Axe sheath/ cover help

[chuck123wapati]

17 minutes ago, MtlBiker said:

Dave, that's really nice looking! 

I'm learning how to hand-stitch leather and I thought a good project would be to make a sheath (similar to yours) for an old axe I have.  I saw a Weaver Leather video on YouTube which made it look fairly simple and straight forward.  So following the instructions in the video, I traced around the axe blade, added 3/8" for the welt and stitch line and started cutting out my leather from some 9oz veg tan I had.  I cut a strip for the welt and wet formed it to follow the contour.  When dry, I glued it onto the back piece (the back has the flap).  Then I laid my axe on it to see how it fit and I was very pleased.  Then...

I placed the top piece on top and found there was no way I'd be able to fit the axe in it if I finished the sheath.  The video didn't run into this problem or even address it, but the axe blade is really thin at the sharp end (of course) but quite a bit thicker nearer to the handle.  So if I'd stitch the top piece onto the back with the welt, it wouldn't allow the thickness of the axe blade to fit.  Duh.  My only excuse is I'm a novice and didn't think of that (and the video didn't either).  If I understand right, you used a double welt on yours.  With 9oz leather in my case, I think a double welt still wouldn't give me enough height for the thickness of the axe there (nearer to the handle), nor would I as a novice be able to punch the holes and stitch it up.  My axe is at home but I think it was about 3/4" thick at that point, maybe even a bit more.

So I'm back to the drawing board on this one, and I'm looking for a different and easier project to practice my stitching with.  SIGH  But I think you did really well with yours.

you can add the variable thickness with a wedge shaped welt also. with welt or without the width of the blade has to be added to the pattern even with a two piece pattern, if the blade is 1/2" thick you need to add 1/4" on both pieces, what i would do on this is leave even extra leather along the bottom or edge you can trim off and dry fit test the sheath, always test fit as close as possible before gluing it up and leave some trimming room as well. Most times a paper pattern will work to test the size especially on semi flat patterns 

[MtlBiker]

2 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

you can add the variable thickness with a wedge shaped welt also. with welt or without the width of the blade has to be added to the pattern even with a two piece pattern, if the blade is 1/2" thick you need to add 1/4" on both pieces, what i would do on this is leave even extra leather along the bottom or edge you can trim off and dry fit test the sheath, always test fit as close as possible before gluing it up and leave some trimming room as well. Most times a paper pattern will work to test the size especially on semi flat patterns 

Thank you, but I'm not quite sure what you mean (due to my lack of experience probably) about a wedge shaped welt...  Are you talking about sewing in a welt as you would a gusset on a bag or somehow building up multiple layers of welt "strips" in a staggered way, with skiving where appropriate?  I'm with you on the width (thickness) of the blade needing to be added to the pattern, but that totally slipped my mind as I followed along the video tutorial.  In that tutorial, no mention was made of that at all, nor was any extra measurement given that I could see.  Looks like they skipped out an important part, which as a  novice I just followed along blindly.

I think I'll try again but this time use one piece of leather for the top and bottom, having the leather wrap around one side of the axe.  Which should take care of the blade thickness there, and then on the other side not bring the pattern back toward the handle as close.  I still need a welt of course, but I won't have to worry as much about the thickness of the blade.  I did find another YouTube tutorial on this style... Leather Axe Sheath | Easy DIY

[chuck123wapati]

41 minutes ago, MtlBiker said:

Thank you, but I'm not quite sure what you mean (due to my lack of experience probably) about a wedge shaped welt...  Are you talking about sewing in a welt as you would a gusset on a bag or somehow building up multiple layers of welt "strips" in a staggered way, with skiving where appropriate?  I'm with you on the width (thickness) of the blade needing to be added to the pattern, but that totally slipped my mind as I followed along the video tutorial.  In that tutorial, no mention was made of that at all, nor was any extra measurement given that I could see.  Looks like they skipped out an important part, which as a  novice I just followed along blindly.

