How to Measure Shapes for Leatherwork

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Eric Sterns with Expert Village. We are covering some basic leather work today, and we're going to be looking at the construction of a traditional style knife sheath. Right now what we're looking at is actually, after soaking the rawhide sheath, or the rawhide for the sheath to make it flexible, we're going to be scratching out the actual shape of the sheath that we want, and cutting the basic correct size piece that will actually become the knife sheath. So there we go, there's a basic shape. It's kind of like a big "U" shape, and most of them are going to end up looking something like this, because when we fold them in half, now it's starting to take the basic form of a knife sheath. So we put our knife in and see, is that what I want, is it big enough, is it too tall, too thin, too wide? I kind of like that shape, so I think I'm going to go with it actually. But that's basically what we do. So from here, to make this to the point where we're ready for it, if there's anything else we have to do, we can soak it back in the water, sit it down for a little while, make sure that it stays flexible and pliable."