*Making a simple leather sheath*
Materials. Leather 6-8 oz., rivets, contact cement, leather dye.
Tools. Olfa knife/scissors, hammer, drill or hole punch.
Tandy leather is where I get most of my leather.
Trace out the knife on the inside (rough side) of the leather, and then make another line ˝" larger. Cut out that piece using an olfa knife or good strong scissors. Flip the piece over, trace it on the leather and cut out the second piece. You now have both sides of the sheath.
Spread contact cement on the outer ˝" of the sheath, making sure you put it on the inside part of the sheath.
Mark where you will place your rivets. Make sure you put rivets at stress points (mouth of the sheath) and close enough together to ensure the knife blade cant be pushed through between the rivets.
Use a drill bit the same size diameter as the rivet shaft to make the holes or use a hole punch. The rivets should be just long enough to poke through both pieces of leather. Too long and the rivet will bend sideways. Too short and the rivet wont catch when you pound the head on..
Also now is the time to make the belt loop and attach them when you rivet the whole thing together. This sheath is being built for horizontal carry and I have added extra holes for the loops and am using Chicago bolts so I can remove the loops so it can be carried on the left or right or even add a regular belt loop.
After the sheath is riveted together it is more or less done. However the knife wont fit in the sheath and it is a raw lather color.
To fit the knife in the sheath you could soak it in water, force the knife in and let it dry(and rust your blade). You can use acetone to wet the leather instead, it dries faster, wont rust the blade, or 2 steps…. in one dye the leather, and when the sheath is wet fit the knife inside. Use gloves, the dye will come off your hands in a couple days.
Even with the sheath wet the knife may not fit inside. Don’t force the knife in, if you slip it will get messy and ugly fast!!. Use a tapered piece of wood to stretch the mouth of the sheath, and then push the knife in. Let it dry for 1 hr .
After the sheath is dry, coat with a leather finish such as Tandy Supershene. And when that is dry put some neatsfoot oil inside the sheath to help prevent rusting.
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