Recent content by Mike Fennessy

Something to remember, even when it's split, only one of the pieces will have smooth leather that you can do any tooling on. The first leather I bought was off of ebay. It was very cheap but both sides were rough. I'm pretty sure it was what was left over after someone had leather split and...

Thanks for the tips Tracy, that's really helpful. It's great to see pics of lights and diffusers setup. I just picked up an old Rebel. Wow, what a difference compared to a point and shoot.

Great WIP. I really like the nut for fine tuning. I think I might make mine with a bit longer threaded shaft so I can use it for general layout work in metal (marking two inches in for where a hole will go for instance). Hopefully I can stop using (wearing out) my calipers :nothing:

Cool, that turned out great! Yeah, sometimes I skive the belt strap. Like you said, it depends on how thick the leather is. Lately I've wanted to have sort of an overbuilt look so I leave it thick. I should have mentioned that I do that sometimes, but on this tutorial I wanted to keep the...

Extra info. I'm always cleaning clutter out of my way. Have something handy to throw leather scraps into, they build up quick. Here's a shot of my tool organizer. It has most of my specialty knife making tools and jigs (leather, fixed blade, slip joint and liner lock). I only use about...

Put gum tragacanth on the edge then rub in with a piece of denim. After rubbing down the edge. You can skip the gum tragacanth but it's a lot of work to get it to polish up like this. Sanding to higher grits before would probably help a lot. This is a better shot of the thinned welt...

After sanding down the edges. You can see where the thinned welt layers come together. I sand up to about 400 grit. It depends on how much energy I have or how fancy the sheath is. With the gum tragacanth and all the dye, preservatives, oil and sealer the final grit isn't really crucial...

Here's where it get's a little unfair. I happened to find a perfect leather forming piece of antler in my big box of antlers. I also cut the bottom at an angle and sanded it to be more useful to me. I smoothed the edges a little and they're getting smoother over the years. You'll have to...

Holes drilled. After running the groover along the back after the holes are drilled. You can see that I got the leather a little too wet and the groover ended up dragging some across the leather. Still getting a knack for how damp to get things for different tools. Each one is different...

Here is the sheath with two more pieces of welt added (for a total of three). You can see how thick the handle is here. Most of the ones I make don't need an extra welt. I used to make much thicker handles and had many extra pieces of welt added for thickness. It ends up looking kind of...

Add contact cement where the bottom of the loop will go and let it dry. Repeat punching the holes, then stitch the same as before. Stitching each part of the belt loop should only take a couple of minutes. Trip off the bottom tip of the welt so it will blend in between the two halves of...

Once the holes are punched through, flip it over and cut a groove where the holes came through. It won't be pretty or smooth like on the smooth outside, especially without the edges of the belt loop to guide the groover, but that doesn't matter. I hate how rough it looks when I do this but...

Thanks everyone, glad you like it. TS, I bet almost any contact cement would work fine. I'll pick up some Barge at some point but after I get these sheaths put together, I can't imagine any way that you could get them apart without really trying (and using the right tools).

Running the edger along the edges. Don't do this until you're done with the groover because it lessens how much square edge you have to run against the guide (socket headed screw). The top of the belt loop needs to be attached first. Put contact cement where both pieces will come in...

*NOW IS WHEN YOU HAVE TO DECIDE IF IT'S LEFT OR RIGHT HANDED. IT'S VERY EASY TO FORGET AND END UP MAKING IT BACKWARDS* Looking at the sheath, good side of the leather facing you: Belt loop will go on the right side for a right handed sheath. You'll be cutting the groove for the stitching on...