Knife Sheath

[Alessandro]

I made a knife sheath that I sewed with fishing nylon line to practice with. I think it came nice but for my next knife sheath I thought of using articial sinew because it looks more beautiful and "natural" (linen thread is perhaps still too expensive for the quality of my beginning projects) when I read that people also uses nylon or polyester to sew leather. Does anybody also use sinew? And what kind of nylon, just the fishing line one?

Sorry if ask already answered questions but from browsing a little the forum I could not find an answer for these two questions.

[Peter Ellis]

There are threads made for sewing that are made out of nylon. These are a better choice for sewing leather than the nylon fishing line. The fishing line will tend to cut the leather and pull right through. The nylon thread meant for sewing is less likely to do that.

Artificial sinew works, but so do all of the threads - polyester, nylon, cotton, linen. Which one to use depends on how you want the piece to look, how it will be used, and what it is made for.

Some people like the way sinew looks, some prefer thread. Some don't care if the thread is linen, or nylon. Some are making historic recreation pieces and will insist on the linen thread. Some are making pieces for hard use in hard conditions and they will insist on the nylon thread.

It's good to learn to work with all of the materials. Each has its own character and there are tricks to working with each.