Well I am anxiously awaiting my Scrapper 6 LE.

I ordered the factory sheath with it to give it some pants to wear, while I decide what to dress it in.

One option of course is to make my own sheath adn I think I will do this, even if I eventually get a professionally made sheath for it eventually. It will be good practise as I intened to make my own for my FBM, when it arrives. And it will be fun too!

I used to make my own holsters and did a sheath or two and I still have the very basic set of tools I had as well as some leather.

With the hoslters, I'd make a fairly tight holster, soak the leather in methylated spirits (denatured alcohol) squeeze the pistol in.
Then I hand moulded them to the pistol.
The wet leather would stretch enough to be moulded and then dry more or less as is or perhaps shrink just slightly.
The reason for using 'metho' as the wetting agent was I though it would evaporate/dry quicker than water and possibly shrink less.
On the whole it seemed to work pretty well and since I did not know anyone else doing that sort of thing locally I could not compare notes or ask.

Now however we have the Internet and places like this here 'Yard, I can ask some other people how they do it.

So, has anyone got any tips for hand moulding leather for sheaths and holsters?

Apart from practice, what's the secret, in the wetting agent, the leather, the technique or all 3?

PS
No pics because our govt doesn't trust us with guns and I had to "sell" mine back in a cimpulsory "buy back", so no longer have any idea where the holster's are nor do I have anything to put in them if I could find them.
:-(

PPS
If you live in the US, join the NRA and remain vigilant!

First of all, Bummer on the gun issue!! Where are you?

Second, dont use alcohol anymore, its just bad for leather in general. Any solvent will pull the oils out of the leather and its hard to get them back in. Topical conditioners can only do so much. If you want to shorten dry times simply put the sheath under a fan, no heat, as it will have the same effect as a solvent.

Soak the leather in warm, not hot, water and mold away. Simply wet the leather till its pliable, dont over soak as this will make the leather floppy and non responsive. If you over soak just set the leather aside till it lets go of some liquid and becomes pliable. Practice will show you the way here, trial and error are the only way to learn on this. Mold the leather to the knife and very (insert VERY) carefully remove the knife and set aside, you can now work the leather back into place as it looked before you removed the knife. This is why I avocate pliable leathe instead of floppy leather to work. Floppy leather wont stay in place after the knife is removed. DONT leave the knife in the wet leather any more than a few minutes, even coated in plastic it isnt safe, there is NO need to leave the knife in the sheath till it dries!! In ten years I havent left one in the sheath near that long.

Lastly, best of luck and dont let em take your knives away!!!

What Leatherdog said....Good luck with your knife bro!!

If you don't want your knife getting wet while molding, you could put it in a ziplock bag or wrap it with plastic wrap.

Leatherdog: I'm in Australia.

Thanks for your tips gents.

With a bit of luck the knife in question should arrive early this week, and I might dig out my tools for a first cut at a sheath soon after - work permitting.

OZ??

Hmm Kangaroo leather?? That would make a tuff rig!!

Well a couple of weeks ago my Scrapper 6 LE turned up.

Beautiful knife.

Some people have been dissapointed with the sharpness of the edge on these bad boys as they come from the 'Yard.

Not me. Mine came out of the package sharp enough to remove leg hair.
A few minutes on the Edge Pro and it was very sharp - scary sharp is definately attainable with not too much effort.

Not sure about edge retention as I have not done enough work with it to know yet.

One big surprise for me was the balance. I reckon it has a much nicer balance than my mate's Rat M6 and was considerably lighter.
I guess the full grind and the respirene make a difference to the weight and balance.
With regard the balance I think the Scrapper has more weight toward the blade, even with the full grind. Feels really nice in the hand from a weight/balance point of view.

The Respirine is nice. I don't think it feels as nice as Kraton, however the fact it lasts a hell of a lot better is nice and it feels better in the hand than micarta slabs when chopping.

Over all I am really happy with the Scrapper 6 LE.
Really good value for money and a really nice knife.
Scrapyard Knives may be economically priced, but they are by no means "cheap".
Top quality and practical all the way.

Anyway, here is a pic or two:
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Click on the image for a full size image.

You can see all my pics so far here:
http://www.zeroniner.com/images/external_links/s6le/

Sheath can still stand some clean up, but I am not too unhappy with it for my first leather project in 10+ years. It may not be as pretty as possble, but it is still very fucntional.
I think I will get some more materials and give it another go - this will be third time lucky. I cut the prototype a little small.

Fireballxl5 - Good to hear from you again! I'm glad to hear that you are so pleased with your Scrapper LE - I really like mine. Nice work on that sheath! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Tom

Glad you got your blade fireball...nice sheath!

I am glad that you that you Scrapper 6 arrived fireball!! You made a nice sheath too. Welcome to the family!!

You did a fine job on that sheath.