OK Leather guru's, here's what I'm wanting to do....

[McClellan Made Blades]

I'm going to be making my first, ok maybe not 1st, but really my first that will be going with one of my knives, what I decided to do is a pancake style with framed windows and leg ostrich inlays, with the windows backed so the ostritch is pushed forward. I "think'' I have most of this figured out, except for one thing, does the framed section with the inlay need another piece of leather backing behind it? I'm a little concerned it may end up too thick, but once it's done and wet formed, what I have in mind should look good...provided I don't bugger up any of the tooling! Thanks Guys, Rex

 

[Paul Long]

Rex, Yes the framed section as well as the whole sheath needs that second layer of leather backing.

Start from the beginning......Block cut the sheath pattern transferred to leather( 7/8 oz or 8/9 oz.) Then split this piece in half yielding two at about 2/3 and 4/5 oz each. Set the back piece aside. Cut the inlay window out of the front piece and save the cut out for later use as a backer for the exotic inlay material. Install the inlay and place the backer in place and then contact cement the two halves back together as they were when original (prior to the split). Now you have the inlay encased between two pieces of leather as well as the entire sheath.

Now you are ready to cut the block cut piece into the finished final shape of the sheath. Do this and then perform your stitching around the edge of the window with the inlay. Now you are ready to line the sheath if you are going to.

Tooling takes place after all these steps are complete, and you will find wet forming and inlays DO NOT mix well.

All of this is covered in great detail and demonstrated on my DVD "Basic Pouch Sheaths" if you want to check it out there.

Edited to add: If you don't have the capability of splitting, you can start with a top or front piece of 2/3 oz of leather and then back it with a piece of 7/8 oz using the same construction sequence as above.

Paul

 

[McClellan Made Blades]

Thanks Paul,
It took me reading and re-reading your post a few times to get my mind wrapped around what you were saying, but I did finally understand what you were saying. I checked my limited leather supply and found I do have some 3 to 4 OZ. leather, I was thinking if I used that, for the front and back of the outside pancake and with the Ostritch leg in the middle, wouldn't that make it thick enough and fit right? If I'm way of here please let me know, I haven't ever split leather, and I don't have a round knife yet, I was planning on making one,.....eventually. When I was buying my leather stuff, all they had at the time was a Damascus round knife, that was priced way too high, then out of no where our local Tandy that had been in Montgomery, AL for around 30 years just packed up and left, moved to a much larger city up north around Birmingham, so now I'll be left to ordering all of my supplies. Any recommendations for where the best places to buy leather and other tools? I stocked up on leather there for a while, it seemed that everytime I went in there, they had a sale going on, double shoulders for 50 bucks seemed like a pretty good deal. I think most of them were between 12 and 15 square feet, so they were good sized, I don't think they were premium pieces, as some had damage to them, my guy there kept telling me some of the had brands on them, I went through 20 to 30 of them hoping to find one branded! Never did, most were bug bites or injuries. I thought it would be cool to incorporate a "natural" brand into a sheath, could be wrong, but I thought it would be cool!

Thanks for the help Paul, I did get started on it, we have been moving and getting settled into our new home, I got a little time to get started Saturday, Sunday we had to dig up the power line going to my shop so I can re-route it to the house, Alabama red clay is so much fun to dig, and when it's wet it's a entirely different experience! It kicked my butt working on that all day yesterday and I had "help", my boys and one of their friends were working with me, as long as I kept them on task and not chasing worms they worked good, plus it was raining the entire time, which made everything that much worse. I'll be getting back to it as soon as I can, Thanks so much for the help and one more thing, where can I buy your DVD from, and which one should I buy, for a beginner, a really bad beginner!?!?!? Thanks, Rex

 

[Paul Long]

Rex, the combined weights of 4/5 front and 4/5 back and Ostrich is the middle might work out just fine. I've never tired it, but it does sound like it might work okay

There is a link there at the bottom of all my posts (chriscrawfordknives.com). He is the one selling the DVDs, and I believe probably the :Basic Pouch Sheaths" would be a good one to start with. There are tree DVDs total, and each covers different ground, so depending on how far you take this new endeavor, you would probably find all three useful at some time.

You can feel feee to call me if you want some conversation type answers to your questions. The phone number is down there below my posts as well.

Paul

 

[McClellan Made Blades]

Rex, the combined weights of 4/5 front and 4/5 back and Ostrich is the middle might work out just fine. I've never tired it, but it does sound like it might work okay

There is a link there at the bottom of all my posts (chriscrawfordknives.com). He is the one selling the DVDs, and I believe probably the :Basic Pouch Sheaths" would be a good one to start with. There are tree DVDs total, and each covers different ground, so depending on how far you take this new endeavor, you would probably find all three useful at some time.

You can feel free to call me if you want some conversation type answers to your questions. The phone number is down there below my posts as well.

Paul

I'll check them out, basic pouch sheaths would be a good one, I have sorta made one of those, actually my wife ended up making it I was struggling so bad it was sad and I think she took pity on me. She sews all the time, and that's what I was having a hard time with at the time.

So far I've gotten the frame rough cut out, tomorrow night I hope to have the time to burnish the edges of the frame and get the ostrich leg prepared and cut, make sure I allowed enough room for stitching, before I cut the ostrich. I appreciate all the help and if you have any pointers I'd love to hear them, oh and do you have any suggestions for suppliers? Thanks so much for all of your help, Rex