Once again my old belief that it is far far better to hire a pro for sheath work is reinforced. I have worked my Orien MacDonald crooked knife into some of my carving routines and I wanted to safely carry it around with my other carving tools. In Ville Sundqvists book he showed some sheath ideas for spoon hooks and I decided I could adapt one of his ideas to this larger crooked. Instead of sewing I wanted to use copper rivets and I picked up a box of those, a punch and a setting tool yesterday, then dug out my scrap leather and started hacking.
First off the Maynard Linder 8 Fish River Ulu was the ultimate leather cutting tool. It is amazingly easy to cut nice straight lines with a simple roll cut. That was a good start to a sort of ugly outcome .
My scrap leather was pretty heavy duty stuff and I originally was not going to do a welt, but after roughing out the design I decided to add two thin kangaroo pieces as a welt. I punched my three bottom holes in the front side of the sheath and one hole in the back, then put the stack together and bent the sheath to follow the crooked blade and marked out the other holes. This put a natural curve in the sheath .sort of.
Then I riveted it all together and got my usual rustic look.
It is solid...that is about the only compliment I can give this. I soaked it in water and left it to dry overnight on the knife. I think I am going to soak it in wax, then trim all the edges next. The wax should make it hold the curve well. The kangaroo keeper strap idea was also a last minute idea. I was going to do a snap but my snap shanks were too short for the leather thickness.
Overall a pretty medieval look with the rivets and crude leather work, but I think it will allow me to toss it in my carving bag safely.
My Orien MacDonald wharncliffe carver needed a sheath too, so with some of the leftover scraps I tossed this one together.
I think I will do a few more of this style for some other carving tools.
