Order the Kit here!
We ship to the US and many other countries.
The third page of our ordering sequence will show you the postage amount.
Sheath kit and completed project
The Ray-Way Sheath Kit is a very straightforward project, even for someone with no leatherworking experience.
Why make a sheath?
There is nothing like a custom sheath, particularly one that you make yourself. Making your own from one of our kits is an easy and enjoyable way to spend a few hours. This home-made sheath will give your knife many years of service, and much more meaning than a store bought sheath.
The sheath is the open pouch type. It protects the blade while securing the knife by friction alone. It is meant to be carried in the backpack rather than worn on a belt. This is for reasons of simplicity and safety.
We developed this sheath kit to be used with the ray-way knife. The sheath size is adjustable prior to assembly, but only to the degree of variations in the making of the r-w knife. The sheath fits this knife perfectly, but is not likely to fit other types.
Contents of our Sheath Kit
Each sheath Kit contains a full set of illustrated instructions, written by R.J. These guide you through the construction, step by step.
Tooling leather for the sheath
Leather for the welt
Two sewing needles and a length of waxed stitching thread.
Stitching awl, in two parts: needle and unfinished handle.
Household items not supplied: rubber cement, sandpaper.
An illustration from the Ray-Way Sheath Kit
The construction process
The instructions provide patterns for cutting out the sheath and welt. The welt is a narrow piece of leather sandwiched in the sheath's long seam, protecting the stitching from the knife blade. After cutting out these two pieces of leather, one punches holes for the stitching, following our template, then trims the pieces and hand-stitches the sheath closed. Very simple, very effective.
After construction, the sheath can be decorated in all manner of ways, such as tooling, die stamping, and so forth. In the months to come we will be describing some of the methods here, and we hope to feature pictures of customers' handiwork. So if you have made one of our sheath kits and added your own embellishments, we would enjoy seeing your photos!
“Simplifies camping and raises it to an art form.”
Example tooling by R.J:
The completed pouch sheath
This is another lightening bolt sheath, where I have used yellow leather paint to emphasize the bolt.
The thick piece of leather from the ray-way kit has been custom tooled, and was folded and sewn together, to create the pouch sheath below.
"The leather sheath kits are superb! The instructions and materials are flawless. Thank you for the continued inspiration and integrity you bestow to this wonderful life. This art is highly rewarding. With gratitude," -Will L.
"Hi. I just received the knife making and sheath kit. All is well with the order. My question is about the tooling leather. I intend to do some pyrography (leather burning) artwork but need to know if your supplied tooling leather is vegetable tanned or chromium tanned, as chromium tanned leather gives off toxic fumes when heated. I've searched your site but couldn't find this information. Your response would be greatly appreciated for safety's sake. Kind Regards" Murat V
The tooling leather in our Sheath Kit is vegetable-tanned. But either way, we recommend you do the leather burning outside, and for maximum protection wear a respirator or face mask. We could have included some small test scraps with your order, if you had requested them at order time. Keep that in mind for next time. Good luck with your project!
