Anyone Use Pen

Alden Cole

Well-Known Member
to mark their sheath? I saw that Bob loveless did, and wondered whether it is a good permanent mark? Will it wash out with water, etc. Also, if anyone is/has done this, do you do this before or after oiling? I assume it wouldn't work well if you were dying the sheath. Thank you!
 
Are you talking about using an ink pen for your name/mark/logo on a leather sheath? Not a good idea. It is semi-permanent, but will smudge/bleed when wetted and/or when any coating/finish is applied.

do you do this before or after oiling
There are problem either way.... if before, read above. If you try to do it after oiling/finishing, it will never dry and as soon as you touch it with a finger/hand, it will smudge all over the place.

If you're gona mark sheaths, I'd recommend some type of a stamp. I can't remember when I got them made, but I have stamps that I use in the arbor press....made a flat piece of plastic, about the size of a quarter, with my name "raised/reverse" on them. I wet the area with acetone, lay the stamp over it, and then press it down/in with the arbor press..... let it dry for a few minutes, and on with completing the sheath.
 
If you are talking about in lieu of dye, I do cheat sometimes. I will use a sharpie permanent marker to color my outside groove line.
If you are talking about an ordinary ink pen, then no I do not use them on any leather surface.
 
Hi all, thank you for responding! I take it that using pen for writing you name is not considered a good idea. I will have to get a stamp at some point, and for that does anyone have a favorite supplier? Before you guys posted your responses I already had written on a sheath, fortunately this one was mostly for fun and I will only give it away or keep it for myself. The knife is not perfect so I just made a work sheath for it. It did seem to work well though and doesn't show any sign of smearing, fading, etc. I wrote on it before I oiled it, using olive oil. Thanks again!
 
Now I understand what you mean. You wish to sign your sheaths. Like a makers mark. You can sign them if you wish. Unfortunately, over time it will fade. Kind of like putting your name on your baseball glove when you were younger. At my age, I cannot see it any longer. Hope that helps.
As far a a stamp. I use my knife stamp and a cheap stamp I picked up at Tandy.
 
If you want to use a pen to mark out where to cut your leather or the boundary to lay out your tooling, Chuck Rose recommended to use a red ink pen because the leather dyes would cover over it. That's what I have done on my sheathes and I have never had the red ink to show through. Of course, that would not be your concern if you wanted to sign your sheaths or put the buyers name on it.

For that I would get a set of letter stamps and carefully lay out what you wanted to stamp (this is where the red in pens would come in) and then stamp the name or words you wanted. Another idea would be to get a wood burning pen and burn the words into the leather.

Doug
 
That sounds like a good idea, I will have to try it. I often do not dye my sheaths, just oil them, and recently I have been trying to hot wax them. I'm guessing the red ink would show through? Thanks
 
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