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Hi all, Here is a hunter knife I made nearly twenty years ago with a truck shock absorber leaf for the blade - heated and clamped on a flat surface until it cooled down to remove the curve, Cocobolo wood for the handle, and bronze from the local metal scrap dealer with some bits of stainless steel for the pommel and the guard. It is fully hand made but the use of an angle grinder at the beginning to roughly remove stock before using files. This was the first and only knife I ever made. I made the sheath with leather that I molded the same way I used when working in the disability field in developing countries to make the sockets of the prosthesis (I worked as a technical trainer with NGO's). The leather is sunk in a bucket of water, and once it is totally soaked it is regularly twisted, bent, knead, trampled, tortured , etc. (the inflicted torments to soften the leather is only limited by your imagination - as long as they do not damage it! ), until it becomes elastic, therefore moldable. Usually this procedure is over a period of approximately 18 to 24 hours but it depends on the quality of leather. The leather is then stretched over an exact wooden model of the knife blade and maintained in place with 2 to 3 cm wide rubber bands cut from inner tubes to let it dry. Once nearly dry the rubber bands are removed and the fiber of the leather, which must still be wet at this stage, is tightened back through rubbing it thoroughly with a smooth piece of wood (for instance the handle of a hammer). This rubbing operation removes also the remaining water. Once fully dry the leather that took the shape of the mold is hard and can be covered. If I have time I'll shot a video to be posted on YouTube one of these days. I covered it with snake skin (yellowish and black) that I brought back from the Philippines - I didn't met its first owner, thus I don't know which brand of snake this was, lizard skin (light brown), and even a bit of fish skin (the disk on top of the front part sheath), luckily without the smell. The rest of the sheath is a piece of plastic (rigid while elastic) covered with white lizard, and blue lamb skin for the fringes and other smaller parts. Front and back parts are hand sewn together, but as you can imagine I had to drill holes on a drill press - no chance using an awl for such a thickness unless you are Hulk or Superman . You can see more realizations on my website (www.crafts-design.com) but I'll soon post some of them - with explications about the making-of as a bonus when possible, at least those concerning leather work, on this forum. And I will also post soon an introduction about stitching clamps I make I intend to market - I have first to translate it from French. Fred

Hi all, I made a Dirk scabbard for a friend with Celtic carving on the front and his name on the back., we also make the dirks ( we buy in the blades and put the handles on ourselves). The knife sheath was for someone in the Royal Marines, the black one is for use when out on operations and the carved Celtic cross one is for more private use and to show off. Hope you enjoy them. Stuarty.

hi folks a sheath for a friend... how is possible to understand, he loves skulls! veg tanned leather hand carved, dyed and sewn... one of the first carving project I've made. comments are welcome, thanks for looking

Hey guys. This is a knife i made a few years ago. I wanted a new skinning knife and couldnt find one I liked, so I ended up making this one. I think it took almost 60 hours total. I used d2 tool steel and burl maple for the handle. I blued the blade and dyed the handle green to get the camo effect. The primers for the 30-06 round serve as the pins holding the handle on. The actual rounds are inlayed around the pins. Anyways the reason Im posting this is because it was the first time I did anything with leather. Since it was a custom knife I couldnt just get a sheath for it so I had to construct one. I wet molded it around the knife and did a simple tooling pattern. All in all Im pretty happy with it. Ive skinned a few deer with it so far and the sheath is still as good as the day i made it. Not pretty but funtional. Thanks for looking.....Dan

I've been sketching and working a lot lately on a couple of new projects. Here is a prototype for a bushcraft style knife leather sheath for Fällkniven F1. The sheath is fully ambidextrous and customisable. Possibility for both horizontal and vertical carry. Modular design if user wants to add a fire steel or utility pouch. Buckles so the knife would be easy to add and remove from a belt or a bag. The straps can be removed and exchanged if necessary or replaced with cord or strap directly through the sheath. 2,5 mm vegetable tanned full grain leather, brass hardware, my first try with saddle soap polished edges. Fully modular design if user wants to add a fire steel or utility pouch. Any feedback greatly appreciated!

Hello everyone, I haven't been on much at all over the past year, as we have been dealing with family medical issues, and I haven't done much leatherwork during that time, either. This past weekend I had a guy who lives down the road a bit ask me to make him a sheath for one of his JK Handmade Knives that was a one-off design. Here is how it turned out--I don't think it's too shabby for me being out of practice!