Leather Belt Sheath with Fire Steel Loop, Hand Stitched

A fire steel rod loose in a pack is a rod you do not have when the light goes. This is a leather belt sheath with a loop on the outside for one, cut by hand from vegetable tanned full grain. The knife rides inside and the rod rides on the face. No knife is included and no fire steel rod is included.

Specification

The leather

Vegetable tanned leather is tanned with bark, and it behaves differently for it. It starts mid brown and firm. Handling darkens it, and the places your hand lands go darkest first, so the belt loop soon reads older than the back panel. Bark tanned leather also holds an impression, which is the reason it is used here. The basket weave is one tool struck in rows while the leather is damp, then a border tool run round the outside to close the pattern off. Chrome tanned leather does none of that.

How it is made

The panels are cut and the welt goes in. A welt is a narrow strip of leather set inside the seam so the stitching sits in its own channel and the edge of your knife rides on leather rather than thread. A sheath without one saws itself open from the inside. The seam is hand stitched in cream thread, two needles through every hole, so a cut stitch stays put. The belt loop is stitched to the back and the edges are burnished dark.

How it carries

The fixed loop on the back holds the sheath flat against your hip rather than swinging. The rod loop sits on the outside face, so your hand finds it on the way down. Draw the knife, then pull the rod off the same piece of leather. Nobody has to open a pack or pat down pockets. If you want it hanging lower for driving, a pair of dangler loops will do that.

Who it suits

Anyone who has knelt over damp wood and realised the rod is in the truck.

• People who light fires with a ferrocerium rod
• Anyone replacing a sheath with no rod loop
• Campers who want one thing on the belt
• Anyone teaching a kid where the rod lives

What comes in the box

• The stamped leather belt sheath with its side loop
• A care card
• A gift box
• No knife and no fire steel rod are included

Every piece is different

Every sheath is cut from a hide that grew on an animal, so the grain runs tight in one panel and open in the next. The stamping bites deeper where the leather is denser. The photograph on this page is one sheath we made, not the one that will arrive.

Looking after it

Keep it out of standing water. If it gets soaked, let it dry slowly somewhere cool, never on a radiator or in an oven, because heat cooks leather stiff. Feed it with a leather conditioner once or twice a year. Do not store a damp blade in it. Steel left in wet leather is the usual way a good knife ends up pitted. More on our knife care and sharpening page.

Put a name on it

Initials go on with a stamp rather than a laser. It is 20 dollars per piece, added on this page. Around 20 characters fits. You get a proof image back before anything is struck, and nothing happens until you say yes. Stamping adds 3 to 5 business days. Orders of ten or more are stamped free. See the engraving page.

Questions buyers ask

Does a fire steel rod come with it? No. The loop takes a standard rod, the rod is yours.

Is a knife included? No. This is the sheath alone, with no knife and no rod.

What size knife does it hold? Fixed blades with a 4 to 5 inch blade, up to 1.25 inches wide.

How thick a rod does the loop take? Up to half an inch across. Anything fatter will not go through.

Why keep the rod on the sheath? A rod in a pack gets left in the pack.

How long does shipping take? Most US orders arrive in 5 to 7 business days.

If you carry a lighter, the hand stitched belt sheath is the same build without the loop. To hang it lower, add a pair of dangler belt loops. It sits in sheaths and accessories, turns up in gifts for him, and lands in new arrivals.