Cheap, Quick, and Easy Leather Sheath for File

This sheath was made to give my new file some protection as it tumbles around in the bottom of my tool bag.

During the course of this project I used the following tools, supplies, and materials.

-Contact Cement

-Razor blade or other suitable cutting device

-Ruler/straight edge

-Cutting mat (piece of cardboard) or unimportant sacrificial cutting surface

-Pen (not pictured above)

1.Measure the length of your file and this being an 8in file it was obviously going to be 8 inches long. Double the length of your file and make a mark at that point. In this case it was 16 inches.

2. Make your first cut at your previously marked spot to set the length of the leather sheath. I just took a guess here based on the width of my file and made my cut about 2.5inches long. When cutting leather it is easiest to take several light passes vs one really heavy pass.

3.Make a cut length wise resulting in a strip that should be wider than your file or object you're making a sheath for and twice as long as your object.

4. This is optional but I chose to straighten up a jagged edge of my piece before the glue up but it could just as easily be done after the glue up.

This step is also optional but I found it very beneficial to trace an outline of my file so that I had a better idea of where to apply glue.

1.Apply a generous amount of glue on the outside of the line being careful to not go over the line.

2.Lay file down in the outlined area

3.Fold leather in half around/over the file being sure to line everything up and make the first point of contact at the top.

4.Use a pen or your finger to apply a heavy amount of pressure to the leather while making a nice crease around the edge of the file.

I glued this up rather sloppy and because of that I wanted to trim the edges to make them look a little neater. I opted to give the sheath a 5mm edge and so I marked 5mm out from the edge of the file and I trimmed of the excess. I repeated this step for the other side of the sheath as well.

This project took me about 15 minutes in total from start to finish and was very rewarding to have created a functional leather piece without any fancy or expensive leather work tools. One thing I have not done yet but will do in future is probably rub something on the leather to protect it and also brand or stamp my maker mark on it.

This type of sheath making could be used for an assortment of other items such as a nifty looking glasses case. I have also used this technique to create a sheath for a pair of calipers that I had received with no case.

I hope this Instructable was useful and inspires someone to make something with leather.

Questions and comments are welcomed down below and any votes would be greatly appreciated.