For those of you who are using the drill press to make the stitching holes try a 2mm drill bit, BUT grind the top end to a point and reverse the bit in the press. This punches a clean hole through the leather and leaves the surface clean with no tears. I have been doing it this way for some time and would ever use a drill bit the 'right ' way round again for leather work.
My process is to sew on the belt loop then glue the welt to one side using a good contact glue (F2 here in NZ) then after glueing the other face of the welt and remaining edge and the glue is dry, I fold the sheath to about half its final shape and run a thin stream of water down which facilitates the folding and glueing down of the second side. Then I clean up the edge on a worn 60 grit belt, edge bevel and run the groover round, mark the hole spacings and take it to the drill press. Having wetted the fold, the sheath will now lay perfectly flat on the drill press block and the holes can be punched. I do turn the sheath over and run the point of the sharpened drill stem through from the back as that makes the hand stitching from that side a little easier.
I also will use a shallow pan and lay the edge in water so it wets the stitching row as this allows me to pull the thread tight into the rear of the leather a bit more that it would if the leather was dry and hard.
As soon as the stitching is done I will get my fngers into the sheath and round out the folded edge and set it asside for a couple of days to dry before I hot wax and form to the knife
