grogimus
Gold Member
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2012
- Messages
- 2,378
I took a stab at this a while back, I wanted to do more than just basket weave and border stamp a sheath. My first one wasn't bad, I was just too timid about it I think. It was for a Swamp Rat MountainManDu. Almost all of it was done with a molding tool, only a little beveling. Absolutely solid sheath, just lacking in any wow'ness.
I did a couple more sheaths then came back to this. I bought a couple backgrounders, pear shaped shaders, smooth/lined/stippled bevelers, a heavy'ish plastic mallet(replaced the rubber one I'd been beating to pieces- the guys at the Tandy store told me to wait on buying one of the heavier mallets or mauls, the Stohlman's are supposed to be on clearance soon), some antique gel, etc. and got back to it. I wanted to do a practice piece first so knocked out a design on a piece of scrap.
Not too bad, good enough to do it on a sheath. Another Swamp Rat, this one a RatManDu.
Next to the two previous sheaths done. Left to right- BK16, ESEE Laser Strike, RMD.
These practice pieces were pretty fun. The fine branches on this one drove me nuts but it all came out in the end.
This one's a joke from the ESEE forums.
I'm working on a sheath for a Busse Battle Grade ASH-1 currently. I've got the preliminaries done on it, just glued it up tonight, this was before it was put together. My grandma passed in April and had a ton of owl collectibles, made me happy to work with her favorite subject matter.
I used to dread the sewing portion of a sheath because that takes so long, now I'm happy as can be when I sew because I know I'm in the final stretch.(And I finally bought a stitching pony, that helps!) Just for kicks I tried counting the mallet strokes on the backgrounder on that last sheath, I lost count somewhere around 2000 and was maybe half way there. And that was just the backgrounding around the design
It's definitely a rewarding thing to do though. I'm absolutely scatter brained most of the time, if I decide I need to go take a leak I might stop and tinker with a half dozen different things on the way before I remember what I intended to do in the first place. Doing this stuff makes me focus hard. Usually when I step away from a piece I'm working on my legs are cramping up, my back is killing me, my balance and vision are all wonky after staring at something close to my face for hours, and my right hand is numb from the vibrations through the stamps. Good stuff, because it's only when it's done and I step away that I even notice all those things.
Also, that first tooled sheath was using the last of a double shoulder I bought from Tandy. The next batch have all been from a double shoulder I got from RJF Leather. I'm gonna keep looking for deals on the Tandy site, they just had double shoulders for like $60 a while back, but for more intricate tooling I really think this RJF leather is the heat in the hot sauce. Or maybe that's just because I was more confident and had a bunch more specialty tools for creating depth, who knows. Roger from RJF was definitely nice to talk to, but I've also picked the old guys working at the Tandy store in Omaha pretty hard.
I did a couple more sheaths then came back to this. I bought a couple backgrounders, pear shaped shaders, smooth/lined/stippled bevelers, a heavy'ish plastic mallet(replaced the rubber one I'd been beating to pieces- the guys at the Tandy store told me to wait on buying one of the heavier mallets or mauls, the Stohlman's are supposed to be on clearance soon), some antique gel, etc. and got back to it. I wanted to do a practice piece first so knocked out a design on a piece of scrap.
Not too bad, good enough to do it on a sheath. Another Swamp Rat, this one a RatManDu.
Next to the two previous sheaths done. Left to right- BK16, ESEE Laser Strike, RMD.
These practice pieces were pretty fun. The fine branches on this one drove me nuts but it all came out in the end.
This one's a joke from the ESEE forums.
I'm working on a sheath for a Busse Battle Grade ASH-1 currently. I've got the preliminaries done on it, just glued it up tonight, this was before it was put together. My grandma passed in April and had a ton of owl collectibles, made me happy to work with her favorite subject matter.
I used to dread the sewing portion of a sheath because that takes so long, now I'm happy as can be when I sew because I know I'm in the final stretch.(And I finally bought a stitching pony, that helps!) Just for kicks I tried counting the mallet strokes on the backgrounder on that last sheath, I lost count somewhere around 2000 and was maybe half way there. And that was just the backgrounding around the design
It's definitely a rewarding thing to do though. I'm absolutely scatter brained most of the time, if I decide I need to go take a leak I might stop and tinker with a half dozen different things on the way before I remember what I intended to do in the first place. Doing this stuff makes me focus hard. Usually when I step away from a piece I'm working on my legs are cramping up, my back is killing me, my balance and vision are all wonky after staring at something close to my face for hours, and my right hand is numb from the vibrations through the stamps. Good stuff, because it's only when it's done and I step away that I even notice all those things.Also, that first tooled sheath was using the last of a double shoulder I bought from Tandy. The next batch have all been from a double shoulder I got from RJF Leather. I'm gonna keep looking for deals on the Tandy site, they just had double shoulders for like $60 a while back, but for more intricate tooling I really think this RJF leather is the heat in the hot sauce. Or maybe that's just because I was more confident and had a bunch more specialty tools for creating depth, who knows. Roger from RJF was definitely nice to talk to, but I've also picked the old guys working at the Tandy store in Omaha pretty hard.
