My Rucki w/ a leather sheath/scabbard

El_Toro

El_Toro

Joined
Oct 6, 2006
Messages
837
It's been a long while since I've posted in here, so I figured I'd share a CG Rucki I got a long while back. It's desert sage with tan canvas micarta handle scales. I've made a hobby of making sheaths for some of my knives and shortly after getting this sword, I probably took on my most ambitious leather project yet!

I made a leather sheath/scabbard for this thing by hand. It took close to 20 hours (spread apart) over a 2 week period. The most time consuming part was the stitching. Being such a large knife, there was no way I'd make a sheath with a belt loop. So I put a few brass D-rings on the sides where a paracord shoulder strap can snap on.

I can't imagine what I would ever use this sword for (maybe save it for the zombie apocalypse, lol), however it is probably one of my most favorite blades. :D

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That's a really sweet sheath!

I hope one day I'll be able to make something like that too.
 
elof_alv said:
That's a really sweet sheath!

I hope one day I'll be able to make something like that too.
Click to expand...

It's not too difficult, mainly trial and error. I found it easier to start off on smaller blades, then work my way up. I'd say the most important thing is to have patience and not try to rush anything.

Edit to add:
Also don't let any of your "non-knife" friends handle your work. In the very last picture, you can see a small nick in the leather at the top of the opening. That's from a friend of mine who tried putting the sword in backwards!:eek: Glad I caught that before it was forced in there! lol
 
El_Toro said:
It's not too difficult, mainly trial and error. I found it easier to start off on smaller blades, then work my way up. I'd say the most important thing is to have patience and not try to rush anything.

Edit to add:
Also don't let any of your "non-knife" friends handle your work. In the very last picture, you can see a small nick in the leather at the top of the opening. That's from a friend of mine who tried putting the sword in backwards!:eek: Glad I caught that before it was forced in there! lol
Click to expand...

Trial and error is where I'm at. :D
I did start with smaller knives.

I know that, about the non-knife people. Have a leather sheath into which a person decided to push in a bowie knife backwards... luckily he only cut the stitching...
 
As some one who has done two bigger sheaths for two of my Busse, and a double handful of smaller sheaths and holsters, I know how much of a headache hand stitching bigger sheaths is for me.

I did a KZII, and B11 sheath. I made a baldric rig with a horse strap (the local tac shop went out of business, and the straps were cheap. If they had more, I would have bought every single large strap!)


Looks great.
 
elof_alv said:
Trial and error is where I'm at. :D
I did start with smaller knives.

I know that, about the non-knife people. Have a leather sheath into which a person decided to push in a bowie knife backwards... luckily he only cut the stitching...
Click to expand...

Probably the most important thing I learned is to cut the leather a bit larger, than what I want the finished sheath size to be. After it's glued, I'll sand/shave down the edges to where I want it, then use a drill press to make the stitching holes. After it's stitched, I will do one final sanding to get all of the edges nice and smooth.

With the first few sheaths I made, I cut the leather to what I wanted the final size to be. Then after sanding, I didn't have much room to work with, lol.
 
Bigfattyt said:
As some one who has done two bigger sheaths for two of my Busse, and a double handful of smaller sheaths and holsters, I know how much of a headache hand stitching bigger sheaths is for me.

I did a KZII, and B11 sheath.
Click to expand...

It's a pain, even for the smaller sheaths. I give props to the guys who do it for a living! I forget the name of the company, however there's a manual leather stitching/sewing machine you can get. It has an arm that cranks up and down, feeding the needle and thread through. Thought about getting one of those, as it would definitely save a lot of time. However, I don't make enough sheaths to justify the cost. I think they were around $1,000.
 
Actually the manual leather sewing machine is more than that, around $1500. Google "Tippmann Boss Leather Sewing Machine". It looks nice but it wouldn't have worked for my Rucki sheath. It can only go through 3/4" of leather or less. Towards the opening, the Rucki sheath I made is around 1" thick. It's funny how hard/rigid leather gets when it's stacked this thick. I bet I could drive a few nails with that part of the sheath!
 
El_Toro said:
Probably the most important thing I learned is to cut the leather a bit larger, than what I want the finished sheath size to be. After it's glued, I'll sand/shave down the edges to where I want it, then use a drill press to make the stitching holes. After it's stitched, I will do one final sanding to get all of the edges nice and smooth.

With the first few sheaths I made, I cut the leather to what I wanted the final size to be. Then after sanding, I didn't have much room to work with, lol.
Click to expand...

The first two I attempted I had to punch the holes for stitching... that put me off for a while.
One I dipped in melted wax... and watched it shrink about 20%! :eek: I was expecting maybe 2-3 percent shrinkage... The second one is done, just needs a dye and finishing coats.
 
elof_alv said:
The first two I attempted I had to punch the holes for stitching... that put me off for a while.
One I dipped in melted wax... and watched it shrink about 20%! :eek: I was expecting maybe 2-3 percent shrinkage... The second one is done, just needs a dye and finishing coats.
Click to expand...

I did the "dip in melted wax" thing too for my first one. Once it dried, that thing was as hard as a rock! It's probably how people made armor back in the day, lol. I haven't had any luck using dye. It just turned into a big mess!

I usually just keep the leather natural, and finish it off with this bee's wax waterproofing compound that I have. I think it's bee's wax mixed with mineral oil. I'll apply a coat of it, then use a hair drier (or heat gun on low) to "melt" it in. I follow with a few more coats of that, then buff it to a shine. It gives the natural leather a slightly darker color, plus a bit of water resistance.
 
No problem, if you have any questions feel free to shoot me a PM. There's a sub-forum somewhere here on bladefoums about the topic, that I found quite helpful. I haven't been active here for a while, so I need to find it. I think it may have been moved and/or re-named.
 
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