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The Sheath/Holster Makers Forum This is the place to discuss all forms of sheath and holster making.

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  #1  
Old 03-20-2012, 11:25 PM
5artist5 5artist5 is offline
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Practice Cases

While I am waiting for my first batch of knives to come back from heat treat I thought I would practice my leather working skills by making some cases for some swiss army knives I had laying around. Any comments are encouraged good or bad (i can take it).

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Old 03-27-2012, 10:19 PM
Mrs_DarkOwl Mrs_DarkOwl is offline
 
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I like your work. Do you hand sew or use a machine? It kinda looks like machine, but I'm not sure. The stiches are so fine! I wonder if they would lay down more with the overstich wheel being used (I'm actually looking to by one myself) , or using a groover first.
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Old 03-27-2012, 11:22 PM
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TexasJack TexasJack is offline
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Overall, they're not bad - certainly practical.

I think if you look a the pictures you can see some of the basic things that keep them from looking professional. First, they are very uneven. Very. (A friend of mine - critiquing one of my sheaths - refers to that as "sheath love".) If you have a belt sander or disk sander you can easily even the sides up and round the ends before you sew it together.

I assume you hand stitched these. If you're using a saddle stitch, you really don't need to run a double row of stitching. That will help you make the sheaths a bit more narrow and they'll look better. Likewise, that will get rid of that "X" you have at the top. Did you use an awl? The holes look to be round instead of diamond. Either that or you didn't angle them.

There's no evidence of a stitch groove. That will help the look of your stitching a lot and will also make the stitching less likely to be damaged in use. Tap the stitches with a hammer when you finish to "set" the stitches.

Professional looking sheaths have very smooth edges. Yours don't. (Look at the top left of your first photo.) Spend some time polishing the edges. Generally, fine sandpaper followed by rubbing them smooth. I usually use gum tragnanth, but not everybody does. Gum trag can also be used to smooth the rough side of the leather that winds up inside your sheaths.


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Old 03-30-2012, 08:14 PM
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T.WOLFE T.WOLFE is offline
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Also,you can take a kitchen fork,leave two tines on it,bend one tine up slightly,and you have an edge creaser.Great for going around the edge of the flap,and giving a better appearance.It's called Okie Engineering.Have fun,you're looking good....Tom
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Old 04-23-2012, 06:57 PM
Sandy Morrissey Sandy Morrissey is offline
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As stated by my friends, spend a little more time on the constructiion and dispense with a double row of stitching. Invest in an edger and a creaser for the little touches that proclaim professionalism. Go for it, you have a good start--------------Sandy


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art, blade, diamond, edge, hammer, heat treat, holster, knives, leather, leather die, leather tooling, sheath, sheaths, tanning


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