Stitched knife

L

LemonYellow

Joined
Feb 12, 2022
Messages
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Years ago I used to lurk around shop talk and participate sparingly, it was a great community that taught me a whole bunch. Just recently I've finished my first knife in maybe 6 or so years and I just wanted somebody to see it but I cant post in the gallery. With just me looking at my work it feels kind of like the "if a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound?" situation. If this is not the right place please re-direct me, I looked for sub-forum rules but couldn't find much.

It took me a while to get the right wire for the stitching, I must have redone it at least 6 times, over the course of several years. Wire stitching can be difficult, but the texture and visual contrast is worth it. An added bonus is the sheath doesn't need a welt, so it comes out thinner and less wide, much more pocketable.

Anyway here it is; its just stainless steel, leather and beeswax. Its a bit over 6" long total in the sheath. Thanks for looking and hearing the tree I felled.

 
Nice one. Is there padding between the leather and the tang?
I'd still have a weld to save the edge from the wire
 
Akguy: You can buy stainless steel "bead wire" for making necklaces or bracelets. You can get it in a variety of thicknesses, and strand counts, commonly 3, 7, 21, & 49 strands twisted together. I used a 24ga 3 strand wire. It's got to be stiff enough to act as its own needle, but flexible enough to bend naturally. the bead wire was a huge improvement on twisting my won 2 strand wire, game changer really.

Hengalo: there nothing between the leather and steel, it's just a single piece of leather on each side. I think if the sheath is formed well the knife should never touch the threads, but it's nice to have something like a welt, rivets or wire that it can't cut through for safety. That's my view at least.

I chose leather for the handle because I loved the feel, but if you had the skill I think recessing a stitch groove in something like carbon fiber or dark wood and using either stainless or brass wire would be really cool too. You wouldn't expect to see CF sewn down. A ton of pins would be neat too. While stitching is limited to a linear pattern (really just a line with constant stich spacing) pins could be done in a 2d array with a gradient spacing, or different size pins, which could be very neat.
 
Thanks for the advice. I have been playing with the idea of stitching with wire but wasn't sure what was the best wire to use. I'm going to have to give it try. Thanks again.
 
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