How to Clamp Leatherwork Knife Sheaths

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Eric Sterns, with Expert Village. We're talking about some traditional styled leather work, and we're, right now, going over the construction of a knife sheath. So what I'm going to talk about now is actually clamping the sheath down after the blade has been fitted to it. We've got our blade that is fitted into our knife sheath, which is still wet and kind of soggy. There are a couple of different ways to do this, you can use wood. I tend to use, oddly enough, books. The reason why I do this is, it sounds like kind of a random strange tool to use, but what I've discovered is that books are oddly, in a strange way, a little more flexible because they're made of paper, even though they are rather dense. And by adjusting the knife sheath in the book, covering it with the other book, and getting it right where I want it, I can then adjust my clamps out a little bit, put my clamps over the book, and then secure it by screwing it in and tightening it. And the interesting thing happens is I tighten it because the books are flexible, because they're comprised of paper, they actually conform to the size of the sheath, which is rather interesting, kind of odd. I discovered this by accident because I had no wood when I was making a sheath, and this allowed me to get kind of a better take on the actual clamping process in the form fitting to the knife. So that's it, and basically what happens now is the sheath dries."