Is a bark sheath feasible, even?

[Khay]

I have had an idea for a while now, for a beautiful (to me at least) sheath, but it seems like it might be either hard or (unfortunately) impossible to make... at least without being very brittle, and breaking quickly

The design I am interested in is (Ok, this sounds dumb, I know...) mossy bark. (Not like the woven birchbark sheaths I've seen - more like a solid plank of bark...)

I figure it would be like a wooden sheath, but bark is just so darned BRITTLE! But I would really like a sheath with this kind of texture/look:

I prefer something like those, but I have not set my heart on any particular wood yet. I know Ebony is a great wood, and the bark doesn't look too far off from what I have in mind:

Sooo... I'm curious if anyone has any ideas/pointers/opinions/etc for me? Do y'all think it's possible to make an attractive sheath with rough, mossy bark outside, that's not brittle or crumbling at the edges? Any ideas on what type of wood/bark would work best? Know anyone who could take a stab at the project? Know anyone who HAS done it before? Design tips? Construction tips? Anything, really - I'm throwing the floor wide open, as I would really like any/all input I can get, on this one <3

-Khay

 

[sheathmaker]

Probably not feasible as a user and maybe even too fragile for a display sheath. Would most likely degrade rapidly. Aspen or Birch would be the most likely candidates and neither would look like what you want.

Paul

 

[foxx]

I'd fake it. Don't know how, but some kind of "overlay". A plastic or Kydex sheath, some glue, and pieces of the bark. If you use clear epoxy or glue, then you could "hide" the glue, arrange the bark as you see fit, and see how it does. You could experiment with glueing the bark on plastic, wood, or kydex, what ever the inner sheath is made of. You'll only be in the cost of glue, and some time.

If you use plenty of glue, and think of the pieces of bark as tiles, or puzzle pieces, then maybe it would be as strong as the glue, or epoxy. Even if the bark falls off, some layers would stick.

 

[Khay]

I was afraid of that

Basically,here's my situation: I have a knife blade which I bought at a medieval fair several years ago. I know it's probably not the best blade ever, but the way it was made does make it a BEAUTIFUL blade, in my personal opinion. Probably not worth what I paid for it ($75, if I remember correctly), but worth it to me, at least The blade itself is patterned and looks like snake scales, and was made from an old file/rasp tool like this:

(he said it was an older one, made from a superior tool steel "they" no longer use for them... but this was probably just a sales pitch. Lol!)

Anyways, I will try to find a camera to take a picture of the blade, so you can see exactly what I bought (And probably have a good laugh at me, as well... lol!) soon.

I planned, ever since I bought it, for it to be a purely decorative show piece - just wanted it for how it looked. Although, I have to admit, it is the sharpest thing I own (including razor blades and obsidian blades!), and it has held it's edge since I got it - never needed sharpened once. Granted, I've only used it once or twice, and only on things like cloth and leather, to test the sharpness...

Anyways, I planned on getting a nice, large chunk of pretty, polished light blue/green agate, and carving (or having a gem cutter carve) a handle in 2 halves out of that, with either bone, horn, or ivory in between the 2 halves of the handle as a buffer with some resilience to it, to minimize the brittleness of the stone.

And to finish off the piece, I thought a mossy-bark textured sheath, put together with wooden pegs or something, would be a great look.

Ok, I know it probably sounds silly... but it looks good in my mind, and I wanted to see if I could realize my imagining into material form As I said before - never intended for carrying or use, just want it to look great on display <3

-Khay

 

[fast14riot]

When you say you want natural textures only one name comes to my mind, Grace Horne. I have never seen such natural textures displayed as she is able to do. Granted, she is a knife maker but she is an artist in the truest sense and may be able to help you out with a sheath or maybe ideas. Just viewing her work online makes you wonder how she takes nature and inserts a knife into it.

example here



-Xander

 

[grace horne]

I think that it sound like a great project...if you do ever manage it, please post some pictures. I'd love to see what you've come up with.