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Finishing the Sheath
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I checked on the duck this morning to find that it had died in the night. Robyn said that she had expected that to happen, because Nipper had bitten down hard and because the leg had been dangling so uselessly. She said that there had probably been massive internal damage.
Then it was time to get on with the sheath, which was now bent into shape after being left clamped in bulldog clips overnight so that it did not come apart when I glued it. Even after twelve hours in clamps though it was still springy, so once the welt was glued in, and the leather glued together, the bulldog clips had to go back on to hold it all in place while the glue dried. I have decided to use a saddle stitch to complete the sheath as it is simple and elegant in appearance. Before I could get on with that however, I had to let the glue dry so that I could drill the stitch holes without worrying about them being out of sync. A real leather worker can do this by simply punching the leather with an awl (thread inserted in the needle) but the leather was too tough for me to do that so I waited until I could drill some holes to make my work easier.
After a couple of hours my sheath was set, though not very tightly, so I put the rivets in first in order to secure the ends before I did my stitching holes. They were not quite in line - either the rivets or the holes for the stitches - and the sheath got a bit mushed together at the top when I secured the rivets and hammered them, but it fitted with the worn look and a slightly uneven stitch line on a sheath is evidence of hand stitching over machinery, so I was not too bothered. The main problem was to ensure as straight a line as possible with the stitch holes, slight variations may denote hand stitching, but too much would just be messy. I could not draw a guide onto the leather as it would ruin the edge, so instead I opted for a measured series of dots, kept straight by trying to maintain a gap from the edge with a ruler. It worked fairly well, the retracted biro left a circular indent that the drill fitted through but did not leave an extra mark, and the ruler kept the line fairly straight. In the end only two of the drill holes were slightly out of line but as I said before, that is the evidence of handcrafting.
Once I had finished the stitching and had secured the thread I used the grinder to smooth out the edge of the sheath, rather than scoring the egdes away with a knife. The friction of this process created a slightly charred, but smooth edge that I like immensely. My last task, which I reath should have done first was to cut and fold the belt loop. I had left it until last because I had wanted a good curve on the rising edge of the sheath, and that was easier to guage once the sheath was bent into shape and sealed. However, having the main body formed made it almost imossible to hammer in the rivets that secured the belt loop and facing felt. I managed it in the end , by modifying one rivet into a split pin fastening, threading a leather thong through the hole while I placed the rivet, so that the blade was additionally secured, and to make the disparity look as though it was intended, rather than being simply the frustration that it was.
On the whole though, I was pleased with the finished article. I have never worked with leather before, and the thickness of the material did not make it easy, but I managed to produce a pretty good sheath from an initial idea and a few simple practise experiments. It is a good-looking sheath, though I say it myself, and I now no longer have to worry about fining toothpaste all over my rucksack because my knife has cut into the tube, so it works out all round really.
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