My middle daughter, born on a Wednesday and as you can see from this old poem about folks born on certain days of the week are classified as;
Monday’s child is fair of face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursdays child has far to go,
Fridays child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for his living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay;
She actually has had some tough times through out her life, more so than most, plus she always reminds me that she is the Middle Child
in good fun but reminds me nonetheless.
Any way she contacted me that a friend of hers from way back in high school ask if she knew anyone that could make a sheath for him, being a nice girl she offered up my name, she did ask me first for permission and since he was a friend I felt obliged to say ok. Woe is me, even though I was born on a Sunday
The fellow contacted me and told me a tale of an old German fixed blade knife, ugh I don't take on fixed blade sheath work but... He continued to tell me it belonged to his grandfather, another stab at my good nature to help...and he asked if I would make a sheath for it. He was in the process of cleaning up the very rusted blade. I asked for some images first, to make sure it was something that I would be able to make to hold the knife securely. He sent the photos, hidden tang stag handle with a very small brass guard, which did extend out past the edge of the blade. So, with all that I said I would help out. We met last Wednesday, he carried the knife unwrapped laying on his center console of his car where it proceeded to shift around and sliced along his forearm while he was driving! It didn't cut very deep, just enough to bleed down his arm. I thought What the Heck? Fortunately I had something to wrap the knife so I would be a little safer on the way home.
Oh...and as if taking this on wasn't enough, when I asked which side he wanted to carry it, of course he said LEFT hand side. Which me being right handed just goes against what I usually make, it just feels backwards to me.
Fixed blade
Left Handed
Ugh lol
So I started on it, making the welt, center piece runs all the way around the knife with two side pieces tapered and glued on either side of that to provide a little extra room to get the knife inserted. Also the top inside portion has a slight arc so the guard is cammed down into the sheath and a small shelf area there to prevent the knife from going too far into the sheath.
The belt loop shown here is folded over, glued down and hand stitched, notice that the stitching goes down and then back up, some people will run the stitching straight across but that creates a perforated section that in time and wear the leather will tear across there. I've repaired several sheaths of other makers and production type sheaths that had that problem so I know it can and does happen. This helps prevent it.
He wanted it dyed dark brown, I opted to use some tiger thread cigar coloured to compliment the sheath.
5 layers makes a thick section to hand sew through, I first marked out the stitching holes with a pricking iron and then used a small drill bit in my dremel to get through all the layers.
The knife snaps into the sheath, not overly tight but enough that it won't fall out, plus having 2/3 rds of the handle inserted in the sheath will help keep it there with just enough exposed to allow drawing the knife out.
It is strange how it feels to insert the knife the Wrong way since it's a left handed sheath
but that's just me.
And no, I am not taking fixed blade sheath orders
G2
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