My attempt at a rawhide sheath.

hushnel

hushnel

Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
727
Thanks SBranson for posting his raw hide sheath thread, I’ve seen this style sheath before but never gave it a try. I’d like to thank John M Cohea too for his tutorial. I need to practice some and get the right hide, this goat skin I used is way to processed to give me a really primitive look, I’ll save this hide for the gourd banjos and other stringed instruments I originally bought it for.
I made the sheath today and built the knife a few days ago. It’s a small knife only 5 ½” from tip of sheath to the end of the antler. I like neck knives and use them a lot. I bought 4 of these blades at the last Alafia River Rendezvous for about 7 bucks apiece from the maker. Good hard steel and they take a wicked edge.

Knife and sheath
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Knife in sheath
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I think it looks very good Hushnel! You are off to a great start:thumbup:It really pleases me to see so many nice sheaths being made following my tutorial as a starting point. Deer rawhide works the best for this style sheathwork(at least for me), but whatever you can lay your hands on will work. I have even seen dog chews used.
 
If that's your first attempt at a sheath like that I'd say future ones are going to be pretty damned good indeed.

Nicely done and, as somebody said, suits the knife perfectly.
 
Thanks all, back in the 80s some time I came across Daniel Winkler's work and his leather work was the first thing I was drawn too. I figured he was a buckskinner and I watch his progress over the next few years. When I first saw these recent rawhide sheaths I though about him, it's good to see he's still at it.

I've got a few larger knives that I think this style would work very well with. I'm afraid I may wind up with a couple of sheaths for each of my favorite knives I like this style so much.
 
Actually Karen Shook does the sheaths for Daniel Winkler's knives. I had one of his knives with one of her sheaths and it was that which inspired me to make one. Mr.Cohea's link told me how. ;)
I will definitely be making some more in the near future.
 
Very nice, Hushnel.... this comes in a timely manor as I just got ahold of some rawhide, myself. I had a chance to sit and talk with Daniel and Karen a few times at the NYCCKS last fall... her work is outstanding and Daniel's knives are an inspiration to me. Now, with this thread, I that much more inspired.

John... thanks for posting that link... clears up a few things I've been wondering about.

Rick
 
Very nice looking outfit, great job!.....question.. the metal rings kinda jump out at me......you mention wanting to achieve a more primitive look, but the rings don't seem to fit, but then again, I know nothing about those period items.
Were metal rings used "back then"?
 
I think I can answer that one Rayban.Hushnel mentioned that this was intended as a neck knife, and the rings are most probably to run a neck lanyard through.
I did something similar for a customer on a matched pair that was comissioned. On the fixed blade he wanted the option of shoulder as well as belt carry, so I put rawhide loops ar the top of the welt as Hushnel did, then made a shoulder harness that is removable via mammoth ivory buttons. Both of these sheaths are multi carry, as they both have belt loops as well as a harness or neck lanyard.
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Actually Karen Shook does the sheaths for Daniel Winkler's knives
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Thanks for straightening me out on that, now that I’ve read that I do seem to remember something about that printed in a knife magazine, at least 15 years ago probably 20.
The jump rings are for a neck knife, made of sterling silver and temporary, they’re all I had on hand yesterday, when I get some copper wire I’ll make them a little larger and thinner, it should balance the rig out a little better.
I have a nice damasks blade made by Poppins of Poppins moccasins that I bought from him at a rendezvous last year or the one before. I’m inspired to finish this now since it will look so cool in a rawhide sheath. I wish I could slab out some large red coral beads I have to go with the Baltic amber and copper I want to use on the handle of this knife. I've got to find a guy that does that kind of stuff.
 
A few more I made this weekend. The first is hair on cowhide. I built the knife on Friday for my wife, the handle is antler carved bone.

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This is another rawhide sheath, the third so far and made for an Ivan Boggs, #60, Damascus I bought from Ivan in 1993.

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I really like that one, hushnel.... the blue beads compliment the rich natural tones in the hide.... and I think using the light lacing brings attention to the stitch pattern.

Good job.
 
the blue beads compliment the rich natural tones in the hide
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Thanks Rick, Yeah, Earth and Sky. Those are old Fur Trade beads except for the bone skulls. Every one of these I make I learn much from. The next one is going to have 3 or 4 aspects different from this one.
 
A couple more nice ones Hushnell. You will find that each one you do is a new learning experience. I'm still figuring things out, and I've been doing this style of sheath for close to 7 years!
 
My deer rawhide came in yesterday, I like them, a lot of character. I've got a few long hunters that could use a new sheath.

One of the things I want to do is put a more sever bevel on the inner liners edge so the finished edge doesn't look so boxy. I can't get the puckering of the edge stitch yet either, I think I'm trimming to close, a habit from almost 20 years of leather work but I know what I need to do to get it I just haven't really focused on achieving it yet.
 
I think you will like the deer rawhide much better than the goat. I used to buy mine from Moscow Hide and Fur, but now I have found a tanner and I will trade a knife for 6 or seven hides a year.One of the things I have started doing differently myself since I put together the tutorial is to skive the outside edges of the two halves of the cowhide liner to get a thinner edge.Getting the edge of the liner down to roughly a 1/4 inch makes it a lot easier to sew the cover. Another thing I do differently now is to glue the liner together before applying the glue to the rawhide cover. That way you can put two or three whip stiches down each side of the liner so you don't have the possibility of things shifting while you sew the cover together. As I said before, even after 7 years of making this type of sheath I am still figuring out new techniques as I go along.
I am eventually going to post a new tutorial here that will include the updated techniques and hopefully pictures that are not quite as dark.
A friend of mine will on occasion produce knifemaking DVD'S, and we have talked about doing one on this type of sheathwork, but that will be probably in the distant future.
 
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Getting the edge of the liner down to roughly a 1/4 inch makes it a lot easier to sew the cover
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Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, I noticed the boxy ness right away. I have taken many liberties with your tutorial, I've thought about gluing up the inner liner before attaching the rawhide but that doesn't work if I want to sew the belt loop through the rawhide and the liner for added strength, I guess I could sew the belt loop just to the rawhide cover but I worry that this would not anchor the loop securely enough and over time the hard edge of the rawhide would play havoc with my stitches.

If you like I can fix your pictures on the tutorial with photoshop and email them back to you or give you a hand with your new tutorial, text on image and junk like that, you've done a good thing giving away your technique and helped us to quickly succeed and I will do what ever I can to help you out. It's a very simple process and would only take me a few minutes to fix all the images.

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At first I was sewing the loop to the back half of the liner as well, but I switched to just sewing to the cover some time ago.Once the rawhide cures this method is plenty strong. As far as taking liberties with the tutorial, I expect and encourage that, because these are methods that work for me,and I wanted this to be a starting point for people that wanted to give it a try and then build on it and develop what works for you.
I may take you up on your offer for help on the next tutorial, and thanks!
 
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