Material Selection:

We use only the highest quality Vegetable Tanned leather for our products.  We use heavy 8-9oz leather for our sheaths and standard 3-4oz leather for our integrated strops.  Vegetable Tanning is important because other forms of tanning can leave chemicals that corrode knives and other blades.  

Occasionally we will tan deer & rabbit hides from our homestead harvests and include these materials in our products, however these materials are more rare, and only used at the maker's discretion.  As always, your leather's providence will be documented on your Certificate.

Leather Treatments:

After the leather product is constructed, it will be given a treatment to ensure it performs well in the field.  Integrated strops are impregnated with mink oil and then loaded with stropping compound.

In the case of leather sheaths, the leather is immersed in a molten wax bath and then formed hot to the blade and allowed to cool.  This immersion allows the wax to expel the air from the leather and harden the sheath to form around the knife.  This also serves to protect the leather from mold, cracking and dry rot.  After wax forming, the sheath is top coated with mink oil for added protection and sheen.

Why Leather?

For more information on why we prefer to use leather instead of Kydex or other materials, please read the post on The Holy Trinity - Steel, Wood & Leather.