Leatherman/Mini-Maglite Sheath

[Ratdog68]

One of my older cousins carries an original Leatherman and a Mini-Maglite on his hip. For years now, he's carried them on a Nite-Eyes nylon holster. When I saw him Thursday, I noticed the holster is getting pretty nasty/tattered.

Went into the basement today, and did some tooling on some leather, and made him a new sheath/holster for his EDC. My dad always called him "Lil Joe", he seems to be fond of that, so I added that to the barbed wire border stampings. A snap closure for the multi-tool sheath, and the flashlight loop is stitched to the side. I used the ever-stout Saddle Stitch, and did a double pass for the stitching. The leather will tear before those stitches will. A metal spring clip for his belt on the back side. Before sewing it all together, all of the leather pieces were hand rubbed with the same Obenauf's Oil I used on the tomahawk masks. Will probably give it a waxing another day... letting the oil soak in well.

 

[Oso Grande]

That's great! I'll bet he'll be thrilled to receive that!

 

[FrankT]

Very nice, you really do good work! LIL Joe will be very pleased

 

[Ratdog68]

Thanks guys, the true test will be seeing whether he'll switch from a floppy nylon one to a snug wearing leather one. LOL

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

Impressive. Cuz.

 

[Ratdog68]

Impressive. Cuz.

A little fishin' there? LOL

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

Hmmm...perhaps.

 

[fanninland]

Very nice RD. Hand crafted gifts are the best kind, and that one will only look better as it ages and wears (unlike me, lol).

 

[Homebrewer]

Great hand work, and your attention to detail will certainly be appreciated by cousin Lil Joe!

 

[Ratdog68]

Update. When I was helping with bottling day at my little cousin's winery, I asked her dad how the sheath fit. Well... it didn't. As it turns out, he doesn't have an "Original" Leatherman after all. He has one of the "Super Tool" models, which is a little bigger than the "Original" one. Sooo... I took some measurements of his Leatherman, and last night, received his holster from him.

For some odd reason, the "Oil Finish" didn't react well with that particular piece of leather. Some of it grayed, and it became blotchy in appearance. So... I cut a wooden plug the width/thickness of his Leatherman, soaked the leather with water, and rammed the wooden plug home. I then let it dry over night. The leather stretched enough to facilitate insertion/removal rather nicely.

To address the appearance of the leather, I ripped out all the stitching and removed the wax from the leather with ammonia. Some light brown leather dye took care of the coloring issues quite nicely. Instead of just the lighter "Oiled Leather" appearance, it's now brown. Another treatment of oil/conditioner to feed the leather, and then adjusted the length of the snapped flap to fit the longer length of his Leatherman. A re-stitching of it, and working the wooden plug in and out this afternoon, I'm now able to remove/insert the plug with thumb/fore finger (grasping with finger tips). And, I think this one's back to looking even "more gooder" than before.

 

[FrankT]

Good for you, glad you could stretch to fit and not have to start over...another good job RD

 

[Ratdog68]

It may lighten up in color a little as the dye/conditioner dries. But, it's coming along rather well.

 

[FrankT]

Oh yeah that is really nice!

 

[bldsmith]

Very Nice.

 

[theblakester]

Looks awesome.. Didn't get a chance to send u my knife yet, but Should be able to get it out Monday or Tuesday. Really looking forward to it and thank u again.

RD is going to make a new sheath for a knife that was my grandfather's. And of all places, my PawPaw got it while working in Alaska!

 

[Brian Shaffer]

Are there any crafts you don't do RD???

 

[Ratdog68]

I like to try my hand at many things. Many of the concepts are the same, a lot of it is to just learn the feel of the tools used and develop some muscle memory.

 

[RattlesnakeDan]

I hear he makes a mean apple fritter! I do not know about his stink flipper though.

 

[Ratdog68]

Apple Fritters... Zesty !!!! Stink Flipper... NOT Zesty.

 

[FrankT]

Looks awesome.. Didn't get a chance to send u my knife yet, but Should be able to get it out Monday or Tuesday. Really looking forward to it and thank u again.

RD is going to make a new sheath for a knife that was my grandfather's. And of all places, my PawPaw got it while working in Alaska!

I need to talk to him about mine too