Carving Oak Leaves in Leather

Sometimes when you make a custom knife on your forge, you want a nice leather sheath to carry it in. This style of knife sheath is what I call a “taco style”, which wraps around the blade and part of the handle.

Once the leather is cut out in the shape I want, I begin laying out the pattern. In this situation I prefer a nice “hunters” motif of oak leaves and acorns. Using a swivel knife, I rough carve the outlines.

After stamping the edges around the pattern, I add shading with various tints of leather dye.

I dye the background first with mahogany color, then start adding subtle shades where needed.

Once the foreground shading is done, a sealer is put over the entire patch of leather to help preserve it.

The belt loop is attached to the back, then the sheath is folded over and a welt is glued into the edge. Reinforcing rivets are hammered in the top and bottom stress points. A line of stitching is run down the length of the sheath through the welt. The welt prevents the edge of the blade from touching the stitches and cutting them. So a really good sheath is glued, riveted, and stitched together for extra strength.

The carving wraps around the entire sheath.

The back of the sheath showing the belt loop attachment with tiny oak leaf finials.