Any knife with a fixed blade, designed for use outside the home, loses a significant part of its functionality without a sheath. It is inconvenient to remove it from a backpack, and in a clothing pocket it generally becomes dangerous. If the knife with which you are going fishing, hunting, mushroom picking or hiking does not have “clothes”, you can make it yourself.
My task is to sew a sheath for a fultang without a specialized tool and from available materials. The length of the knife is 250 mm, and the thickness at the butt is 4 mm.
Materials
- Leather. Vegetable tanned saddle cloth 3.5 mm thick - scraps from an old tool case. A sheath made of such leather does not require additional stiffening elements.
- Thread. The waxed shoe thread was once purchased at a haberdashery store.
- Wax. We will use it to process the ends of the leather. I use carnauba (palm) wax - the most refractory and non-greasy to the touch. It is sold in flake form in cosmetic stores. As an alternative, technical paraffin (candle) or beeswax are suitable.
- Holster screw. It will act as a fastener. Instead of a screw, a spare button from a jacket or raincoat will do.
Tools
- Shoe knife.
- Vernier calipers with carbide inserts for marking. Instead, you can use a regular drawing compass or measuring device.
- Ball pen.
- Contact glue.
- Two gypsy needles.
- Pliers.
- Drills with a diameter of 1.5 - 2, 4 and 5 mm.
- Benchtop drilling machine.
- Belt sander.
- Fabric circle.
Marking and cutting parts
The design of the product will resemble the scabbard for the NKVD rifle. We place a piece of saddle cloth with the side up, and a knife on it. This will be the front part of the sheath.
Carefully trace the outline with a ballpoint pen. We mark the line where the handle begins and align the “dip” on the side of the butt. Set aside 10 mm on the caliper and draw two lines, using the drawn outline as a copier. We evaluate the result, trace it with a pen and, if necessary, adjust the shape manually.
Pay attention to the position of the knife! I make a sheath for the right hand, and if you are left-handed, turn the blade over to the other side, i.e. mirrored.
We cut the outer contour with a shoe knife. Particular attention should be paid to the mouth line so that the handle fits against it without a gap. Then we make the same part - a spacer, but we also cut internal lines in it. It will form the internal cavity of the sheath and protect the seam from undercutting. When applying parts, the “tails” of the spacers should protrude from the mouth side. They are trimmed after gluing.
The shoe knife must be well sharpened! Cut each line with minimal pressure in several passes. On curved areas, work only with the tip. Place the leather on a wooden base.
Gluing and contouring
We assemble the front part with the spacer using glue. We control the width of the cavity with a blade.
The next detail is the purl side.We mark it so that the bakhtarma is in the cavity of the sheath. The side of the blade follows the shape of the two previous parts. The part on which the handle rests is marked arbitrarily. The main thing is that the backplate does not protrude beyond the sheath. Then there will be enough space for a strap that will secure the knife, and for a suspension.
Glue the wrong side.
Saddle cloth is a thick and tough material that is almost impossible to cut without making mistakes. After gluing, the ends of the sheath will be uneven.
We process the contours on a grinder with a 60 or 80 grit belt. Alternatively, you can use a grinder or a sharpening machine with a flap wheel. It is better to process the leather using sanding tape, since the stone becomes clogged with its particles and “burns.” The task is to remove all irregularities from the knife and maintain a right angle between the end and sides of the sheath. After processing the contour, the width of the spacer is about 7 mm.
Use eye and respiratory protection! Due to dust and debris, contouring is best done in a workshop or outdoors.
Seam marking
We mark the seam on the front side. We set the size on the caliper to 3.5 mm, draw two lines from tip to mouth. The insert fixed to the rail rests against the end, and the second, mounted on the rod, is used as a scriber. The line will accurately copy the shape of the scabbard, and its quality depends on how well the end has been sanded.
We set the seam pitch on a caliper (mine is 7 mm). We mark the first point for drilling at the intersection of the lines (the sharp tip of the sheath). We install one caliper insert into it, and mark the next hole with the second. We rearrange the tool one step at a time until we reach the mouth.
To make the markings clearer and correct possible inaccuracies, it is advisable to go over it again with an awl. We determine the place where the strap will be located (drawn with a pen).
Drilling holes
Pros who work with leather make holes with a specialized tool - a punch. I used a benchtop drill press (drill diameter 1.8mm).
The same operation can be done with a hand drill or an engraving machine, but you will have to carefully monitor the verticality of the spindle, otherwise the seam on the wrong side will end up “walking”. While you are near the machine, you can make grooves for the strap and suspension. I drilled 5mm holes and cut between them with a cobbler's knife.
We thread the strap, insert the knife and mark the clasp. First, we drill the upper hole (for the head, diameter – 5 mm), then through it we mark the lower one (for the screw, 4 mm).
After installing the screw and checking, remove the excess part of the strap. To facilitate the passage of the head through the hole, we make an incision 3–4 mm long in it.
Please note: Skin color has changed. After drilling, the sheath blank is sandblasted. After that, I wiped down the ends with carnauba wax and went over the rest of the surfaces. As a result, the edges turned out darker. To apply the carnauba wax, a cloth wheel mounted on a sharpening machine was used. Paraffin can be applied manually directly to the end, and the remaining surfaces can be covered with shoe polish.
Firmware
I used a saddle stitch - simple and reliable. We cut the thread from the spool and thread its ends into two needles. We make two seams: from the side of the butt and the cutting edge of the knife.
To secure the thread, tuck it into the eyelet, pierce it 3 cm from the edge and tighten. This will prevent it from slipping out when pulled through the hole.With such a thickness of the sheath (about 10 mm), the thread should be 6 times longer than the seam. You shouldn’t do less, otherwise it will be inconvenient to work or there may not be enough work.
We pass the needle through the hole at the tip of the sheath and align the thread. To facilitate broaching, you can use pliers. We insert the needle located on the front side into the next hole. Pull the thread to the end, making sure that it does not twist. We pass the “wrong” needle through the same hole towards. We perform the final tightening.
We start each stitch from the front side. We try not to pierce the thread that is already in the hole with the “counter” needle.
At the end, the seam must be secured. To do this, we sew the last stitch again in the opposite direction, bring the front thread to the wrong side, cut it and burn it.
The firmware itself took 20 minutes, and about 2 hours had to be spent on preparatory work.
