Repairing the belt loop on a knife scabbard

[Daniel]

So Rock Hall's tomorrow, and I find the belt loop on the scabbard for the beautiful knife I bought at Lockhouse last year is broken.

The scabbard is a single piece of leather folded and stitched together along the edge. The belt loop is a simple strip of leather stitched at each end through the side of the scabbard. It's the end closer to the scabbard's point, the non-load-bearing end, that's come unstitched. Obviously, when the scabbard was made, the belt loop was stitched on first, and only afterward was the scabbard folded and stitched together. There's no way anyone could have poked a needle down into the scabbard after it was finished to stitch the belt loop on, and no way that I can do it now.

What would a pirate do in this situation? Maybe just forget about the belt loop and tuck the silly scabbard inside his belt. But what I did was take a strip of linen about 3/4 inch by10 inches, and stitch through the middle of it into the holes on the inner side of the lower end of the belt loop, then wrapped the ends around the other side of the scabbard and tied them tightly with two reef knots. Voila, a working belt loop again! It looks like hell, but I imagine real pirates' equipment might often have quite a jury-rigged appearance.

Any one know how repairs like this were actually done in period? I can't imagine that any period source would talk about this, but maybe some archaeologist turned up a a repaired scabbard at some point?

Inner side of the repaired scabbard, with lower end of

belt loop stitched to linen strip between belt loop and

scabbard.

Linen strip secured on outer side of scabbard with

double reef knots, holding belt loop in place.

[madPete]

if you can't get at it with a curved needle, likely would take the rest of the stitching out to repair and stitch the whole thing again.

mP

[Daniel]

Thanks! I don't own a curved needle, so never thought of using one, but it would probably be easy to find and acquire. The holes are so close together that I don't think I could stitch from one hole into an adjacent one, but I could just stitch every second or third hole, and stitch the holes I missed the first time when I came around the second or third time.

I don't believe I would want to unstitch the scabbard edge; the stitched edge is finished with some kind of black glue or sealant that I don't think I could replace.

[madPete]

Also if you dampen the leather, an awl works wonders for manipulating/opening the hole enough to get a needle thru...

mP

[Jas. Hook]

Daniel -

You could also try to rivet the bottom of the belt loop.

Cut a small hole in the backside of the sheath and the loop. Slide a rivet into the sheath and through the hole you made in the back. Use a piece of steel slid into the sheath as an anvil and set the rivet.

Also what you did with the linen... try it with a piece of leather, similar to a keeper loop on your belt.

[Jib]

Love it! Has a "castaway" look!

[Jas. Hook]

Love it! Has a "castaway" look!

Jib, it does at that.

Arrrrgh... The only other option would be to carry it around in your teeth.

[Daniel]

Hmm, never set a rivet in my life, but maybe this will be the first time. I'll drop by the hardware store and have a look-see.

Thanks for the compliments, Jib and Jas!