Custom Fit Knife Sheaths Progress

With a little extra time in the workshop this week I finished up three of these custom fit knife sheaths. Each style is meant to test out slightly different techniques on the classic ‘folder’ style knife sheath. Above is the glue-up and clamping of the first style. It takes quite a bit of clamps to secure the thicker leather I am using. I made sure to dry it overnight for a strong bind when pushing the awl through the back side of the leather.

The sheath above is a test on both – using my natural black dye as well as a machine stitch on the welt and belt loops.

Here are the three versions above prepped and ready for dipping in my hot oil/wax mixture – a natural finish that takes longer to apply, but does a much better job at weather resistance.

On the tan sheath I dyed just the edge with the black dye, then sanded it down a bit before dipping in the oil.

After hot wax dipping, these sheaths darkened nicely. Man you really have to be careful as the wax does like to go everywhere and can be quite the pain in the tush to clean up!

I hand-burnished and slicked all of the edges on each sheath to a smooth glassy finish. It’s that extra touch that helps bump the leatherwork up a few notches.

I think my favorite is still this western style knife sheath above – though I wish I would have curved the stamping along the edge instead of making it a straight line. I did that more because of the fact that the welt is directly below the unstamped area (rule book states not to stamp there, but I guess I’ll give that a shot next!). Next up – cross draw knife sheath and pancake style knife sheath.