Illustrating How We Make our
Leather 
Pocket
 Sheaths

It starts with a piece of leather.  I usually cut them 3" X 6" and soak them in water for a little bit until nice and pliable. The weight I like best is 5 to 6 ounces for the front piece. One ounce makes a difference on whether it will mold well enough.

Then I get my "HI-tech" molding tool.  I broke the tip of a fork off and used the handle. This was the first thing I tried; I have tried other things but I always come back to this one. It has a small curve to one side, which helps with the molding.  If you can't find one, check with Wal-Mart, they went to a different style fork that is not as good; you could probably get it done that way, but seems to me that I need "MY" tool.

It is a simple but effective sheath that can be carried a couple different ways.

The knife is between the leather that is used for spacing. We don't use spacers in our pocket knives. Wet molding the whole knife lets it slide right into where it is meant to be. This sheath makes for a nice snug sheath that is pretty thin

I prefer to start on the right side first.  I guess it is because I am right handed. I just hold the leather on the knife with one hand and mold it with my Hi-Tech Molding tool. 

Here I am molding the front to the handle until you get the whole thing molded.

Next, Let it dry. We put it in front of a fan, no heat, just a fan, to help speed the drying process. While they are drying we start on the other parts of the sheath. 

We work on the Clips and 4 oz leather for the back piece; all the leather does is hold the clip on, so it doesn’t really need to be that thick. The middle pieces are 6 to 7 oz.  We wrap the clips with shrink wrap.  If you look you will notice holes just in the middle of the leather for the clip to stick through. 

Then we put a little stain on the leather because it is hard to get to after you add the clip.

Next we glue the backs together with the clip inside.  First you have to round the top a little bit to make it easy for the knife to slide in without snagging up.

We check back and see if the molded front piece is ready yet. The add the stain to the inside part, and glue them together. 

And then stitch them. The only difference with an alligator sheath is that we glue a piece of alligator on top of the molded leather before we stitch it.

Finish up with the leather dye.  Rub some Gum Tragacanth on the edge to make it smooth, then the weather proofing, with KIWI outdoor wet proof. 

Cut the excess leather off, then trim it up with the grinder. Jon is trimming up a kydex pocket sheath in this picture, but the leather works the same way.

 The sheath is a little tight at first, but we usually let it sit over night and it loosens up a little. It is not fancy, but it makes for a nice little sheath.