Advice needed on a leather/wood sheath combi

[Biker]

Dear Hivemind,

I'm currently making a combined wooden and leather sheath for a scandi type knife I bought on BB early last year. I've got the wood part done beautifully if I say so myself and I know pretty much how I want the leather part that covers the handle to look, but I also want to wet form it for that "snap lock" fitting.

However I'm left with a problem. If I'm wet forming it around the handle how do I glue it to the wooden part of the sheath?

Is there a glue that would work on wet leather and still set? The last thing I need is for the wooden end to fall off one day while I'm carrying it on my belt.

So I'm left with two choices:

Glue the dry leather to the wooden sheath wait till it's dried then soak the leather and wet form it about the knife handle and hope the glue stays tight on the wooden sheath part.

Or

Should I wet form it around the wooden sheath and handle (suitably covered in clingfilm of course) let the whole thing dry and then glue it into place?

Anyway, any tips you can suggest would be most helpful.

Also, I read someplace that if you add baking soda to the water when soaking the leather it eventually drys much harder than it was originally. Is that correct or am I mis-remembering? Would force drying it on a radiator give me the same results?

Ta muchly.

 

[John Fenna]

When I have made wood and leather sheathes I have never glued them and none have fallen apart!
At the throat of the wooden bit I have carved one (or two) grooves or a lip and then wet formed the leather around both knife and sheath forcing the leather deep into the groove by tying it tightly with a thin nylon cord - and I MEAN tightly! The leather was made extreemly tight fitting to start with and when wet had to be forced onto the wood with great effort.

As you can see I have also tended to tie a decorative cord of leather into the groove once it is all finished.
As to adding stuff to the water when wet moulding - I have not tried that!
I soak the leather in warm water and force dry the leather in my dehydrator (not too hot to avoid ruining the epoxy glue in the wood section and knife handle) and it comes out pretty darn stiff. I finish the leather with Nikwax or similar (said not to soften the leather...) and boot polish fot the final shine.
No failures or complaints yet!

 

[Biker]

Thanks John, Any chance of you emailing a larger version of that picture you posted?

What I've done thus far is make the wooden part into a shouldered "tenon" so that the leather will slip over it and be flush with the rest of the wood sheath (eventually, after a bit of sanding I expect). I had thought of using one of the dogs chews and saoking that in water until I can unravel the rawhide. I figured once that was wrapped around the leather it's shrink and pinch the leather onto the wood underneath. Much the same as you described.

 

[John Fenna]

PM on its way!

 

[brancho]

The ones I have done have all been friction fit by filing a couple of grooves round the top of the wooden part and wet fowming the leather into teh grooves. I just pushed the leather into te grooves with a pece of wire coat hanger as it dried and it wet for foormed just great.

Here is a shot of the sort of thing different knives and the first shot is someone elses work.

wood and leather sheath by alfred.branch, on Flickr


fifth knife 2 by alfred.branch, on Flickr


Scandi kith 5 by alfred.branch, on Flickr

 

[GordonM]

Your knives are beautiful Alf!

Gordy

 

[Biker]

Thanks Alf! Stunning work there too. My knife is very similar in shape to the last image and the finished sheath will look something like the 2nd image down, just without the stepped line on the upper edge. Thanks for sharing and for your advice.
However, like a numpty I've already cut a shouldered tenon, and what I'm left with is the 20mm tenon that will poke into the upper leather section. I'm just stressing about that not being enough area of friction to be locked in tight enough. The wood I have has an amazing grain pattern. I wiped some linseed oil on an off cut yesterday and it looked stunning, and I use that word sparingly. I just hope the rest of the sheath's up to the same standard.

Any one care to chip in advice about the baking soda in the water solution so the leather dries much stiffer? I'm sure I read that someplace.

 

[Biker]

Deleted this posting in favour of starting a new one. My ego wasn't pandered enough to LOL!!