Leather sheath question ?

[Curmudgeon74]

I've been making a few sheath's here lately and using leather I bought from a dealer in KY in a big roll.

The leather is fairly soft and thick, I know guys that use the same stuff I believe and thier sheaths are stiff as a board.

What do I need to do to get the leather to stiffen ??? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[LRB]

Water somewhat, alcohol good, acetone good. Assuming this is vege-tan. Chuck Burrows probably can tell you more. I use 91% rubbing alcohol.

 

[NJStricker]

It will depend on where the leather came from (cow, elk, etc.) and how it's tanned. I get shoulders (8-9 oz.) from Tandy and it's already fairly stiff.

 

[necchi]

The stiff ones you see may have a rawhide linner. There is documentation of wood liners also.

I generally make a rawhide linner just to keep the metal knife away from the various tanning acids used.
That way I can use soft elkhide or buckskin and get that nice feel in your hand as well as it's intent to protect the blade and the person carrying it.
The soft thick hides are easier to bead or quill.

 

[Pork Chop]

Is there a tutorial on how a rawhide liner would be installed?

 

[Curmudgeon74]

Wick do you just soak it and then let it dry ?

And if I do that will I loose any stamp work that I done on the sheath ?

Also any good suggestion's on where to get rawhide ?

I bought a chew toy and soaked it but once dried it was stiff, real stiff.

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

 

[necchi]

Is there a tutorial on how a rawhide liner would be installed?

Not really but here is an old discussion with a few tips.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/233944/tp/0/all/1/

And another,,even better.
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/233878/fromsearch/1/tp/0/all/1/

 

[crockett]

How soft is the leather? I think Wick has the answer because I use alcohol based dyes a lot and cut them with rubbing alcohol and then give the leather parts a bath- that way the dye job is a lot more even than using a cotton swab. In any event if you are using the oak tanned "carving" leather the leather will be thinner but stiffer after it dries. As long as you are careful the dye job should not take out the stamp work. Just dye the leather and let it dry.
On the rawhide- look at the Crazy Crow website for a source. If you want a really stiff piece of rawhide buy one of their shields- you can get two sheaths out of it however they have painted one side of the shield white- it fortunately isn't very good paint so scrape it off and use that side for the inside of the sheath. The dog toys are ok as long as there aren't any nicks however the rawhide is pretty thin- the dog toys work better for liners. Wet the dog toy and tack it out flat to dry wrinkle free.
If you are like me- you are probably chopp'n at the bit to make a rawhide sheath but the sheath is as stiff as a board and the leather is realy better IMHO.

 

[LRB]

I don't do a lot of stamping, just my name and border creases. They stay in well, if the leather is allowed to fully dry before it is re-wetted. If I had stamp decoration, I don't think I would drown the leather, maybe just a moderate wetting down. Experiment on some scrap. It "seems" that once well wetted, then stamped, then fully dried, that things are set, and further wetting after full dry has only minor effect on stamp work, if any, but you would need to check for yourself. Gray Wolf, Chuck Burrows, is the one that would have more definative answers for you. He does a lot of stamp work on gun holsters and such, and is as good as they come.