first try at inlay

[oljoe]

Here are a couple of sheaths that I tried to inlay.
The dagger sheath is 3-4 oz leather with elephant inlay. The buffalo knife sheath is 8-9 oz. with buffalo inlay and a buffalo concho.

This was my first try at an inlay and I couldn?t find a good tutorial so I just looked at some
pictures and winged it.

Tell me what you think and where I can improve.

Thanks, Joe

[Doug Lester]

Man, those are ugly sheaths. You need to send them to me so I can see to it that they're properly disposed of (don't forget to include the knives) All kidding aside, I think that you did better than most people would do by just studying a few pictures and having at it. I really like the one for the dagger. What did you use in making them?

Doug Lester

[oljoe]

Thanks for the nice comments Doug.
For the buffalo sheath I used 8-9 oz. leather and buffalo hide inlay. After I got the outside of the sheath done I realized that the heaver leather was not going to work for the liner so I had to make a trip to the leather supplier for some lighter stuff.
The dagger sheath was easer to make because all I had to do was to cut and stack the layers, and it was the second one I made.
I really hoped that one of the pros would point me in the direction of a tutorial or give me some clue of how it SHOULD be done.

[sheathmaker]

oljoe, here's how I do it.

http://usualsuspect.net/forums/showthread.php?t=169584

Paul

[sheathmaker]

Here's a link to some much better photos of the finished sheath referenced in the previous link.


http://usualsuspect.net/forums/showp...6&postcount=10

Paul

[oljoe]

Thanks Paul, very nice tutorial.
This will help for the next one.
One thing that I noticed is that you have WAY more tools than I do.
I really don?t have anything to split the leather. Is it ok to use thinner leather and glue two pieces together?

[sheathmaker]

It is absolutely Okay. I'd recommend 2 Oz. for the top piece. The one you cut the windows out of and 6 or 7 Oz. for the bottom or interior piece. If you do not intend to line the sheath, then you can glue the two pieces up flesh to flesh and that will give you a nice finished side both inside and out. Be sure to save the pieces you cut out for the inlay and trim them down about 1/16" all the way around and then stick them back on the back side of the inlay. This will forces the inlay out toward the front and makes it look almost padded. I always stitch around the inlay, but I do have a machine for that. The full leather backing (6 to 7 Oz. piece) will hold the inlay quite securely though. The stitches on mine are more for looks than necessity.

Yes, I do have quite a few tools and machinery. I do a pretty decent unit volume so all the toys make it fun and easy.

Paul

[oljoe]

Thanks again Paul,

The tip about saving the cutouts is great.
The inlay pieces that I used were quite thick so I had to skive the edges and ended up with a somewhat padded effect.
That is the only way I could see to make the thicker pieces fit.

Thanks for the tutorial and other help that you have given me through reading your posts.

Joe