Metal sheath tutorial or WIP?

[Jason Fry]

Any good tutorials or WIP's on doing a metal sheath like for a Michael Price style bowie?

Maybe I'll just WIP the one I'm doing. It'll be like the deaf leading the blind lol.

 

[Jason Fry]

I've seen this one. It's TIG and stainless, but I assume nickel silver and solder would be a similar process.

 

[Nate’s Knives]

I've seen this one. It's TIG and stainless, but I assume nickel silver and solder would be a similar process.

That’s amazing that he did so good with his first try…having the proper machinery to do it, though, helps…

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

IIRC, the ABS sells Bill Moran's "Handles, Guards, and Sheaths" video tutorial.

 

[Ken H>]

That is a great video tutorial - makes me think I might could even do something like that, but I would have to use my laser for the engraving.

 

[tmerkl]

That is a great video tutorial - makes me think I might could even do something like that, but I would have to use my laser for the engraving.

Not to derail the discussion, but do you have any posts where you've talked about doing laser engraving? I'm very curious about this as well.

 

[Ken H>]

Not to derail the discussion, but do you have any posts where you've talked about doing laser engraving? I'm very curious about this as well.

Lots of good reading on this thread for lasers: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/the-laser-thread.1929069/

There are a couple of FB groups for laser engraving. They do some amazing stuff. Fiber laser engraving and cutting is one of the FB groups.

 

[Jason Fry]

OK, let's WIP this thing since there seems to be a lack of resources.

Here's the knife in question, a Michael Price style bowie with a stag handle. This pic is just dry fit/roughed in, but by the style, it "has to" have a traditional metal sheath.

I made a mandrel out of quarter inch mild steel. Used .06 nickel silver sheet.

I put the mandrel in my vise, with the NS sheet superglued to it to guarantee alignment, and a piece of leather on the NS to keep from blemishing it. Then I hammered the metal to shape around the mandrel. I started with a small hammer, but discovered that a bigger one worked better.

 

[Jason Fry]

After the first round of fitting to the mandrel, I annealed the NS. For those unfamiliar, annealing non-ferrous metals is the opposite of steel. You heat it up to dull red then quench. In this next pic is one half after annealing and another round on the mandrel, with the other as it came off the mandrel the first time. Can you tell which is which?

I forgot to take a pic of the next part, and it's important. Solder does not fill joints like you can with welding. It wicks to the gaps, but if the gap is too big, it won't close it. Therefore, there must be little to no gap at all between parts being soldered together. I don't know what the traditional or even modern way is on a metal sheath to ensure that the gaps are tight. What I did was to double sided tape a single side to a bar of steel, stuck the flat side of one sheath piece on it, then put that on my surface grinder attachment. Slowly in light passes, I ground the edges flat and square. Then I did the other half of the sheath. Here was the final result, two pieces that were both ground flat on the SG and fit together with minimal gap.

Next I fit a piece of 1/4" NS bar to make the throat. I have a mill, so I used it. I measured and milled out a slot that's almost exactly the dimension of the blade. This will be the visible side of the throat. Then I relieved the back of the bar so that the sheath itself would be slightly inset, with a solderable gap. I didn't take pics of soldering the two pieces together or of soldering the throat. I fabricated a clip out of some 1/16 1084. I hardened it, then drew it back to gray x3 for a spring temper. This pic is the soldered body, with the throat and clip set on but not fastened.

 

[Jason Fry]

I didn't take a pic of soldering on the throat. I set the sheath upside down, and because I'd milled the relief flat, it soldered together aligned properly. Next was the soldering of the clip. In this pic the clip is ground to shape. I then "tinned" the mating surface of the clip, then set up this picture. The wet paper towel was ultimately folded around so that none of the solder melted except the part I wanted. I put most of the heat on the clip itself until the solder flowed.

 

[Jason Fry]

A whole bunch more polishing and a knife assembling later, here we go. I plan to shimmy some felt in there with spray glue on the back to line it with, per guidance I got from another maker. I also confirmed that similar pieces by Price, Warenski, and DE Henry were not lined, but Rapp, Sornberger and other moderns usually are. The knife is a fairly close representation of a Michael Price, combining elements of design from several originals. The size and profile are very close, as are the pins with washers. I used sambar, although the originals were elk. I used mild steel for the fittings. I did not filework the guard as some were, because I didn't like the pattern they used. I built it frame handle with a tapered frame, so it looks similar to the originals but the construction is different. Fittings are all heat blued. This one will be at Blade Texas.

 

[Kevin Cross]

Thanks for the tutorial, it turned out nice.

 

[Ken H>]

That's your usual exceptionally well done WIP. The sheath and knife do fit together nicely. I think I like the idea of a lined sheath also - so there's no rattle or marring. You gonna have folks lined up at your table looking at that knife/sheath.... Unless it sells before many folks see it.

Well done!

 

[Jason Fry]

The seven people at all of Blade Tx who recognized that this was a San Francisco knife were impressed lol. Sheath did get good feedback from other makers, but several also commented that it was heavy. I'll try .040 on the next one.