Better at an Old Hobby

I haven't posted anything new for quite awhile because I have either been busy working on the house, and stuff around the house, or doing stuff with the kids that Jen has been posting on the family blog.

But, lately, I have been stitching leather in my free time. I have "hacked" stuff together in the past. Mainly with an EZ-Awl, and using a lock stitch. The past few months, I have been making knife sheaths. But, using the EZ-Awl, I was pretty limited to how thick of leather I could stitch. So, the stuff I was making was just functional, but not that professional.

In the past few weeks, I have learned how to do the things that I want, and really make the nice too. Here are pics of a sheath I just completed. This one came out extremely well. But, I am in the middle of two more and they are even better. I learned a couple of small tweaks making this one.

The front of the sheath.
























The back. Getting the stitches straight on the back was something I was never good at. Getting them straight on the front is easy, the back is the tricky part.
























One side, showing the finished edges, and how thick the sheath is.
























The other side, showing the knife fit.

























This pic is a little fuzzy, but it shows a close up of the hand-stitch job.