A New Sheath in progress

[BrokenolMarine]

This will be an attempt at a new style of sheath for me. I am trying this on one of the smaller knives I finished after my hand started working again. This style of sheath is called a pancake. Something different. I am using a scrap piece of practice leather and if it doesn't work out, I'll toss it and use it as a learning experience, nothing lost, practice and knowledge gained.

The first step, of course, is the layout. I begin by laying the knife on the leather and moving it around, deciding where the front piece will come from, the best looking area, and then where the support pieces need to be cut from.

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Once I have determined the location, I have to decide on the details of the shape then draw them out. A more complicated design I might draw on paper and then transfer to a cardboard template before transferring to the leather. In this case, I knew about what I wanted so I drew it directly on the back side of the leather.

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Next up, cut out all the pieces. A front panel, matching back panel, two welts used to keep the blade from eating the stitches as the knife is inserted and removed from the sheath, and a rear belt loop, sewn on the back panel. I'll decide during the construction if this will be a vertical or canted design... and sew the loop to the back panel before assembly of the sheath.

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All this practice over the last few weeks is put to use. I laid out the guidelines and then put some basketweave in the center, and a running w border. The line outside the border is a stitch line. Once the stitch holes are marked, I'll cut the channel for the stitches. I'll hand stitch this as I don't have a leather machine.

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I am actually pretty happy with the way the tooling turned out, though I can spot my minor errors right away, Miss Tina thought it looked really good. Fooled 'er. That's what it's all about. Minor errors are okay... I don't want her saying, "What happened HERE?" as soon as she sees a piece.

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Spraying the piece with a bit of water will give you an idea what it will look like lightly dyed. Hmmm... not bad. Might go with a darker brown. Although oiled after dying will darken it up.

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Still lot's of work... more to come. Stay tuned if you are interested.

[CT_Shooter]

Still lot's of work... more to come. Stay tuned if you are interested.

I enjoy your posts.

I'm sure that you've been told you're a great story teller (readers generally are), but your photos are also well composed and exposed.

Thanks for sharing, Marine.

[markiver54]

Nice work! Will be following your efforts.

[BrokenolMarine]

It was interesting, so I did manage a second session, besides... Miss T wanted to do some vacuuming and dusting. I wanted to make myself scarce.

The next step in the process was to make the stitch groove on the front panel. You use a "Stitch Groove" tool. Where they came up with the name I don't know, but it does a great job if you go slow and stay in control. You can ruin a piece if you depend too much on the guide, or try and go to fast or cut too deep on a single pass. I usually make two passes and GO slow.

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Once the groove is in place, you use these fork like tools to mark the spacing for the holes for stitching later. Some will use the forks to PUNCH the holes thru, but I find it's lots easier to punch just enough to mark the spacing, then use the drill press to drill the holes. Cleaner holes and you don't:

a) Fight the fork, pulling it out of the leather after every punch, a real pain in the ... um... butt.
b) End up bending or breaking teeth on the fork.

I will mark the first layer, in this case, the front of the pancake holster. Then, there are two options.

a) match the other components and mark the holes in next layer pushing thru the first with a needle then drill them.
b) After glue up, I'll drill thru the other layers using the top layer as a guide, then groove the back, and sew.

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Next I plotted out and marked the holes on the back of the belt loop. To be honest, I had marked the loop the first time with a smaller triangle with less holes lower down, and decided it might not be secure enough, even glued, so I recut the loop, then remarked it with the triangle closer to each end and more holes.

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This just shows WHERE the loop will be on the back of the pancake sheath.

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After I drilled the holes for the loop, I grooved them with the grooving tool. (Not shown in this pic, but in a later one.) I took the guide off and Very Carefully did this freehand. The pucker factor was high. I had already cut out two of these things and measured twice. I didn't want to do it a third time, but would have if I had slipped with the grooving tool. You have to groove the front and the back to protect the stitching...

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This last pic shows the detail work on the back panel and the loop. It's unneeded detail since this part would be against the body of the wearer, but it's practice and ... well... a chance to add some professionalism. I have seen holsters and sheaths that have the design or a design on the back so they don't look so plain when you aren't wearing them. Meh... I was bored.

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Next up, adding some dye and getting ready to assemble. (As Johnny Five would say....)

So, stay tuned for more...

[BrokenolMarine]

First step before dying, is to mark the areas where you have to apply glue, and try and avoid applying dye. If you dye the area, you'll have to sand the area and hope the glue will stick.

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I carefully marked the areas where I needed to avoid on the back of the loop and the front of the back panel. I forgot the areas on the two panels where the welts would go. I remembered as I dyed the back of the rear panel so I winged it on the back of the front panel.

Meh... It sux when your memory is fried... checklist. I need to make one for EVERY thing.


But, I dyed things up, and they are looking good. Dye dries things, so after dying, I rubbed in a good coat of mink oil and buffed it out. Looks pretty good for now.

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Okay, Johnny Five, Drill the holes for the loop and Assemble....

