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- Nov 21, 2005
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Dressing is a special treat of most Thanksgiving meals. I had an early treat this week; another sheath from Paul Long.
A thread started by Coop earlier this year told the story of my Don Hanson Atlanta Bowie after he posted this image:
I wanted a special sheath to accompany this special bowie. (Don helped me pick out the walrus for this one during my first Blade Show in 2006, so I tagged the Atlanta name to it.)
After acquiring some odd pieces of walrus ivory, I decided to send Paul Long this picture to see if we could 'dress' up a sheath for this one.
Paul replied, and was less than enthusiastic. Probably too wide and too thick. "Would be touch and go on a sheath that size." But, if I could trim the ivory down a little and send it with the knife, he would consider trying to use it. But, only 2/3rds of it would probably show, he said.
I trimmed the walrus piece on a grinder, sanded and polished it down and shipped the knife and ivory to Paul. The e-mail I received Friday evening said this;
"Knife and ivory made it just fine. Experience makes me less than optimistic that the ivory inlay will work and look good. The edge shape rounded past 90-degrees to the bottom is not a good choice for the inlay. I would have to cover up quite a bit of the piece to make it secure and I'm afraid less than fifty-percent would show. I would suggest you be considering what other inlay you think you'd like as a back up. Thanks."
So, by Saturday morning, I had decided on either a 'gator or ostrich inlay whenever Paul contacted me next, but to my surprise, he called around 10:00 AM and ask if I was close to my computer. He had a light bulb come on going to coffee that morning and had gone back to his shop, did a 'test inlay', and had sent me some pictures.
He had come up with a triple construction sequence that would secure the ivory without covering so much of it. It allowed a 'pocket' for the piece to set down into. He wanted my approval, after seeing the test pictures, to procede. Also, my approval to use a few drops of epoxy. Sounds good to me!
I received pictures on the computer of the final, finished product that evening, not much more than 24-hours after Paul had opened my package! And, this explaination of the construction after the package returned to me this week:
"The construction sequence from bottom to top is a thin layer of leather with six dots of epoxy then the ivory within a tight window on top of the epoxy in the next layer of thicker leather glued to the first piece and then the next layer of lighter leather with the final slightly smaller window which is also the outside layer of the sheath. Then the deer skin liner which goes behind the first thin layer with the epoxy on it. The six dots of epoxy were used in case of a flex. It might break one of the dots, but it won't get all six. It is really about as secure as I could dream up, as I tried to think of every thing that could go wrong and fix it ahead of time. All of this is for the front of the sheath as the back is a separate piece along with the welt. I skived the front and the back down to about one half thickness on the exposed edges which gives the sheath a much slimmer appearance and makes it look very normal."
Thanks to Don for snapping this photo when I ran it by his shop yesterday (in the photography wing of Sunfish Forge.
)
And, thanks to Paul for being patient with me through this, and doing a remarkable job with such a quick turn-around! :thumbup:
- Joe
A thread started by Coop earlier this year told the story of my Don Hanson Atlanta Bowie after he posted this image:
I wanted a special sheath to accompany this special bowie. (Don helped me pick out the walrus for this one during my first Blade Show in 2006, so I tagged the Atlanta name to it.)
After acquiring some odd pieces of walrus ivory, I decided to send Paul Long this picture to see if we could 'dress' up a sheath for this one.
Paul replied, and was less than enthusiastic. Probably too wide and too thick. "Would be touch and go on a sheath that size." But, if I could trim the ivory down a little and send it with the knife, he would consider trying to use it. But, only 2/3rds of it would probably show, he said.
I trimmed the walrus piece on a grinder, sanded and polished it down and shipped the knife and ivory to Paul. The e-mail I received Friday evening said this;
"Knife and ivory made it just fine. Experience makes me less than optimistic that the ivory inlay will work and look good. The edge shape rounded past 90-degrees to the bottom is not a good choice for the inlay. I would have to cover up quite a bit of the piece to make it secure and I'm afraid less than fifty-percent would show. I would suggest you be considering what other inlay you think you'd like as a back up. Thanks."
So, by Saturday morning, I had decided on either a 'gator or ostrich inlay whenever Paul contacted me next, but to my surprise, he called around 10:00 AM and ask if I was close to my computer. He had a light bulb come on going to coffee that morning and had gone back to his shop, did a 'test inlay', and had sent me some pictures.
He had come up with a triple construction sequence that would secure the ivory without covering so much of it. It allowed a 'pocket' for the piece to set down into. He wanted my approval, after seeing the test pictures, to procede. Also, my approval to use a few drops of epoxy. Sounds good to me!
I received pictures on the computer of the final, finished product that evening, not much more than 24-hours after Paul had opened my package! And, this explaination of the construction after the package returned to me this week:
"The construction sequence from bottom to top is a thin layer of leather with six dots of epoxy then the ivory within a tight window on top of the epoxy in the next layer of thicker leather glued to the first piece and then the next layer of lighter leather with the final slightly smaller window which is also the outside layer of the sheath. Then the deer skin liner which goes behind the first thin layer with the epoxy on it. The six dots of epoxy were used in case of a flex. It might break one of the dots, but it won't get all six. It is really about as secure as I could dream up, as I tried to think of every thing that could go wrong and fix it ahead of time. All of this is for the front of the sheath as the back is a separate piece along with the welt. I skived the front and the back down to about one half thickness on the exposed edges which gives the sheath a much slimmer appearance and makes it look very normal."
Thanks to Don for snapping this photo when I ran it by his shop yesterday (in the photography wing of Sunfish Forge.
)
And, thanks to Paul for being patient with me through this, and doing a remarkable job with such a quick turn-around! :thumbup:
- Joe
