- Joined
- Feb 28, 2002
- Messages
- 13,348
The following commentary and pics are from Stuart. That the sheath would be a quality piece of work was never in doubt, but I think you'll agree that he went above and beyond to achieve something that was an exceptionally good aesthetic and thematic match.
The leather came in and I still couldn't figure out what to do for a sheath. I drew sketches, thought of overlays, inlays, tooling, plain... I thought of attaching strips of wenge, trying to do an veneer inlay.. (then figured that the thin wood would crack so scrapped the idea)... Thought of tying leather cord, making a kurikata and a silk sageo... Nothing struck me as practical or particularly special.
Then the first part... I decided on the the wenge stud, but I don't have a lathe so I used my drill as the lathe... I then drilled and adapted a chicago screw so I could attach it.
Then.. stuck.. I thought to keep it simple but then did some border tooling... but then disaster.. I mis-struck and ruined the whole thing. I had to start again including making a new stud and washer, and redoing the whole top. This knife has been a long series of re-polishing (8 times I think), 2 handles and now 2 sheaths...
But I think it was lucky because I got the idea I've been struggling for 2 weeks to think of. I thought of the translation of "Osoraku" as meaning "perhaps" and in this context I thought it had a whimsical quality. I thought that maybe I could put the hiragana characters for "osoraku" on the sheath.. At first I couldn't think of the best way without it looking like just an add on, but then I thought of the old Japanese official notice boards that were used to post announcements, edicts and laws to the villagers. So I took the characters and created a repeating pattern that almost looks abstract yet knowing what the characters mean, reveal the contents of the sheath. How's that for whimsical? Ha.. I even textured the panel a little to look like it was written on a wooden board.
Finally, I feel I caught the essence of the knife in the sheath.. It was a struggle and I just about died when I had to start over but I'm glad I did.
Roger
The leather came in and I still couldn't figure out what to do for a sheath. I drew sketches, thought of overlays, inlays, tooling, plain... I thought of attaching strips of wenge, trying to do an veneer inlay.. (then figured that the thin wood would crack so scrapped the idea)... Thought of tying leather cord, making a kurikata and a silk sageo... Nothing struck me as practical or particularly special.
Then the first part... I decided on the the wenge stud, but I don't have a lathe so I used my drill as the lathe... I then drilled and adapted a chicago screw so I could attach it.
Then.. stuck.. I thought to keep it simple but then did some border tooling... but then disaster.. I mis-struck and ruined the whole thing. I had to start again including making a new stud and washer, and redoing the whole top. This knife has been a long series of re-polishing (8 times I think), 2 handles and now 2 sheaths...
But I think it was lucky because I got the idea I've been struggling for 2 weeks to think of. I thought of the translation of "Osoraku" as meaning "perhaps" and in this context I thought it had a whimsical quality. I thought that maybe I could put the hiragana characters for "osoraku" on the sheath.. At first I couldn't think of the best way without it looking like just an add on, but then I thought of the old Japanese official notice boards that were used to post announcements, edicts and laws to the villagers. So I took the characters and created a repeating pattern that almost looks abstract yet knowing what the characters mean, reveal the contents of the sheath. How's that for whimsical? Ha.. I even textured the panel a little to look like it was written on a wooden board.
Finally, I feel I caught the essence of the knife in the sheath.. It was a struggle and I just about died when I had to start over but I'm glad I did.
Roger
A few years ago, maybe three, I picked up a Ray Richard's bowie in a partial trade from you.
