| Time required | Complexity | Tools & Supplies |
|---|---|---|
| 30 mn | Easy | Common |
Ever watched your X-acto knife roll on your desk, fall in slow motion and hit the floor right on the tip destroying the blade? Then this tutorial is for you! Let’s get to it.
When your blade becomes dull or the tips breaks, don’t grab a new one just yet. You can easily re-sharpen it with a sharpening stone and a strop. It will last you a lot longer that way.
Requirements
Skills
Tools
- X-acto knife
- Scissors (optional, you can use the X-acto)
- 2x needles
- Compass
- Stitching irons or awl
Bill of Materials
- Leather scrap. I happened to have 3oz calfskin close by but any kind is fine really.
- Thread
- Leather cement
- Oil or leather finish
Walk-through
Rough measurements
Trace the outline of your precision knife.
You want to make sure that your piece of leather is big enough to accommodate for a margin around the shape you just traced, as well as for the symmetry of this shape as we will fold the piece onto itself.
Be sure to draw with a wide margin, thinking about where you are going stitch. You want a good margin between the actual position of the blade and the stitching hols so that you don’t cut your thread when putting the blade inside the sleeve.
Cut along a curve following the outline of the blade.
Gluing the half-sleeve to its opposite side
Fold along the line following the back of the blade and glue the curved part of the sleeve to its opposite side. You only want to apply glue on a few mm as you want to be able to slide you blade in easily.
Cutting the sleeve
Cut along the edges of the first half you just glued to obtain the final shape.
Marking the stitching line
Make a mark with your compass where you want your stitching line to be.
More or less 3mm away from the edge but it will depend on your leather and stitching iron.
Perforating the stitching holes
With your stitching irons or your awl, perforate the leather to prepare it for stitching.
Sewing
Sew through the holes that you just perforated.
Start at the tip.
Backstitch twice and finish with both your needles inside the sleeve so as to hide the knot.
Although I used a saddle stitch in that case, a cross stitch would certainly look very good as well.
Leather finishing
This part is entirely up to you. I like to treat this kind of calfskin with a bit of oil. It gives it a lot more character and a lovely suntanned patina.
Final result
There you go! A useful, quick and easy project to use up your scraps and protect your tool.
Footnotes
The following online content provided some assistance and/or inspiration during the making of this project: