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Anyone with a Tommy Anderson knife will appreciate the form and function of his sheaths. How does he make them fit so well and how does he get those fancifull designs on the outside? Here we have a rare insight into the world of Scandanavian sheath making from a master in the art. |
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Step #1 | |
| Make 2 exact copies of the blade in 2 mm thick card and fasten them with tape on each side. |  |
| Its a good idea to wash your hands before you start as this avoids unsightly marks on the leather at the finish. | |
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Step #2 | |
| "Take a sheet of paper, fold it in half and place the knife inside. Squeeze all the way along the knife so you have a copy of it on the paper. Start with the blade and then work toward the handle. Make sure that the paper is tight around the knife. |  |
| The use of a paper pattern yields more accurate results and saves raw materials. When it has served its purpose as a pattern it can be used to work out preliminary designs for the decoration. | |
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Step #3 | |
| Draw in the outline with a pen. Now you have an exact copy of the knife impressed into the paper. |  |
| Its worth bearing in mind that the methods Tommy describes here have universal application and can be applied to the making of other goods made in leather. Like a leather cover for a Japanese sword scabard or a cover for a maglite, for instance. | |
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Step #4 | |
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Paper is thinner than leather so now we must allow for the thickness of the leather, the design and the belt loop. These amount to about 3 to 5 mm extra. | |
| Put the knife on the paper and note where the belly of the handle is thickest, marked in the picture with a red arrow. Then move up 5 mm to find the position marked by the blue arrow. This is an important point. You must add more leather at the point marked with the blue arrow. This is the finish point for the needlework. |
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| Sometimes I must use a lot of force to take the knife out of the sheath the first time. The leather "shrinks in the wash". To succeed 100% with this you must do the handledesign in a special way. You need 2 bellys. One like above. | |
| And one like here 25-30 mm up on the handle This belly needs to be only 1½-2 mm wider. This will make a "click" when you put in the knife. |  |
| Some of Tommy's knives carry two swellings in the handle. One is a belly placed centrally on the handle as you will find in most knives. The other smaller swelling is symetrically distributed either side of the handle about an inch back from the blade/handle juncture. | |
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Step #5 | |
| Now we can cut out the drawing and we have a pattern for how much leather we need. Put the paper on the leather and cut a copy of the pattern from the leather. |  |
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Step #6 | |
| When you cut the leather you have to angle the knife about 35 degrees inwards. |
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Step #7 | |
| Now we must find were the seam will be. Make a line 2,5 mm in from the edge on both side up to the mark, (5 mm up from the belly). Mark a line 2-3 mm up from the bottom. |  |
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Step #8 | |
| From here we shall mark out the hole with a leather spur. Its important that you start marking at the same place on both sides. Make marks up to the point where the seam ends. Make sure that it is the same number of marks on both sides. |  |
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Step #9 | |
| Now we can punch the holes. |  |
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Step #10 | |
| Angle the holes at 35 degrees. |  |
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Step #11 | |
| Now me must make the leather thinner so we can gather it together at the point. Plane down the last 35 mm at the tip by 1mm in thickness. |  |
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Step #12 | |
| Lets make the belt loop. Most belts are not wider tham 40 mm so this dictates the length of the loop. Cut out a strip of leather 20 mm wide and 240 mm long. Reduce the width to 17 mm, by taking 1,5 mm from each side, for 70 mm from one end and make it into a point. This end will be in the sheath. Make the other end rounded. |  |
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Step #13 | |
| Time to dye!!! |
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| Staining leather is an art all to itself. Keep it simple. Make sure the stain is well mixed to avoid streaking. Make test swatches on scrap pieces of leather and allow to dry. This will make the results in the finished sheath more predictable. Its better to use a weak solution than a strong one. Thinner solutions can be built up by repeated application, and look better in the end. Stains are usually water based or spirit based. If both types are used on the same piece of leather the water based stain should be applied first. Water based stains are brighter. Spirit based stains are more permanent. | |
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Step #14 | |
| Dye both sides, but not the leather that will be in the sheath. You can use dye to make some designs if you wish. Put this aside and let it dry. |  |
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Step #15 | |
| Put the leather for the sheath in lukewarm water for 10 min, bend it and make it soft and pliable. Wrap 5-6 layers of clingwrap around the knife so it is completely sealed. Leave the card on the blade, this makes it bigger in the sheath so you do not cut it in pieces when you pull it in and out. The extra thickness of the plastic also makes you do the sheath around the handle a little bigger, so the handle won't get caught in the sheath when you draw it. |  |
| Leaving the card on the blade also means that you end up with an air gap between the blade and the sheath, just like a Japanese shira saya. This eliminates scratches on the blade and reduces problems with oxidation. A recurring problem with leather sheaths is the residual acidity left over from the tanning process. | |
