ago.  Waiting on it to arrive. 

Al Stohlman has 3 books or volumes.  Which is the better one to have?

I  like the cross draw. How's it attached to the sheath? What color is that dyed?

Belly leather is a cheap way for me to learn on. Once I figure out how I want to make my sheaths I'd like to do over with better grade leather. 

Thanks again, 

David 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by DaveP

[TexasJack]

Believe it or not, the best Stohlman book is the ultra basic "The Art of Hand Sewing Leather".    Super easy to follow and it shows lots of technique for getting the job done right.  I know that Chuck Burrows used to refer to illustrations from it when trying to show people how to do something.

 

[YinTx]

20 hours ago, DaveP said:

Al Stohlman has 3 books or volumes.  Which is the better one to have?

 

They are all three good, but the volume that has a section on knife sheaths is Volume One.

The Art of Hand Sewing Leather is also quite good, but I didn't see anything in there specific to knife sheaths.  If you haven't sewn before and plan to on this, definitely review it.

YinTx