Printing Details

URL: http://www.ianatkinson.net/leather/ukpkpouch.htm
Date: 07 Sep 2010 0:18

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Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch

This is a commissioned piece that I made for a British Blades member. He wanted a pouch that would be discrete for using at work, so not a friction sheath with part of the knife showing.

He wanted the sheath to be all black and set up to carry a UK Pen Knife with no pocket clip, but left the design up to me.

I decided to make a traditional belt pouch but sized to the UKPK to make it a nice, snug fit.

Gallery

Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch
Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch
Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch
Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch

Creating

I began as usual by drawing around the knife and then taking measurements. I decided to have the bottom of the pouch rounded rather than square.

Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch

I then transferred the measurements into Illustrator.

Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch

First the individual pieces were cut out, grooved and bevelled.

Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch

Then I checked the fit of the knife to the pouch to make sure everything was OK.

Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch

I didn’t want to dye everything beforehand as dyeing shrinks the pieces and distorts them a bit, and everything needed to fit well.

I did need to dye the back piece and belt loop though so that it would be neat.

I also glued the three welt pieces together into a single welt, fit the press stud and marked the stitch holes.

Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch

Rather than glueing the pieces together and then drilling right through them all I decided to take longer over making the holes (seeing as this was commissioned) so that the stitching on the back would be as perfect as I could get it.

To do this I glued the welt to the front and drilled the holes through this piece. I then tacked the front and welt to the back with needles and pricked through every individual stitch hole to make a small mark on the back piece.

Using the prick marks I then punched through the back piece by hand with an awl making sure the holes fell into the stitch groove that I had made.

Finally I then re-drilled these holes on the back piece only, hoping there would be enough play in the welt to make everything line up.

Here you can see all stitch holes are nicely within the groove on both the front and the back.

Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch

With the holes made I then sewed the belt loop to the back piece.

I made a groove in the back where the stitches would go to minimise the knife rubbing against the stitches and wearing them though.

Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch

When the belt loop is sewn I made sure to form it slightly around a scrap to make sure it doesn’t lie too tight against the back; if it does it’s hard to actually slide the belt through.

Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch

Once the belt loop is sewn to the back, the back is then sewn to the front. Sewing through five layers of leather was hard! I managed to stab myself twice in the fingers and once in the chest!

Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch

Once everything was sewn together I could then burnish the edges and complete the dyeing.

Spyderco UK Pen Knife Leather Pouch

To finish off I fit the press stud top, did the edges with black Edge Kote and then polished all over with several coats of carnauba cream.