A tight fit!

[Wushuplayer]

Hi,

I just bought a plain leather sheath for my Mora Garberg knife from TBS and boy is it a tight fit! I wrestle to remove it from the sheath and I'm worried about trimming my waist line of the wrong kind when removing it from the sheath.

TBS Leather Standard Brown Knife Sheath

Our TBS sheaths have become so popular as stand alone products we have diversified to many other leather products and this is a complete bargain. It

www.thebushcraftstore.co.uk

I'm sure it'll get looser over time but is there a way of speeding this process up without making it too loose?

Thanking you in advance.

 

[Nice65]

It’s just a guess this. What about a bit of silicone spray? The stuff used on curtain rails

 

[TLM]

If you use silicone spray do it outside the house. Otherwise everything inside is covered with a thin silicone oil layer.

 

[Robbi]

don't know how that would react with the leather.

wet forming will work.

soak the sheath in water untill it is completely wet through then simply put the knife into the sheath and leave it. every couple of hours as the sheath dries out, pull the knife in and out a number of times, this will stretch the sheath to fit the knife.

 

[Nice65]

I don’t think silicone reacts with much, certainly won’t harm leather. As you say, reforming the sheath will work, but I’d reckon it could do more damage than a spray. Once a sheath is baggy and misshapen it’s hard to get back.

 

[Robbi]

true enough, but the answer is .............

don't get it baggy

 

[swotty]

don't know how that would react with the leather.

wet forming will work.

soak the sheath in water untill it is completely wet through then simply put the knife into the sheath and leave it. every couple of hours as the sheath dries out, pull the knife in and out a number of times, this will stretch the sheath to fit the knife.

I wrap the knife in cling film first with tape on the cutting edge especially if it's carbon steel to prevent any corrosion.

Sent from Somerset using magic

 

[Orhdposs]

If and when it ends up loose I just put a couple of extra stiches in to tighten it back up.

 

[punkrockcaveman]

If you use silicone spray do it outside the house. Otherwise everything inside is covered with a thin silicone oil layer.

It's great fun on laminate flooring

 

[TLM]

Laminate flooring is the easy part. I heard the industrial horror story (I think it MBB at the time) from Germany when somebody used silicone oil on some machinery in a hall where they did the final assembly (adhesive bonding) of helicopter rotor blades. For the next several months nothing stuck to anything until they got in a surface chemist who analyzed a lot of things and found that everything was covered in silicone oil. I think everything in that hall was scrapped and a new building built. Silicone oil was Verboten in the whole factory after that I think.

 

[Wushuplayer]

cool, thanks for the advice guys, sheath soaked and drying.
Fortunately it is a stainless steel blade. Will report back on how it goes.

 

[Robbi]

Make sure you pull the knife in and out a good couple of times every hour.

It will be dry and fne in the morning.

 

[Erbswurst]

I think you shouldn't push it too deep, to keep approximately 8 mm spare room from the tip of the knife to the bottom of the sheath.
Like this the tip later doesn't touch the bottom of the sheath should the sheath become wider with the time of use.

I think after drying the sheath out well and later greasing it a relatively strong grip becomes a bit lower because the leather fat lowers the friction.

 

[Orhdposs]

I have on the odd occasion had a very loose sheath so I cut the stiches, line the sheath with some thin leather and re-stich for a tighter fit.

 

[Robbi]

How did it go ?

 

[Orhdposs]

How did it go ?

Come out good was for an Esee RB3

 

[Wushuplayer]

ooooh yeah! Fits like it was meant to! Thanks for the tip.
I have some Renapur leather Balsam, that should be ok to use on it right?

 

[Erbswurst]

Thanks God, he is back!

I totally forgot to mention, that when I did it recently, I was very tired.
I awoke with the index finger in the perfectly fitting sheath, unable to get the finger out of it.

I went to the Berlin central hospital Charité and discovered when I awoke from the narcosis, that they had decided to save the expensive leather sheath and did cut off the finger. Especially in Prussian academic circles bushcraft is pretty common...

After I learnt now how to write with the middle finger at the smartphone I totally agree with that method.

 

[Robbi]

ooooh yeah! Fits like it was meant to! Thanks for the tip.
I have some Renapur leather Balsam, that should be ok to use on it right?

Well done.

The balsam will be fine, not too much though as it could soften the leather.

 

[Erbswurst]

Shouldn't he wait another day until it's really dried out, before greasing it?

Should he now take out the knife? It has a polyamide handle.