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Step #16 | |
| The thread is synthetic. Take about 1½ meter with 2 needles, one on each end of the thread. Run the thread through the first hole on both sides. Make sure that you have the same length on either side. |  |
| Thread must be strong for leatherwork. The closer the thread color to the final sheath color the better. | |
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Step #17 | |
| Now put the righthand needle through. Do not pull tight, leave some thread in a loop on the righthand side. Next put the left needle into the same hole and wind the right thread 3 times around it. Pull the left needle through and tighten the threads together. Do this with your thumbs down so you don't break the leather. |  |
| The stitch Tommy describes is a variation on the chainstitch where the two needles are pushed through the same hole from opposite directions. The pull is even on both sides. | |
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Step #18 | |
| Sew all the way like this to the top. Here you must backtrack 3 stitches. |  |
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Step #19 | |
| In the next hole exit the needle on the inside of the sheath and tie off. |  |
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Step #20 | |
| Put in the knife and see if it fits. Make a line where you want to cut off the leather at the top. You must have at least 10 - 20 mm of leather above where you end the seam. | |
| This style of sheath has no welt so the seam is located well away from the edge at the back of the knife toward the spine. | |
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Step #21 | |
| Now its time to mark out the mounting holes for the belt loop. | |
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Step #22 | |
| Cut three slits a little narrower than the belt loop. Don't make the slits too wide, it must be tight so you won't loose the knife. | |
| Its a good idea to finish each slit in a round punched shape, as we see in the picture, to avoid the risk of tearing at a later date. | |
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Step #23 | |
| Insert the belt loop. |  |
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Step #24 | |
| Build up the leather around the belt loop so it is keyed to the sheath. | |
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Step #25 | |
| Note This is important!!! The leather of the belt loop at (2) must be worked together and compressed higher than it is at (1) and (3). | |
| This is how Tommy keys the belt loop into the sheath. The loop is not stitched or fastened into the sheath and no other fastening method is used other than the bumpy shape which Tommy imparts to the loop, thereby ensuring that it is locked into the sheath. | |
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Step #26 | |
| Decide what kind of designs you want. You must work fast now so we must start to manipulate the leather before it is dry. I have to work fast when I do the sheet and I only think on that when I work. My wife can talk to me and I only say "Hmmm" all the time. She use to say that I am "off line". | |
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Step #27 | |
| You can wet it now and then if it dries out too quickly. Leather is a fibrous material, so you can move this about a little and built up a design in 3D. I use 2 sorts of leather. In Swedish, Rårandsläder and sharfläder. Rårandsläder is not tanned all the way through. This leather is hard and robust. Sharfläder is softer and easier to make a pattern in. |
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 As we see here the limits of what is possible are bounded only by the limits of imagination. Tommy has deftly fashioned a flat piece of leather into the chrysalis of a butterfly. The beginer will find simple geometric designs most suitable until skill is built up to the degree we see here. Its easy to over model a piece so knowing when to stop is important. A busy design requires the utmost skill to execute cleanly. English speakers without access to Tommy's raw materials will find a suitable leather for modeling in natural calf. Hide is suitable also. The outline can be traced onto the leather by pressing through tracing paper. The background is then pressed down with the modelling tool. The leather should be damp enough to allow the tool to make an impression but not so damp that water oozes out when the leather is pressed. | |
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Step #28 | |
| The white tools are made of bone, these are lapbone. With this you rub the blank parts of the leather. This closes the pores in the leather. | |
| You can make all these tools yourself. Materials like cow bone can be bought from a pet store. Scraps of wood for handles, and scrap steel for bits are quite suitable. | |
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Step #29 | |
| When the leather is half dry its time to colour it, so you don't get colour spots and a blotchy appearance. When you are done coloring continue to manipulate the leather again. Its very important to work with the leather until its dry. | |
| Leather that is dried in hot air tends to set harder than leather that is allowed to dry slowly. This probably tends to happen because at higher temperatures the oils in the leather are more volatile and they partially evaporate with the water. As a result the sheath is stiffer. | |
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Step #30 | |
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| Here we see the end result along with its accompanying knife. It seems simple enough until you realise that there are up to 30 steps involved in the construction of the sheath alone and each of those steps is done without the use of fancy tools and equipment. Evidence, if ever there was, that there is no substitute for skill. | |
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Silver Work | |
| "I make a silver eagle for the belt loop of every knife. I also make a throat for the sheath in silver sometimes. Here is a photo showing how I make my eagle. It is how people know they are using an Andersson. | 
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