I've made a few of these simple sheaths for medieval style knives and I thought I would share my process in case someone would like to make a similar one for a knife in their collection.

First off I start with some 2.5oz veg. tanned leather, I cut the piece about twice as long as the blade, and about 2.5 times as wide. This piece of leather is soaked in isopropyl alcohol and working by hand to break up the grain and make it soft, imagine you are rinsing a rag that you are using to clean the floor to get a general idea.

Once the leather starts feeling soft I let the alcohol evaporate off and then soak the leather in warm water for about 10 minutes. Then I remove, and squeeze the extra water off, and glue the inside with leather cement, and fold in half so that the fold is at the throat of the sheath. Folding the leather in two with the leather cement makes it "two ply" and it helps make the leather stiff and rigged with little effort. I wrap the leather around the knife, and with clip the ends with black binder clips along where the seem will be. (See photo 1) At this point you want to leave a little extra width at the throat so that when the leather shrinks a little the blade isn't cutting the leather every time to take the blade in and out. With a bone knife you can press the outline of the grip, and once the glue cures (about 5-10 minutes) the form won't change or move on you so you can take a break.

When the leather is dry you can remove the binder clips and remove the blade. I roll a spiked wheel on the seem to mark where the holes will be stitched, and then press a needle/awl through the holes in order to make stitching easier. (See photo 2) Then starting at the tip I go up to the throat, then back down and tie off the thread. Sometime with misaligned holes the sheath can twist a little, just put the knife back in, spray the outside with water and everything should come back to being straight and pretty :)

Now the nerve wrecking part! carefully trim the excess leather off the spine, making sure you don't trim too much, and be sure that both sides are as even as you can get them. (See photo 3) Now you can dye the inside of the throat, insert the knife, and dye the outside as well. Make sure to get the dye as even as you can, work quick, stop when you think its close, and let it dry. If you put too much dye on you can go over the surface with a damp cotton rag soaked in acetone and pull some color out and blend.

While the dye is drying fashion two rings that will hold a belt loop, then make a belt loop. For the loop I cut a strip of leather, I shave the ends down and fold it over so that once again the leather is "two ply" with the shaved ends overlapping by about a centimeter and glue the touching surfaces of the loop. You now have a ring of leather, and two metal rings to attach to the sheath.

With an awl punch two holes in the spine, and insert the rings. Feed the loop into the bottom ring, and then stitch the loop to close it over the ring. Line up where the second ring will rest, and stitch the bottom, then insert the ring, and stitch the top. (See photo 4) Now squeeze the rings closed, work some leather lotion into the surfaces, and make sure to get a good coat on the spine and holes for the belt loop.

Now clean off the knife and you are done! (See photo 5)

Some pointers:
Paint the surface of the blade with clear nail polish, this will drastically help keeping the blade from pitting and getting mucked up from the moisture. Also wrap in clear plastic wrap as a second barrier, plus it keeps dye off the handle material.

Be sure to let all the alcohol evaporate off the leather prior to gluing otherwise the glue won't be as effective, or just won't hold.

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yep.. the center seam is my favorite construction style to make now. And those look awesome. I really like your loop system.

Hi Michael,

Thank you very much for this. I've often wondered how you made the 2 sheaths of yours that I've got - so thin yet stiff, & both tough & precise. I see no hint of knives cutting sheaths either, amazing (to me) given so snug.

Dumb questions:
- what % alcohol do you use?
- what leather cement? tend toward use a lot or sparingly?
- how do you trim the seam - if its already stiff can't lay it flat for a sharp knife? scissors?

Thanks again. - Carl

Michael...

What do you mean by 'gluing the inside with rubber cement'? Are you coating the entire inside with it to form a layer of sorts?

edit... nevermind... I see now. Interesting.... thanks for posting this. My scabbards will improve.

Nice bit of work there. Do you ever line them with wood as well ? I tend to use that method on smaller knives sometimes, stops any danger of cutting through the sheath.

Trick is to get them nice and thin though or they look all clumsy and wrong.

Yours is elegant and very nicely done. :)

Hi Michael-

Great work. I'm thrilled you're sharing this with us.

I'm curious why you use the isopropyl alcohol. This is only something I've done when I wanted to wet-form the leather with a reduced dry time compared to water. Since you're going to water after that, this seems superfluous. In my experience, alcohol dries out the leather and then requires more care be taken during finishing. Have you tried just warm water and skipping the alcohol altogether?

Hi Nathan,

I'm happy to share what I know :)

I started using isopropyl alcohol as a tip from another maker when I was having trouble breaking in my leather and making it soft and accept the dye in a more consistent manner. I found that by working the alcohol into the leather it helps break up the grain and make the leather more soft and pliable then when I use just water. Of course this could also just be a reflection of the leather that I am using and other hides may come softer and this step might not be needed. (I am using 2oz. vegetable tanned tooling leather from Tandy)

If the hide is super stiff, I have found that running the back of the leather over a piece of steel, polished, with a sharp 90 degree edge helps jump start the process.

The reason why I soak the leather in water after the alcohol is because the glue doesn't hold or take a bond when soaked in the alcohol and I need it to be soft to form it around the blade.

The dye that I use is oil based, and after it dries I apply leather lotion several times, allowing the lotion to sit on the surface for a few minutes and work it into the surface with a soft cotton rag. This result in a nice pliable finish and helps improve the color and luster.

Thanks for the tip on Lexol, I will pick some up and give it a try when I order some dye in the next couple of weeks.

Part of the intrigue of this art and sharing with the community is you always learn something new, and the more you learn the more you realize how much more you have yet to discover.

Beautiful work Michael.
I'll have to try the alcohol I have always just used water. Thanks for sharing.

I suggest adding a "help and how to" forum for posts like this, or at least making them sticky.

Well this one is on it's way to me and it's really interesting seeing how the scabbard is put together.

I already have couple of Michael's By-Knives and their scabbards and they look really good up close also.

Michael,

Thank you for sharing the information and photographs. I've had scabbard making described to me before, but now it makes sense!

I have yet to make a scabbard for the seax purchased from you last year. :blush: Would you recommend using the same process only marrying the leather on the "blade edge" vs. on a "flat side". Would you sew the seam before wrapping it in stamped brass or just rivet the brass pieces in place?

I believe a little seax sheath tutorial would be very well received! :)

Thank you for pointing out the thread and the pictures therein. They helped confirm the "pictures in my head".

I hope that I didn't take this thread too far off course by asking about seax sheaths as the process seems so similar, only the placement of the seam differs.

Thanks again,

Scott