Seal Skin

[P. McKinley]

I'm constructing a knife and sheath for a local man who's spent his life on the water. The color palette of the knife would be nicely complimented by inlay of tan and black hair-on seal skin. The hide is clean, but unprocessed and still in the "rawhide" state. I haven't done an inlay using this sort of material, especially with hair on it, and I'm a little stumped how to proceed. I would think this would be handled much like deer hide in the same condition, but.......??
-Hair and glue don't mix well. How would you deal with gluing the inlay edges... shave it?
-Does this material require any special treatment to protect it from moisture?

Tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Peter

By pjmknives at 2012-03-07

By pjmknives at 2012-03-07

 

[parbajtor]

When you say "rawhide" state, do you mean stiff and inflexible or is it still slightly supple?
If it's stiff you will want to tan the hide first.
Seal skin has a natural moisture resistance, hence it's value to the Inuit. It shouldn't need waterproofing, it will keep, untreated, soaking in brine for a year before any degradation starts, so the only reason to tan is to increase the suppleness of the leather.
With inlays, I would shave/trim underneath and sew a border seam. Any glue used would just be for positioning while sewing.
If it were me, I'd just make the entire sheath (scandi style sheath) out of the seal skin using a leather welt and maybe some Native American thonging/tasselling along the seam and some attractive bone buttoning/highlights. If you do stick with inlays, it's only the other leather which will require waterproofing.

 

[P. McKinley]

Peter - Thanks for the input.

The skin is quite stiff and inflexible. For this knife, a scandi sheath won't work, but I am planning exactly that for a different knife. This one is a rather large chopper and needs a layered sheath and an inlay of some type would fit the design nicely.

Thanks again,

Peter