wood insert inside Kukuuri sheath

K

Kevin the grey

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Aug 26, 2005
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Does anyone have a picture of the wood insert inside a kukuuri sheath ?
Are they all basically the same except for blade size ? I have a 15 inch B:A:S: if that makes a difference .
 
Kevin it's not an insert but two somewhat carefully carved matching pieces put together and covered with leather. That's why you're not supposed to grasp the scabbard anywhere near the edge when drawing or inseting the khukuri.
Make sense? ;)
 
IF you do split the sheath kevin, you can always glue some leather inside and outside the split.
Sandwich the split piece like a big hotdog. Lengthwise.
 
I was sure I had seen a detailed explaination of how a sarki was made on http://www.himalayan-imports.com/ but can't find it. I did find pictures of leather working and a distance picture of the wood being carved, but not what I thought I had seen. The trouble is the site has so many paths, forks, and back alleys, it takes considerably longer than I can spend looking :(

The wood inside the sarki is two separate pieces of wood that are hollowed out to accept the blade and then glued together. Because of the curve of the blade, there must be a bit of extra room at mid blade length. Each sarki is made to fit the blade that comes with it as there is an interference fit that holds the blade snug inside.

I had The Sarki Shop bookmarked from years ago and see that the announcement of it closing down was made in 2002!

And Yvsa's advice is good. It was the first thing my Gurka major friend told me when I drew his the wrong way. I inherited his service kukri that was gifted to him by his men (officers don't carry them).

I have a silver hilted kukri that needs a bit of TLC to the sarki.
 
I was going to make an archery quiver with a built in Kukuuri sheath .I wanted to see how complicated it would be to make one . the insert would be the tough part as I never saw one . I do work with rawhide . If I couldn,t make an insert out of wood I thought I could make it out of a thick piece of buffalo rawhide . That stuff is as tough as iron . Anybody have any ideas ?
 
The wood linings are cool but there's no rule that it has to be done this way. There are advantages to unlined sheaths as opposed to scabbards. (Much thinner and easier to make, mainly.)

In your case, I'd just stitch a piece of leather onto the outside of your quiver, pancake style. If you make it a bit too tight to fit dry and wet form it, it ought to be pretty secure even without a keeper of some sort. Make sure to allow for the bend of the khukuri.
 
"stitch the leather".

I wonder how long the stitching will last with a curved bladed kukri going in and out?
 
Thats the good thing about rawhide . If you don,t like the shape you can wet it and rework it . Its the angle of the blade that is the tough part . I think I,ll draw a straight line across the angle and use that as the wide part of the sheath .
 
Andrew Taylor said:
I wonder how long the stitching will last with a curved bladed kukri going in and out?
Click to expand...

I've had my stitching come loose on occasion but I've never managed to cut it. I suppose a welt or rivets would do the job if this is a concern - I just don't like the way they look. (Strictly personal preference.)
 
You need not have any stitching come in contact with the blade . All you do is fold the material over on the blade side and stitch on the spine side . Aside from that if you use rawhide you hardly need any stitching at all . When it is wet rawhide is pliable . When it dries depending upon the kind it can be as hard and more durable than wood . The trick is to have it dry in the shape you want and to finish it so it doesn,t absorb too much moisture . Polyacrylics work ,shoe polish works if there is a high concentration of wax in it . I,m still learning asbout rawhide . It is fun to work with . Learning its shrink rate and scraping some of the hides can be a challenging and odorous process . Well its better than being paid for a living !
 
Wooden insert for khukri sheath? Nope, don't have one of them laying around. However, I can tell you it ain't rocket science. :D

Here's some pics of one of my current projects. The knife features a "Sarge knife" style blade, ground from a rusty old file. The guardless "karda style" handle is made from a very dense, reddish brown, hardwood that came from South America. The scabbard insert is carved from Poplar, using nothing more than one of my homemade whittling knives.

Way I do it is to obviously make it in two halves. Each half is carved to accomodate the blade for only half of it's total thickness. These two halves are clamped together, and the blade is inserted to check for fit. If everything's good to go, the halves are glued and clamped until the glue dries. Then it's a simple matter to carve the outside to final shape and sand. Like I said, not rocket science.

Sarge
 
You might consider making the sides of different thicknesses...You basically make a box with a lid... That way the blade never hits a joint and so has a much lesser chance of slicing through... That is how most Mora and like designed knife sheathes are made...
 
Good point James, but I've found when working with modern wood glues like Titebond II, the glued joint is often stronger than the surrounding wood, in this case soft Poplar.

Sarge
 
So you think poplar would be a good choice ? There is enough of it growing up here so maybe I,ll try it one day .

I think that the Kukuuri sheaths have had a lot of thought in their construction . When I insert the blade I watch the wood joint open and close . It looks like the edge never touches the inner edge of the wood It looks like the joint opens and closes with the wood holding onto the convex curve and the edge remains free . Of course this is just what I see at the mouth of the sheath .
 
Not only that, but when you leave a blade in an untreated leather sheath, it'll rust. Leave it in a metal scabbard, it'll rust.

Leave it in a wooden scabbard, though, and it seems to stay clean for a long time; when the surface does finally oxidize it's more patina than rust. There are a few khuks that were sitting in scabbards for months that I recently unsheathed in order to oil the handles; they looked fine. They hadn't gone in oiled either.

You'd think wood would be the worst choice for this but it seems to work. I'm not complaining.
 
I use basswood for sheath liners. It's very easy to carve with sharp chisels, light weight and strong enough when covered with leather. It's available at hobby shops or from National Balsa
I recently learned that traditional Japanese sword scabbards made from wood are carved asymmetrically, so the edge doesn't sit against the glue line. I suspect as much because of rust caused by contact with the glue (rice paste) as anything.

Before I make a leather sheath, I wash the cut-out pieces in several changes of clean water. This removes the left-over tanning solution and has solved my rusty blade problem. I've left carbon blades in leather for years with no rust, if the leather has been so treated. It even works with finished sheaths, but isn't as easy to do.
 
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