I need to apologize again for taking much too long to get
this post out. Things have once again been a little crazy for me and it was a
challenge for me to get this one done. I hope to have the second post of this
series ready to go within a week or ten days from the date of this one going
live. Thank you for your patience!
In thinking about the topic for the next post, I came up
with an idea that I wanted to share with you. I may have mentioned previously
that I do not use kits for my projects. It is because either I am hardheaded or
I like the freedom of self-expression. It might be that the decision depends
upon the day or my mood. Anyway, I do design my own patterns for my projects
and I attempt to draw a decent pattern to carve and stamp on it. The problem
for me is drawing because truly, about the only thing, I know how to draw is
flies and that only happens if I do not take a bath for a week. (I do not
really do that.)
Over the years, I have made many gun holsters, knife
scabbards, and many things that required me to design the pattern and to be
able to mold the leather to fit the item. I had been doing leatherwork for over
twenty years when I heard about a trick that many if not most saddle makers use
when they stretch and form the leather over the front of the saddle. I had
fought for many years to form leather to fit the item better for which I was
making the holster or scabbard and this trick works amazingly well.
Before I share the details of the trick and its recipe, I
want to share one of my methods for shaping leather around an object such as a
gun or multi-tool. The first thing that I try to do is make a wood form shaped
with similar dimensions to the multi-tool. That way I do not have to have the
item in my possession to make the form or the scabbard. Another thing about
making forms to shape your leather on or around is that it does not have to be
wood, it can be composite decking, pvc boards, or anything you have on hand
that will work well for you.
Having the basic dimensions of the item, such as the length,
width, and thickness, I cut out a piece of wood using those measurements. Many
items are not going to be the same width or thickness on both ends. If you run
into this, there are at least two different ways that those differences can be
managed. One of them is to cut your piece of wood so that it is the same width
and thickness and not worry about any tapering on the tool. The second is to
cut the wood piece the same size as the item for which you are going to shape
the leather, including any tapering. This can have its own drawbacks, which
will be discussed a little later.
The photos below show an example of a belt carrier/scabbard
that I made many years ago. When I made it I did not realize that, I would be
showing it on a blog for everyone in the world to see. It is not perfect by any
means and I do remember that it was one of the first projects that I made using
my heavy-duty sewing machine to do the stitching. It is still a challenge for
me to get my stitching done the way I would like it with this machine. It would
be nice to have a better one. However, it is what I have and it saves me a lot
of hand sewing and eliminates most of the potential sore fingers.
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| Multi-tool - front view with flap closed |
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| Multi-tool -with flap closed |
If I were to make another multi-tool carrier I might do it a
little differently but for now I will explain how I would make one very similar
to the one in the photo above. At first look, you might not see anything wrong
with it but I always have a tendency to second-guess myself when it comes to
designing a pattern for a project. As you can see in this photo, the pocket is
close to an inch shorter than the multi-tool is long. This is so that the
person wearing the carrier can open the snap and grab hold of the tool easily
and hopefully, without dropping it. (This carrier was a prototype that I
decided to go ahead and use.)
I like to design my own patterns for anything that I can.
Making my own patterns requires me to have my own leather and other materials
needed to complete these projects. As previously mentioned, I start this type
of project with a piece of wood that is very close to the size that I need to
use in forming the leather. The piece of wood under the tool in in the photo
below is longer than the tool, which is no problem. You can also see that there
are a couple of nail holes in the piece of wood. I nailed it down to a piece of
wood to hold it in place. In later photos, you will notice that I used a couple
of screws to hold this form down on the board to make it easier to remove when
necessary. By the way, I keep all of my forms for molding leather because I may
need them to make another carrier exactly the same within the next decade or
two.
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| Multi-tool and basic wood form for shaping the leather |
On the piece of wood shown above, you can see a faint line
going across it about an inch below the squared off top. I used this piece of
wood right around twenty years ago to make a couple of other multi-tool cases.
I believe that they were a little shorter than the one in the photo. I marked a
second line on my form to line up what will be the top edge of the pocket into
which the tool will fit. I try to keep the edge of the leather as close to this
line as I can. If it gets a little off it is no problem because it can be
trimmed to make it right. I generally need to trim the top edge of the leather
anyway because the leather will more than likely stretch differently in some
places than in others.
The photo below shows the edge of the multi-tool and a mark
on the form. I decided that I wanted the grip points, (for the lack of a more
appropriate term), to be above the top edge of the pocket. I chose to do this
because it might make it easier to grasp the tool at those points and pull it
out. It might be a little difficult to see, but the line is marked just below
the grip point so that the leather will go no higher than that.
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| Marking the wood form for length of the leather |
The photo below shows the
multi-tool sitting on top of the form. The line on the form can be seen just to
the right of and below the grip points. Although it cannot be seen in this
photo, the bottom edge of the tool is even with the bottom edge of the form.
This form is actually a little wider than I would like it to be, but I did not
have access to a table saw to make it a better fit. Actually, if I was a the
point where I would have to trim this form down I would make a new form. I
would not want the form much more than one-sixteenth of an inch wider than the
tool.
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| Marking the Form for Length Closeup View |
I will stop this post here
for now and get the next one going so that it will be ready within just a few
days. I will discuss measuring the leather, the thickness, and molding the
leather to the form for a good, snug fit.
Please let me know if you
have any questions about anything in this post. I will be glad to answer your
questions.
Have fun!