I think I'll try again but this time use one piece of leather for the top and bottom, having the leather wrap around one side of the axe.  Which should take care of the blade thickness there, and then on the other side not bring the pattern back toward the handle as close.  I still need a welt of course, but I won't have to worry as much about the thickness of the blade.  I did find another YouTube tutorial on this style... Leather Axe Sheath | Easy DIY

yup you can use two or three pieces of welt whatever adds up to the thickness glue the pieces together then skive them down into a wedge shape. That is a good pattern the takeaway from that video = he made it a half inch bigger at least than his pattern. What he didn't show = checking the pattern against the blade to make sure it was big enough.

Edited March 15, 2022 by chuck123wapati

[MtlBiker]

10 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

yup you can use two or three pieces of welt whatever adds up to the thickness glue the pieces together then skive them down into a wedge shape. 

Great!  So I might be able to salvage what I've got so far.  Just by building up the welt with a few more layers.  And I just saw another video, this one by JHleather and that's what she's done.  But she only used two layers of welt and said she should have used more.  And remember from the other thread... I was worried about how I would make my stitching holes with three layers of 9oz veg tan and now I'll even have more!    Talk about jumping in at the deep end!

I really appreciate your helpful advice!
 

[chuck123wapati]

1 minute ago, MtlBiker said:

Great!  So I might be able to salvage what I've got so far.  Just by building up the welt with a few more layers.  And I just saw another video, this one by JHleather and that's what she's done.  But she only used two layers of welt and said she should have used more.  And remember from the other thread... I was worried about how I would make my stitching holes with three layers of 9oz veg tan and now I'll even have more!    Talk about jumping in at the deep end!

I really appreciate your helpful advice!
 

 

glue the pieces of welt together chisel or make your holes then skive into a wedge.

[alpha2]

5 hours ago, MtlBiker said:

I cut a strip for the welt and wet formed it to follow the contour.  When dry, I glued it onto the back piece (the back has the flap). 

I wish I'd thought of that. I cut all my welts to fit, which is a pain. At least with sheaths. Holsters, the welt makes a turn at the bottom such that I make two parts to the welt. Such a simple solution.

[alpha2]

44 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

 

glue the pieces of welt together chisel or make your holes then skive into a wedge.

Yes, skive. (Because, now that you've perfected over -pounding rivets, (my personal strong suit), you can learn to screw up skives, right?) Sorry, flashbacks to my first attempt at skiving. The outside pieces can be skived pretty far on the inside edge, as the welt is taking the edge of the blade. And, rivets are a nice touch, but with today's threads that won't rot away in a few years, the rivets are there in case the stitching fails. And, they're pretty. With practice...

One more comment on skiving, sharp as hell is not nearly sharp enough. Sharp tools in general are very important in leatherwork. (Also in other things, I'm told). And with leather tools, the skiver is right up there in importance, re: sharpness. More expensive skivers/round knives hold an edge better than cheap, conversely, cheaper ones work, but stropping after each cut is almost needed with those.

[fredk]

Whenever I did anything with a welt I cut it over wide, trimmed the inside to fit and let the rest overhang to the outside. That was just cut off at the trimming stage

[alpha2]

That'll work!

[MtlBiker]

42 minutes ago, fredk said:

Whenever I did anything with a welt I cut it over wide, trimmed the inside to fit and let the rest overhang to the outside. That was just cut off at the trimming stage

Good suggestion.  Thank you.

1 hour ago, alpha2 said:

I wish I'd thought of that. I cut all my welts to fit, which is a pain. At least with sheaths. Holsters, the welt makes a turn at the bottom such that I make two parts to the welt. Such a simple solution.

I can't take credit for that, unfortunately.  I got that from the Weaver video I linked to.

1 hour ago, alpha2 said:

One more comment on skiving, sharp as hell is not nearly sharp enough.

That's something that I'm really working on.  I'm getting better, but certainly not good enough yet.  Besides sharpening my skiving knives, I'm even trying to sharpen my awls.  And someone earlier in another thread suggested that even leather needles for machines should be sharpened.  That would certainly be going overboard for me at this stage in my (un)skill set.