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- Jun 3, 2022
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- 377
Hi everybody,
Recently I procured a small 19th-century Wostenholm Bowie, which, based on the pictures on the listing (attached below), I assumed came with an old hand-made replacement sheath.
When I received the knife, however, I noticed that what seemed to be the sheath was in fact a sort of frog, and inside of it was the original sheath, stamped "I*XL," which was in decent condition overall except for the fact that it was missing its chape (as is usual with these sheaths) and the throat was highly corroded (probably after so many years sitting inside the frog in a humid environment):
After some cleaning and conditioning, the sheath looked quite nice for its age and circumstances:
After a few days, I thought: I've always wanted to learn how to make my own metal fittings, so this was a good opportunity to build a chape, since, given the age of the knife, it wouldn't have to look pristine, and the modification wouldn't be an invasive one. So, I picked up a piece of German silver sheet I had lying around and started working on it. I had previously watched a great tutorial by an Argentine knife maker, but the shape was different from that of the piece that must've come with my knife, and I didn't have all the tools, so I had to pretty much wing it using pliers, a hammer, and silver solder. After it was soldered and smoothed out, I noticed that, besides obviously looking much newer than the throat (despite having a few small dings here and there), the chape looked more silvery, probably due to a higher percentage of nickel and/or zinc relative to copper in the material, so I had to put some extra effort into the reliquing and matching process. After trying a few things, what worked best to match the color was hitting it lightly with a flame (using matches, to avoid melting the solder). Here's the final result (I attached the chape with nothing but beeswax, so that it could be removed without damaging the original sheath):
Critical comments welcome!
Edit: Picture links fixed.
Recently I procured a small 19th-century Wostenholm Bowie, which, based on the pictures on the listing (attached below), I assumed came with an old hand-made replacement sheath.
When I received the knife, however, I noticed that what seemed to be the sheath was in fact a sort of frog, and inside of it was the original sheath, stamped "I*XL," which was in decent condition overall except for the fact that it was missing its chape (as is usual with these sheaths) and the throat was highly corroded (probably after so many years sitting inside the frog in a humid environment):
After some cleaning and conditioning, the sheath looked quite nice for its age and circumstances:
After a few days, I thought: I've always wanted to learn how to make my own metal fittings, so this was a good opportunity to build a chape, since, given the age of the knife, it wouldn't have to look pristine, and the modification wouldn't be an invasive one. So, I picked up a piece of German silver sheet I had lying around and started working on it. I had previously watched a great tutorial by an Argentine knife maker, but the shape was different from that of the piece that must've come with my knife, and I didn't have all the tools, so I had to pretty much wing it using pliers, a hammer, and silver solder. After it was soldered and smoothed out, I noticed that, besides obviously looking much newer than the throat (despite having a few small dings here and there), the chape looked more silvery, probably due to a higher percentage of nickel and/or zinc relative to copper in the material, so I had to put some extra effort into the reliquing and matching process. After trying a few things, what worked best to match the color was hitting it lightly with a flame (using matches, to avoid melting the solder). Here's the final result (I attached the chape with nothing but beeswax, so that it could be removed without damaging the original sheath):
Critical comments welcome!
Edit: Picture links fixed.
Last edited:
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