Longhunters knife sheath

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M

Macon Due

45 Cal.
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A while back I made a Longhunters or rifleman's knife and finally got around to making a sheath for it. I followed Wicks excellent instructions, ofcourse I overdid the squeezing in the vice a bit
and kinda squeezed the brown out of my leather in places..? So I used my homemade vinegaroon dye and dyed it black. Anyway here are a couple of pictures...[i hope]
Macon
IMG_5741.jpg

IMG_5742.jpg
 
Very good! Nice straight seam line, but if you do another, round the ends of the form plates, and you won't get that sharp crease at the grip junction. You really can't tighten down too much, as long as you have the blade or a form in the sheath. If you let it dry well then oil it, the color will comeback, just darker. Takes a few days sometimes for the oil to even out.
 
Wick
Thank you Sir. I did round the ends like in your pictures so I was kinda surprised at the straight line myself? I cranked it so tight that it litterly squeezed the oils in the leather and I think some of the wax from my waxed thread into parts of the leather and totally out of other parts. I truly thought that the color would not come back. That's why I went with black. I am going to try another one when it cools down a bit [108 deg. here today] I guess I'll try rounding the edge of my blocks even more.....I will try leaving it brown next time and letting the oil even out a bit.
Thank you all for the comments.
Macon
 
If that is your first try at that style of sheath GREAT job and if not it is still a really nice work.
 
Nice. I wonder where the little hump came from near the tip? I've got a ball grip that I am still not satisfied with. Still need to take down the thickness near the tip and refit the sheath.
 
KennyC
Yes it is my first attempt at a center seam but I have worked with leather before. Thank you for the kind words.

Wayne
I think the little 'hump/ball thingy was from me pressing the sheath a bit too well and not quite as much pressure on the very tip. I used the 'Wick style' pressing blocks [only out of a thick plastic material] and put the main part in my vise then used C-clamps on the tip end. I had both squeeky tight but i'm thinking the C-clamps were not as tight?
Next one I'll not squeeze quite as tight overall.
It's flat and hard,I hate to get hit with even just the sheath.
Macon
 
A little too much leather near the point. I try to use the minimum leather I think I can get away with. Most often I have to seat the last half inch of the knive fit with a mallet, BUT, I use mock up knives of aluminum and cheap wood as forms. On occassion I do fail. Not often, but it does happen. When you make wrap around sheaths, you are making a tube. the inside of the tube is always smaller than the pattern because of the wall thickness of the leather. What usually works for me is to make the pattern to account for this. In the case of a center seam I first fold the leather around the knife blade or form, and trim if needed to leave me about 1/8" on each side for the seam, all the way to the point. If a dropped point knife, the blade has to be rolled toward the point to check for this. Something close to an eighth inch, or just a tad more, puts the sewn seam right at the blade width, causing the blade to be forced in a bit after wetting. I cover the blades with duct tape and wax them well. If you skive the edges to about half thick, and taper your skive toward the center about 1/3 of the way, you increase the interior size of the tube, and also will make a straighter and flatter seam. When the sheath is pressed in the vise, it will expand giving the sheath about 1/8" clearance on each side of the blade. My press blocks are well rounded at the grip end, much like the front of a sled. You can see the curvature in this shot.

pennyknife650_640x480.jpg
 
Thank you all ,I really like it and I think I'll make another one in brown.

Wick........I wonder if I made my rounded part on the 'squeezer' forms too tapered ? Mine is a lot more gentle or gradual rounding than yours.......do you think that might be the problem with the straight line across my sheath?
Thanks.....Macon
 
Geez, if that's what you did, I really don't know. I move my curve in as close as I dare. I put the sheath in the form blocks, lock it down for a good hard squeeze, then take it out to see if everything went right. If it did, I put everything back as it was, and squeeze it down as tight as it will go. Was it maybe the photo that shows the crease sharper than it really is? I have never experienced that. My battle was with getting a uniform paralleled seam that did not snake around. That, and getting the seam at least eyeball centered down the sheath body. Try and re-do the curve on the blocks for the next one. Try and position them close to the grip without squeezing at the grip so tight as it moves the knife outwards.
 
Wick
I think the photo might make it look a bit 'sharper' than it really is but......it is still too sharp of a line I think. I will redo the rounded part of my blocks before the next sheath. I appreciate the help.
Macon
 

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