Tooling stamp idea, sheath and knife pics.

Salem Straub

Salem Straub

Joined
Oct 20, 2008
Messages
5,547
I was sitting at the finish bench the other night, thinking about leather tooling stamps, and about some types I could make without having to engrave. I was thinking of single point types that can build a pattern up, and at some point I thought of a honeycomb pattern made of hexagons… briefly I imagined the relative ease of grinding a hexagonal stamp. Then I saw an allen wrench on the bench, and after briefly warring with myself about cutting up a perfectly good wrench, I cut the short end off, ground one and flat and finished to 400, then ground the other end with a bevel and slight crown as one would dress, well, the striking end of a punch.

After a short practice run, I jumped in and tooled up a pouch sheath. The sheath and knife are going to a fellow knife maker and Bladeforumite- I find this type of order fun!

Just thought I’d share in case anyone wanted to try it. I’m sure it’s been done before. I'd prefer it, I think, if the punch face was a little cupped for a more 3D look, which I may do with a carbide rotary bit...

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…Then I thought I might as well show a few pix of the knife going into this sheath. W2 with sheephorn scales:

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Absolutely love it when one can repurpose something existing into an awesome creation!! Well done!
 
The sheath is cool but that fit on the intergal is wonderful. I cant recall seeing a taperd tang intergal before. Very nice Salem.
 
Sweet! #47 for the win! I'll PM you my address and I'll send a check. :D

That stamp idea is brilliant. Thanks for sharing that.
 
Great... I'll take #47, too.:p

I like the pattern, Salem. Try filing little notches on the sides of the flats to see what you get.
 
I love that stamp idea and the sheath came out great. That knife is incredible fit, finish and look!!! You do amazing work
 
I love it! The knife, stamp, sheath, everything! You realize now we are all going to want to do it like that, right? Do we have to send royalties to you? Nice job on all accounts.
Cody
 
Dang Salem, that is a nice knife. I like the way you put the whole thing together.
 
Salem, now that is thinking outside the box!
How long did it take to figure out how much to leave around each one of the octagon impressions to get too look right? I have never tried repeatable patterns. Do you lay out a grid or just do it by eyeball?

You thinned down the heel of the handle on that integral about as much as possible! All and all the combination of the knife and sheath is awesome! The more you look at the sheath and the knife you just have to appreciate the hard work that went into both!:thumbup::thumbup:
 
Is number 47 taken? ;)

Love the stamp idea Salem.
As far as the knife, you probably can do these integrals in your sleep by now. Wish I could do such clean work. Love the domed pins.
Thanks for sharing. :thumbup:
 
Thanks for the good words, everybody! Brett, I carefully rough shape a radius on the front of each scale with the grinder, on the platen, checking against the knife until the fit is at least 50% good. Then I use a large round file to hollow the underside of the radiused front of the scale. This isolates the fit to the edges of the scale and makes fitup much quicker. This can be done on a 1-2" contact wheel easily, too. I then sit down and hold the scale onto the tang, and slide it forward until the front of the scale starts hitting the back of the bolster radius. When it touches, I rub the front of the scale back and forth just a little, with pressure, then pull the scale off and observe. Where the scale has touched, there will be a shiny spot. I use a double cut file to remove just the part that rubbed steel. I do this over and over until the scale fits completely (never fits perfect, the fit just gets smaller until gaps cannot be discerned by the unaided eye.) Shiny spots should only appear within 1/8" or so of the edge of the scale, otherwise file the center more hollow.

That works really well for dark colored materials. On lighter colored materials the process is to use some form of darkening. Inletter's black was traditionally used. I don't need another thing to buy, so I've tried a few things. My best success has been with simply using a #2 pencil. Softer lead would probably be even better. I scribble graphite all over the fit area of the tang, then use the process described above. Now, the dark spots are what to look for. Every few try fits, rub a bit more pencil on. I've also used a very low, sooty acetylene flame to quickly black the tang for this, but it works a little too well and is a bit awkward besides. It does work fine, though.

With a little practice, it's pretty easy and takes less and less time. Check out David Sharp's work for some very good examples of what can be done with this. There is always more to aspire to, I feel what I've done so far is pretty basic for inletting- I want to try an opposed tapered tang integral with curve to it next. Can you say "Rodrigo Sfreddo?"

Dixie, I just did it by eyeball. I did practice on some scrap first. The octagons are pretty easy to keep relatively even as long as you keep an eye on everything.

Tbag, you are right, I realized this morning that I should have taken that pic...

Rick, that's a good idea. Maybe I'll go buy another couple of cheap allen wrenches and try it! I think I'll try filing inward notches to make a star in the center, for one.

Thanks Patrice. You do very fine work yourself! I'm glad you march to the beat of your own drum, I wouldn't have the imagination to come up with the cool things you do.
 
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