[BrokenolMarine]

Two more sessions this afternoon. The first was a quick one, as far as the sheath went. I went out and scuffed the back panel in the glue up area, then the back side of the belt loop. Then before gluing I took my beveling tool and beveled all the edges of the panels that would require it. This would be the last chance so I didn't forget before I started assembling things. That done, I painted both the scuffed areas with contact cement and let it get tacky.

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Then I carefully aligned the loop and tapped it in place with a cobbler's hammer to help set the cement, and clamped it to dry. I went inside to eat, and watch a little "Lord of the Rings." The Hobbits are in danger and who knows what will happen? (Yup, I've seen it have a dozen times.)
But, Geez, One benefit of memory issues, you forget things, and when you watch movies over and over, there are always things you are seeing for the "First Time."

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Once it had time to dry, I took the Rear Panel with the loop now glued in place over to the drill press and using the original holes as guides I drilled thru the back panel. Now we are ready to sew.

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I clamp my stitching pony to the bench and sew the loop to the back panel. Using two needles you sew thru each hole from both sides, passing the needles on both ends of a single piece of catgut thru the same hole, working around the loop until you are back where you started. Patience and careful work to insure each pair of stitches are tight. When you reach the end of the loop, (or triangle in this case,) you repeat a stitch to lock the stitching in place. Cut your thread tight at the hole.

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When the stitches are done you tap them flat with the cobbler's hammer and then coat the inside with contact cement to keep the knife from cutting them.

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After drying overnight, we'll glue the two panels together and sew, dye again, then do the final finishing. We are getting there.

[BrokenolMarine]

Sorry for the delay. Had to drive to Ft Sill for annual dental. 2-1/2 hours each way, 3 hours there. Left around 10:00, home at 6:30. Pretty drive, but pretty long too. Hard on arthritis.. Lol. Back at it tomorrow.

[BrokenolMarine]

Next stage of the process is to prep for gluing. Before I do that, I took one more shot at dying. After dying, I rubbed the leather good with neats foot oil because dying always what? (Quiz here folks....)

That's right, dries the leather.... There are some areas that after glue up and sewing we might not get access to. We'd try of course, but we might miss. So, we dye again.

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Before applying the contact cement to both sides, I use the sharp prongs of the beveling tool to rough up the areas to be glued. This helps get a tight bond. Some say you don't need to do this, others say it will help. "I" need all the help I can get.

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I paint both sides in the areas I have marked and roughed up with contact cement and let them sit until they lose their gloss, then carefully mate them up as closely as possible. I purposefully left the bottom slightly oversized all thru this process, to insure there would be some overlap.

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Once the edges were mated, I tapped them with the Cobbler's hammer to seat the cement and improve my chances, and then put the clamps in place. Yes, it's a bunch of clamps. I would have used more, but there wasn't room NOTE the leather pads between the clamps and the sheath. The clamps would MAR the sheath without the pads.

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I let this glue cure for several hours.....

[BrokenolMarine]

After the glue had cured for a couple hours I came back out and removed the clamps, put them away and cleaned up the area. It was time to prep to sew. I took a stitch marking wheel and marked the spacing for a line of stitches on the inside edge of the Running W Border. This is my first time with this style sheath and in the down times I watched several other videos on the design and construction. I have tossed the welts and noted that MOST of the leathersmiths making this style don't use welts but use an internal line of stitches. So... I laid the knife in the center of the design and the internal edge would allow an internal line of stitching and NOT interfere with the existing work, Much.

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I took the glued up sheath to the drill press and drilled my way around the outside edge using the existing holes as a guide, going thru the top and back layers. I then used the marks make by the stitch roller to drill thru the inside stitch line, drilling thru BOTH layers. Not as neat, but using the black thread, they will blend in and not be too noticeable, at least it is my hope.

Putting the sheath in the stitching pony, I stitched carefully around both lines of holes, taking my time to make tight even stitches... I used the two needle method... and pulled them tight.

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The finished product looked pretty good, front and back. I had used a swivel knife to cut a groove where I hadn't used the grooving tool, and on the back as well. They laid down neatly and I tapped them all with the Cobbler's Hammer as recommended.

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After the stitching was done, I took the sharp hook knife and trimmed the excess leather from the edges, and then evened the top. Thanks to all those following along for not commenting on the ragged edges as you watched, they are now smooth and even (ish). Then to the sanding belt, and they were trued and rounded in preparation for a final (hopefully) dying and oil treatment. I used black dye for the edges as an accent, and the dark brown again for the front and back. I'll dry the sheath overnight then treat it with a finish.

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Still to go is burnishing the edges of the sheath and fitting and boning the knife into place. We'll see how that goes. Worst case this becomes a sheath for a folder.

[BrokenolMarine]

Looking back in the post at the tooled sheath before staining, who would have voted for no dark brown stain and gone for the natural oil finish? Anyone? Anyone? A light antique applied as an accent would still bring out the details.