Custom Knife Sheaths off the bench this week

[RoycesLeather]

Finished these two bowie sheath's this week. Both are for the same shaped knife as I work with a local knife maker. Overall I am mostly happy. Wish I had measured out better and placed the state of Texas in a different location on the tooled sheath.  Any other sheath makers out there have any tips please let me know as I am always looking to improve. Have great one happy tooling!

Royce

[chuck123wapati]

Those are outstanding.

 

[garypl]

Very nicely done!  Only thing I noticed is the stitching on the Texas sheath seems to be pulled down too much - holes look too large.  Or is this just the lighting?

[RoycesLeather]

5 hours ago, garypl said:

Very nicely done!  Only thing I noticed is the stitching on the Texas sheath seems to be pulled down too much - holes look too large.  Or is this just the lighting?

Your right. That was one of my disappointments. Something happened with my machine tension on that one and I was disappointed in how much it pulled in but I wasn't sure of a good way to fix it after the fact. Ironically they are both stitched with the same size thread and needle all I did was change colors and the second sheath I put together had problems. Oh well live and learn. Thanks for the reply and keen eye

Royce

[AzShooter]

They look great.  Tooling is top notch.

[garypl]

6 hours ago, RoycesLeather said:

Your right. That was one of my disappointments. Something happened with my machine tension on that one and I was disappointed in how much it pulled in but I wasn't sure of a good way to fix it after the fact. Ironically they are both stitched with the same size thread and needle all I did was change colors and the second sheath I put together had problems. Oh well live and learn. Thanks for the reply and keen eye

Royce

Maybe the temper of the leather you used in the second sheath was softer?  I once ran into a hard spot in the middle of a piece that bent the needle.  In that case, I had to start over, remove the thread, and drill a small pilot hole to finish sewing.  I normally check stitch appearance  after the first 4-5 stitches to check they look OK.  This allows me to adjust tension or stitch length before sewing the entire piece.

[Nailbanger]

Very nice! Add pics with the knives if ya get a chance, 

[Bert03241]

awesome tooling very nice

[RoycesLeather]

6 hours ago, garypl said:

Maybe the temper of the leather you used in the second sheath was softer?  I once ran into a hard spot in the middle of a piece that bent the needle.  In that case, I had to start over, remove the thread, and drill a small pilot hole to finish sewing.  I normally check stitch appearance  after the first 4-5 stitches to check they look OK.  This allows me to adjust tension or stitch length before sewing the entire piece.

Good advice and thoughts. thanks I will keep that in mind. I normally try and check tension too but I guess I just went for it after sewing the first sheath and by the time I noticed it. It was all done and too late. I will keep the pilot hole in mind too I like that concept for if you get stuck. I am wondering about a little longer stitch length I had it set to about 4.5 but if you loose your rhythm at all it pulls through with thick leather for some reason. I will try doing my next ones closer to 5.5 per in I think and see if that helps a little also. What stitch length do you like to run? 277 thread on a cowboy 4500 by the way.

2 hours ago, Nailbanger said:

Very nice! Add pics with the knives if ya get a chance, 

Thank you! unfortunately all he gave me was a rough steel mock up of the knife so I don't have the actual blade sorry. 

[garypl]

3 hours ago, RoycesLeather said:

Good advice and thoughts. thanks I will keep that in mind. I normally try and check tension too but I guess I just went for it after sewing the first sheath and by the time I noticed it. It was all done and too late. I will keep the pilot hole in mind too I like that concept for if you get stuck. I am wondering about a little longer stitch length I had it set to about 4.5 but if you loose your rhythm at all it pulls through with thick leather for some reason. I will try doing my next ones closer to 5.5 per in I think and see if that helps a little also. What stitch length do you like to run? 277 thread on a cowboy 4500 by the way.

Thank you! unfortunately all he gave me was a rough steel mock up of the knife so I don't have the actual blade sorry. 

On thicker leather I adjust for @4-5 per inch.  Usually use 277 or 346 thread, depending on thickness of leather and amount of stress on the seams.  I also use a CB4500 and normally don’t have to mess with tensions much when moving up or down one size thread.  

[RoycesLeather]

On 4/17/2021 at 5:05 PM, garypl said:

On thicker leather I adjust for @4-5 per inch.  Usually use 277 or 346 thread, depending on thickness of leather and amount of stress on the seams.  I also use a CB4500 and normally don’t have to mess with tensions much when moving up or down one size thread.  

Ok thanks for the info appreciate it!

[WolfteverGunleather]

Very nice!

[Doug61]

Nicely done, I really like the texturing.

 

 

Doug