How to Make a Dinosaur Leather Knife Roll

I’ve had a couple requests over the years to make some leather knife rolls so my chef friends can carry their cutlery with them to events. After getting a couple more custom requests in the last few weeks, I figured it was high time I drafted up some plans and got started.

Here are a few photos as I made the prototype knife roll.

As with any good design for leather, I highly recommend starting on paper, or cardboard. I'm an old school drafter, so my choice is always rulers and pencil on paper. So much cheaper than wasting leather if you make an error. It helps you visualize how all the pieces fit together, especially if you have to sew something. (i.e. leave yourself seam allowances)

After getting a decent plan down on paper, I decided there was too much open negative space, so I used a free dinosaur meat cut graphic from Spoon Graphics (Love his designs!) and added my own favorite cooking quote. I then rastered the finished design onto the knife flap using my Muse Laser.

Next knife roll I'm going to design my own graphic (stay tuned!), but since this is just a prototype, I wanted to test what the raster would look like on some shiny sealed leather.

I was very impressed with the raster on the leather for this image. It removed just the shiny top layer of leather, and exposed the nice suede inside for a really stunning effect.

Then it was just a matter of stitching the leather together and adding the antique gold snaps for the large side pocket, and voila! Prototype complete! Enjoy the finished photos below.

If you have any questions about making your own leather knife roll, please ask! Stay tuned for a second knife roll article about making one out of veg tan leather, and tooling the cover instead of laser etching it.

Until Next Time!

Your friendly neighborhood Leather Geek,

Corey