Carved sheath - process pics.

[SBranson]

As requested in the other thread about the carved sheaths here's the process pics.

I am pretty much a noob to the carving thing so forgive some inconsistencies and maybe some mistakes in the process but for what it's worth here's my method. (ever changing as I try more and more)

Any tips or pointers would be appreciated.

This is for a Scrapyard Dogfather. The plan was to make a collar with rings for a Baldric style carry sheath.

Here's the sketch.

Next is laying out the template for the leather. Because of the flare in the sheath and the curves I've added, it's not just a rectangle. I start by only cutting the main center shape and trim the wings that wrap around slowly as I refine how it will fit. Also one has to take into account the difference in the thickness of the paper vs. the leather.

The final shape and the transfer to the leather. I marked out the corners of the actual sheath (red arrows) so I can line up the drawing to be centered.

Punch the hole and line things up again and adjust.

At this point I cut the leather to the final shape and "cased" it. You wet the leather and let is come back to the original colour but it's still damp inside. This allows it to take and hold the shape of the carving and stamping.
There are products for this but so far water seems to work for me.

Transfer the drawing to the tracing film

 

[SBranson]

Set the borders for the carving area. Didn't quite get the hole in the exact place and the leather is a little smaller than the drawing due to sanding and such so I had to move things around slightly to get it to fit.

Trace over the drawing with the stylus tool

Go over the lines with the swivel knife

These are the shading tools I will use. Pear shader, bevelers and spoons.

Stamp in some background detail

Almost finished.

Add some colour and highlights

 

[SBranson]

And here's the finished sheath. I still have to make up the straps.

And here's the other two:

And here's all three together:

 

[Greg45]

Gorgeous work.

Very nice tutorial, by the way.

 

[SBranson]

Thanks Greg.

Here's one I did for a little knife I got as a Christmas present.

 

[Colinz]

Very nice choice of colors.

/C.

 

[Dusty One]

Great looking work............

 

[Diomedes Industries]

First, thank you so much for this, the helps me a lot.

Questions: What did you use to put the stain on with? A brush?

Did you swivel knife in your outline, use your pear shader, and then draw in the inside lines?

TF

 

[C_Kyle]

Very nice. You make it look easy; but, I know it's not.

 

[SBranson]

Thanks guys. Still learning and I appreciate the comments.

Questions: What did you use to put the stain on with? A brush?

I used an artist's brush to dye around the leaves. For the rest I used a wool dauber or a cloth. Thin coats to try and stay even with the area around the carving but the compression of the leather affected the absorption.
I am still figuring out dyeing too. It seems that each piece of leather responds a little differently.

Did you swivel knife in your outline, use your pear shader, and then draw in the inside lines?

It's supposed to be done in the order you mentioned and the ones I did that way worked out best. On one I did the inside lines and it didn't work out so well. Also it looks better if the veins inside the leaf are double lined. Looks more like a real leaf.

 

[nikoknife48]

Quality stuff!

 

[DB IZM]

That turned out to be a fantastic looking sheath.