Scabbord construction

G

GONESAILING

Joined
Dec 26, 1998
Messages
239
Bill
After touring your site and others I have a better understanding of how the kami and assistants construct the blade and handle. What about the scabbord? How is it constructed, does the kami make one for each khukuri? It must take a bit of practice and craftsmanship to get it to look as good as on my HI khukuris. Is leather work thought of as less than metal work?
Jim

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What? Another knife? Don't you have enough of those things already?
How many does one person need?

 
Hi Jim:

Scabbards are secondary consideration -- and from my point of view they require considerably less skill than making a khukuri. Since each blade is a bit different scabbards are generally custom made for each blade.

The procedure is to take two blocks of wood, route them out to fit the blade between the two blocks, shape them, cover them with the leather which has been soaked in some awful solution (I don't know what it is) and then stitch and trim.

The sarkis (cobblers) Kami has hired to make the scabbards for shop 2 need to improve. They are getting better but need to try for better quality leather and take more time in construction. We will get there.

Uncle Bill
 
Thanks Uncle Bill for the information.
I thought perhaps the young intraining
apprentice kami would be delegated this task.
Never thought about having a cobbler make them. In previous posts you commented that many workers do not even have shoes.
Making scabbards would keep the cobblers busy enough?
Jim

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What? Another knife? Don't you have enough of those things already?
How many does one person need?

 
Shop 1 can keep a family or two of sarkis busy. Shop 2 cannot. Our sarkis do scabbards and other leather work.

The sarkis are quite good at what they do. When I was living in Nepal I had a sarki make a pair of cowboy boots for me from cobra skin. He measured my foot, used a picture from a magazine for a model, and produced a very nice pair of boots -- surprisingly good.

<img src = "http://members.aol.com/yangduspag/pict47.jpg">

Jim, here is a picture of a sarki at work. You can't see what he is doing but you can see the buffalo hide in the background that will be used for scabbard covering.

Uncle Bill

[This message has been edited by Bill Martino (edited 01 August 1999).]
 
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