I'm stuck at home at the moment looking after my wife who's just had an operation on her shoulder and I was wondering how to spend my time productively whilst she had a kip.
I've put my name down for the following
http://www.wilderness-survival.co.uk/the-hunter-gatherer/
and so I need to create some craft items to show for the selection process. So to kill time and get a finished craft item I decided to make an Oetzi style knife sheath. I already had an obsidian bladed knife which I need to finish hafting (and before anyone asks no I didnt knap it myself).
Since I'm not able to go out and source materials I had to find what I could in the house. Fortunately I've recently got two kittens who have trashed a litter bin made of some sort of rush-like plant so I can legitimately use it as a resource without getting myself into trouble. I had to soak the leaves first to make them pliable but not too much as then theyd swell massively (I tried one out first) and then shrink loads when dry making for a loose sheath.
Then using a wooden frame to make life easier I bent the fatter tips of the damp leaves over a line of cordage tied between the uprights. The leaves were placed next to each other but not crushed up side by side. They were then twined together with two rows of hemp cord which held each bent over tip of a leaf to the rest of it. To check that the mouth of the sheath would be wide enough I untied the cordage from the frame and doubled over the row of twined leaves, and then re-tied it. At the end of each row of twining I left some extra cord so I could tie the sheath into a tube to complete it.
I then twined round the leaves again about an inch and a half below the first row of twining then again about two inches two inches before that. I rechecked where the sheath would need to narrow to follow the shape of the knife then did some more twining just above that point. Twining round the leaves could be very fiddly and it was easy to forget which of the two cords had to go where but once I got a system going it wasnt so bad.
To narrow the sheath I doubled up some of the leaves when twining round them on the next row of twining, and then to narrow it further on the last row of twining I twined all the leaves in pairs. I then removed the unfinished sheath from the frame.
Then after cutting off the excess ends of the leaves I bent the tips up and tied off the end tightly. Ive left some cord ends free as Im thinking I might want to tie something there at a later time. I then tied the two sides of the sheath together with the extra cordage I left hanging earlier to complete the sheath. At a later date Ill probably stitch some braintan thong up what was the open edge to make the sheath secure but this will do for now.
I've put my name down for the following
http://www.wilderness-survival.co.uk/the-hunter-gatherer/
and so I need to create some craft items to show for the selection process. So to kill time and get a finished craft item I decided to make an Oetzi style knife sheath. I already had an obsidian bladed knife which I need to finish hafting (and before anyone asks no I didnt knap it myself).
Since I'm not able to go out and source materials I had to find what I could in the house. Fortunately I've recently got two kittens who have trashed a litter bin made of some sort of rush-like plant so I can legitimately use it as a resource without getting myself into trouble. I had to soak the leaves first to make them pliable but not too much as then theyd swell massively (I tried one out first) and then shrink loads when dry making for a loose sheath.
Then using a wooden frame to make life easier I bent the fatter tips of the damp leaves over a line of cordage tied between the uprights. The leaves were placed next to each other but not crushed up side by side. They were then twined together with two rows of hemp cord which held each bent over tip of a leaf to the rest of it. To check that the mouth of the sheath would be wide enough I untied the cordage from the frame and doubled over the row of twined leaves, and then re-tied it. At the end of each row of twining I left some extra cord so I could tie the sheath into a tube to complete it.
I then twined round the leaves again about an inch and a half below the first row of twining then again about two inches two inches before that. I rechecked where the sheath would need to narrow to follow the shape of the knife then did some more twining just above that point. Twining round the leaves could be very fiddly and it was easy to forget which of the two cords had to go where but once I got a system going it wasnt so bad.
To narrow the sheath I doubled up some of the leaves when twining round them on the next row of twining, and then to narrow it further on the last row of twining I twined all the leaves in pairs. I then removed the unfinished sheath from the frame.
Then after cutting off the excess ends of the leaves I bent the tips up and tied off the end tightly. Ive left some cord ends free as Im thinking I might want to tie something there at a later time. I then tied the two sides of the sheath together with the extra cordage I left hanging earlier to complete the sheath. At a later date Ill probably stitch some braintan thong up what was the open edge to make the sheath secure but this will do for now.
