Okey Dokey, been working on this one for a few weeks now, looks like it's as done as it's gonna be. Such a beautiful knife deserved a one-of-a-kind sheath, so that's what I gave it. Really tried to challenge myself on this build; did a ton of reading and watched what felt like hundreds of YouTube vids to prepare. Definitely didn't come out perfect (or even close to), but I'm happy with my results.
Had a general idea of the type of sheath I wanted. Took me the better part of a night to draw up plans on one that might work. After tweaking, retweaking, and starting over a few times, this is what I came up with:
I was going for a kinda distressed, used look with the sheath, so I chose a piece of leather with some marks and scratches to cut out the pattern:
Purchased an overstitch wheel for this build to get the hole spacing better (as you can see it took me a few tries to figure out how to work it lol). Now, I don't have a drill press to punch the holes with, so I had to use an awl and punch them by hand. Soon realized that eyeballing straight does not equal straight. Lots of punching and re-punching holes in this stage. This is where the back of the sheath got a little ugly (more on that later).
Putting on my own "makers mark" lol (band-aid courtesy of my daughter):
Took a surprisingly few pictures of the dyeing and stitching and finishing stages of the build. Kinda got into a groove and didn't want to stop. Here's one of me using some needles to try and line up the stitching holes during the final glueing phase.
That's about it. My wonderful wife used a soldering iron to burn some designs on the front. I used a buckle found at Tandy and made a dangler for it - kept it long so I could still use it while backpacking without it interfering with the hip belt. Dyed it a dark brown, and finished it with some super shene and obenauf's.
And, finally, the reveal:
Not content with just the sheath, I took an old Coghlan's and some scrap leather and fashioned up a matching firesteel.
Final product:
Like I said, I'm super happy how it looks. I made vast improvements on my stitching abilities vs. my first sheath build. Love the way the maple leaves turned out. By far the nicest thing i've ever produced. But like I said, it certainly has its flaws. Since this was a sheath making contest, might as well acknowledge them too. The stitching at the back came out not so straight, and ended up too close to the edge. As a result I couldn't sand down the edge of the sheath a much as I would have liked. Also, the loop for the dangler attachment ended up off centre a bit in regards to the knife, so the dangler hangs a little off kilter (if that makes any sense). I must have changed the position of it a dozen times when I drew it up, and it looked good initially, but when I wet formed the sheath it ended up a little too close to the front. I don't think it should affect the way it carries though...
Here's a pic of my zig-zaggy stitching:
Live and learn. All I can say is that I have the utmost respect for the people who do this for a living. :thumbup: I'll be putting this setup thru it's paces this summer, and see if it could use some tweaks. But for now, I'm definitely taking a break from leatherwork lol.
Once again, a huge shout out to Rotte for hosting this contest, and to Vance and everyone at Fiddleback for supplying the wonderful prize. I can't wait to take this package out come summer.Thanks for looking!
. Congrats again Aikiguy :thumbup:.
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