Stag Fighter Revisted - Scabbard and Finish

ScottRoush

ScottRoush

Joined
Jan 10, 2010
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This one is 14" OAL, with 9" blade forged from Aldo 1084 with 400 grit hand rubbed finish. The spine is just a hair under 3/16" with a lot of distal taper forged in for a very thin, sleek profile. The stag was done with a copper frame with lots of internal pins. The guard is wagon wrought iron. Rawhide, nickel silver pins and nickel silver pommel cap (which may change.... I may it pop it off and switch to wrought).

I had John Cohea send me his DVDs. I'm gonna make a rawhide scabbard for it as I've been tinkering with the idea of doing a more 'modern' design in rawhide and this knife would be fun to try it on. This one will be made available on my website and email list once the sheath is done..and I make a final decision on the pommel.

I learned a lot from making this one...as I had to push myself into some new things. What doesn't kill you.....

Thanks for looking!

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Here are some outside and in-hand shots....

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I love the slender blade shape, the wrought guard. I could go either way on the butt cap but think it looks good as is. Wrought with copper would look good, too.

I'm not sure I am warming to the rawhide collar, though.

Roger
 
Yeah I think you have to see it in person to appreciate it. But I should have waited another hour before photographing it as it hadn't completely shrunken yet. The pictures make it seem as if it is a little more 'proud' from the stag than it really is. Now that it is completely set it looks like it just grows from the stag.
 
I always appreciate the feedback Roger!


I forgot to mention the balance of this thing... the frame handle did wonders for bringing it right where I wanted... about 1/2" below the guard. very fast....
 
Very cool knife Scott.
Nice blade and very unique handle.
I like the copper frame with the stag.
 
Whoa Scott, is that a hand rubbed finish!! Beautiful work, and I like the pommel the way it is, very nice.
 
Thanks Ben.... yeah... hand rubbed to 400. I've been trying to add little elements here and there to help practice for JS. But I may end up antiquing the blade after the rawhide scabbard is done. If I do... then the pommel will get wrought iron. I have the nickel on there now to match the finish on the knife and provide contrast....
 
So I watched John Cohea's DVD and went and made a scabbard for this thing. First of all... if you are interested in this kind of leather work... buy his video. He leaves NOTHING out. I'm sure John will notice some issues with my work on this... but it sure was fun! I can see why people do it.... Anyway.. it's deer rawhide over veg tan with wrought iron nail (from the same grain elevator in which I got the iron for the guard) on a textured copper concho. There is also a wrought iron nail bead at the tip. There is also a belt loop on the back... need to get that picture up too.

After making the sheath I just had to go back to the finish on this knife. It just needed some age. So I did the typical ferric soak.. but also did some light browning. And you can see a little hamon through the etch from the clay that I used to keep the ricasso softer in the quench.

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Scott,

That is great. I really like the finish and the edge geometry. You have definitely raised your work to a new level.
 
Looks crusty and ancient and nasty and stabby and quick. And absolutely beautiful. :thumbup:
 
Very cool! The aged finish definitely looks more appropriate for the blade. The choil treatment looks like it might be a little out of sync though. Can you explain the use of the rawhide on the handle like that? Does it add any functionality or is it simply ornamental? For instance, is it grippy? Seems like it might get slippery when wet, but then I'm not familiar with the using characteristics of rawhide? Well done!
 
Thanks a lot folks....

Phil... the choil and spanish notch were taken straight from a historical rifleman fighter. The rawhide is very, very grippy. But in the case here... it's mostly ornamental as I love the textures and variegated colors you get when staining the deer rawhide. In actual historical use... I'm assuming it would have indeed been used for grip or repairing broken handles. It is applied wet and basically stretched over the stag when stitched so when it dries it shrinks and becomes extremely hard.. as hard as the stag itself almost... even without the epoxy soaking that I do.
 
Looks real nice Scott!You learn quickly, and this is a good job for what amounts to your first shot at this style of sheath work!
 
Scott now that the blade is blackened I like it the shinny blade was not working for me with the old world handle but now it all fits well together nice job.
 
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