Ray-Way Sheath Kit
Make your own leather Knife Sheath!
The Ray-Way Sheath Kit is a very straightforward project, even for someone with no leather working experience.
Why make a sheath?
There is nothing like a custom sheath, particularly one that you make yourself. Making your own from one of our kits is an easy and enjoyable way to spend a few hours. This home-made sheath will give your knife many years of service, and much more meaning than a store bought sheath.
The sheath is the open pouch type. It protects the blade while securing the knife by friction alone. It is meant to be carried in the backpack rather than worn on a belt. This is for reasons of simplicity and safety.
We developed this sheath kit to be used with the Ray-Way knife. The sheath size is adjustable prior to assembly, but only to the degree of variations in the making of the r-w knife. The sheath fits this knife perfectly, but is not likely to fit other types.
Contents of our Sheath Kit
- Each sheath Kit contains a full set of illustrated instructions, written by R.J. These guide you through the construction, step by step.
- Patterns for cutting out the sheath, the welt, and an optional Lightning Bolt pattern for tooling the leather
- Tooling leather for the sheath
- Leather for the welt
- Two sewing needles and a length of waxed stitching thread
- One hole-puncher
- A small bottle of leather finishing oil
Optional household items, not supplied: contact cement to glue the welt in place, and sandpaper to smooth the edges of the finished sheath.
The construction process
The instructions include patterns for cutting out the sheath and welt. The welt is a narrow piece of leather sandwiched in the sheath's long seam, protecting the stitching from the knife blade. After cutting out these two pieces of leather, one punches holes for the stitching, following our template, then trims the pieces, glues in the welt, and hand-stitches the sheath closed. Very simple!
Before sewing, the sheath can be decorated in all manner of ways, such as tooling, die stamping and so forth.
"Hi. I just received the knife making and sheath kit. All is well with the order. My question is about the tooling leather. I intend to do some pyrography (leather burning) artwork but need to know if your supplied tooling leather is vegetable tanned or chromium tanned, as chromium tanned leather gives off toxic fumes when heated. I've searched your site but couldn't find this information. Your response would be greatly appreciated for safety's sake. Kind Regards" Murat V.
Ray: The tooling leather in our Sheath Kit is vegetable-tanned. But either way, we recommend you do the leather burning outside, and for maximum protection wear a respirator or face mask.
