Khukuri Sheath Making (Western Style)

[oldschool45]

Here is one way to do a Khukuri Sheath.
I am going to go through the basic steps here and show where they vary for the Khukuri because it is bigger at the nose than the bolster from a "normal" straight blade fixed knife. For a much more in-depth information on the mechanics and tools nick681 did an awesome job of a tutorial here http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=765547 :thumbup:
Pic 1, lay your blade out onto either heavy cardboard or your actual working leather. In this case it is a Santosh 20" Ang Khola. If you have done this before you know what I am talking about if you haven't "prototype" it a few times with heavy cardboard(the heavy paper they pack cases of canned beer in) or corrugated cardboard (heavy box cardboard). It will keep you from making big mistakes with expensive leather and may show you some neat integrated things you can do with the design.
Pic 2, shows most of the pieces in they layout; front(face), back(where you would attach a belt sheath or baldric loops) and the welt (what keep the blade from cutting through your stitching) and I have 2 more spacers for the top of the welt to get the thickness up to meet the 7/16" thickness of the AK's spine. I actually sanded the "tip" part of the welt to match the taper of the tip. When these sheaths were finished you can actually feel the chirra's through the 9oz leather.
Pic 3, shows the pieces with the "contact" edges glued up. Usually Barge Cement is used for leather but any contact adhesive will work. I've used Gorilla Glue before but you have to remove it from the blade "pocket" and compress it right or it expands too much. I have made sheaths for kitchen knives that are all glue and no stitching. If your choice is to only stitch or glue. Glue! It prevents the blade edge from finding your stitches then opening up your sheath then your hand.
Pic 4, after half of the sheath is glued up, I take a tool and make a groove to hold the stitching then use another tool to evenly space & make the holes for the stitches. This line is as close to the middle of the welt as you can make it. You don't need special tools to do all of this. A good eye with a ruler and a pencil will do almost the same thing. What you see here is me using a drill press to drill the holes. I drill the holes before the sheath is done because it is easier to get them "squared" up and not uneven if you wait till its all together.
Pic 5 is after the holes are drill waiting to glue the rest of the sheath together.

 

[oldschool45]

Pic 1 here is the glued and drilled 20" AK sheath and the glued and belt loop stitched only 12" CAL sheath.
Pic 2 here is a closer look at the 20" AK sheath
Pic 3 here is the stitched 20" AK and 12" CAK sheaths and the not yet stitched M43 sheath. I have used the M43 sheath for over a week without stitching it won't stay that way but Like I said in the previous post glue only doesn't concern me for light use.
Pic 4 here is a spine shot on the 20" AK and you can see how close it is to form fitting without being wet molded.
Pic 5 is a real close look at all 5 layers in the spine of the sheath.
Khukuri related things to learn from this how-to;
HI Kami's make some thick almost over built Khukuri's and the new Sakri may make some of this work redundant.
Lay it out on paper or cardboard to fit it together to see how it works. This method worked for John M Browning before AutoCad and its still relevant today. By the time I sit down and start cutting I've probably rebuilt the sheath in my head 10 times.
Don't be afraid to screw up you can usually get scrap pieces of leather fairly cheap you don't need $8/square foot tooling leather to learn on. Just watch your fingers!
Welt heavy and glue it right! Again watch your fingers!
The most important Khukuri related thing in this thread. After you glue the first half of the sheath up and before you drill or punch you stitch holes. Dry fit you khukuri into the sheath a few times to test the insertion & extraction. I found that by trimming the inside of the spine part of the welt I got a super tight fit that doesn't bind going in or out. Finish gluing up before this and you may never get the blade into the sheath or out.
I did not finish the securing straps with snaps on these sheaths. I will probably use what are known as Sam Browne studs on the body of the sheaths and punch a hole in the strap go over it. I don't mind snaps but they can be annoying and loud.
Stitching, I prefer to use wax coated synthetic sinew its heavier than the canvas stitching Nick uses in his tutorial. My way is overkill & over engineered. I may move to Nick's (the traditional) way because I like the look of the finer stitching but I have about a mile of the waxed sinew left so I'll use it.
I haven't done the finished coating on these sheaths because I intend to embellish them with carvings and engravings. I will be incorporating the Kami marks and some version of Uncle Bill @ Peace into them. It looks like I can post pdf images so later today I will add another post reply later and put up 2 pdf files with outlines for the "engrave-able" areas of these sheaths for anybody who wants to help me with ideas. One theme I'm considering is a Nepal themed mural and the other is a shark (like the WW2 Thunderbolts) plus the blade profile on the Khukuri's remind me of shark noses.
Thanks for looking.
Ray

 

[Greyswandir]

Thank you for sharing pics of the progress of your projects :thumbup:

 

[oldschool45]

Attached here is the area I have avaliable for tooling/carving. Figure 2 sides each. If anybody wants to help me with design ideas. Thanks, Ray

 

[sheathmaker]

Ray one quick word of caution regarding tooling/embellishment. Tooling, carving etc. is not only easier on a flat solid surface, that is the only way it can be done successfully. if you are planning to paint the symbols on the I guess that can happen at any time.

I have now made four sheaths for Paranee. Three for HI Khukuris and one for the Jason Knight piece. I made a paper pattern for each sheath complete with ALL the details and then made the sheath from that. Perfect fit, in and out, no slop, no bind and the Khukuri never went into the sheath until after the finish stitching. That is how precise a good paper pattern can be and it's a real time saver to boot......and the same sheath can be duplicated EXACTLY as many times as you like.

This next week end Chris Crawford will be here in my shop to shoot and produce my complete pattern and sheath making process which will then be on one or more tutorial type DVD's. It will have a ton of the basics for a new guy getting started and step by step guidance from front door to back.

This information can be applied to any type sheath and I think you guys here would get a real kick out of getting into leather work either for your own use and amusement or perhaps even a serious endeavor.

Paul

 

[Diomedes Industries]

It looks good - I prefer stitching that is closer together - so I use a 5 SPI (Stitches Per Inch) stitch marker (also known as an overstitcher) to mark my holes.

Also, edging can really make a piece pop. When you get your pieces finished use a sander of some sort (you can use a sanding wheel in your drill press or a dremel - or if you have a belt sander). Shape it to the shape you want and then use an edge beveler to round the edges.

Then switch to finer and finer grit sand paper until you get up to about 600 grit (or more). When you get up to that grit wet the edge and sand a little more (this step and, for me, many of the preceeding steps are done by hand. Be sure to keep the edges rounded like you want. I go up to 1000 grit dry and then wet.

At this stage I use a old piece of moose horn to quickly burnish the edge - it should be getting shiney by now. I then use just a little bit of Gum Tragacanth (you can find this at any leather shop) and rub the edge with an old piece of jean material. The edges should be smooth, shiney, and tough.

I think edging can really take a project from looking okay - to looking great.


By the way, the edging process is shown in Chuck Burrow's DVD - and I am sure Paul's video above will outline his method too.

TF

 

[DanSmithy]

Thanks guys for the informative tread and links.
I want to try my luck and make a kydex sheath for my DuiChirra.
We'll have to buy the kydex from e-store so if anyone knows a reliable one with decent prices let me know. Has anyone done a khuk sheath before from kydex?

 

[shortwinger]

Thanks Paul, that will be a very used tutorial. While I love the traditional sheaths, I think everyone would love to have a good field sheath.

Bill
Virginia