Water Stone Holder for Scythe

[KTWolf]

Hurray, I finished making a water stone holder! I've been busy fixing up a scythe from the 1950's. Scythes are sharpened regularly throughout use, so it is standard to carry a sharpening stone in a holster that contains water, keeping the stone wet and also removing grit from the stone as it's used. I looked at all the stone-holders that were available for sale online, and though they aren't that expensive, I wanted to try my hand at making one from leather.

I came on this forum--thank you for being!--and found out what "boiled leather" means and what temperatures work best. I visited the Skillcult YouTube channel to review using pine pitch to waterproof a liquid-containing vessel made of leather. I designed this thing as I went along, which means a lot of the stitches end up looking kind of Frankenstein; done is better than perfect.

First step was to wrap the stone twice around with cloth; put a soda-pop bottle over that; and heat-shrink the plastic to the shape of the cloth-wrapped stone. This became the "form". Then filled the bottle-plastic form with wet sand, put veg-tan leather piece into hot water until it began to tighten a tiny bit, and wrapped it around the form.
(Photo quality sucks. I have a camera somewhere, but this was all taken by my computer's camera.)

Here's the finished product containing the stone:

Piece by piece photos:
Two-part holder and stone
The "holster" is also the lid to keep water from coming out. Made more sense to be able to dismantle into two parts for periodic re-waterproofing.

Water holder
Back in March, I spent a week collecting pine sap and resin and cooking it out into a tin, so I could use it for waterproofing and glue. This was the first time I used it to waterproof leather, in the same way that it was once used to make the English "blackjack" beer mugs out of boiled leather. All the rest of the leather is waxed for maximum waterproofing; but the inside of this was coated with pine resin, then coated again with a mixture of pine resin and beeswax.

 

Attaching the holster-and-lid
Here, half-way pulled up, not in position yet

The lid has a double-layer of rings fitted to the opening of the water-holder to form a reasonably tight seal, leaving just enough room for the stone to fit through the top easily.

A belt-loop would necessarily spill the water whenever I bent over. Instead, I decided it should be tied on through this hole, with the ability to hang freely when I'm not standing straight up.

 

Holds water with minimal spillage, yay!

Here's my older scythe blade, awaiting sharpening, and the stone that will hone it during use.

I've used it on three occasions, and it works in the field, YAY!

Again, thanks to this forum for the resource of knowledge that helped in this project.

 

Edited July 13, 2022 by KTWolf
unwanted pic removed

[PastorBob]

Very impressive.  I am glad you were able to find the information needed to complete the task. And more importantly that you were able to get pics along the way and share them with us.  Nice project.  Love the ingenuity!!

[DJole]

That's a great piece of work you did there! 
I wouldn't worry about the stitching -- it's a working piece, out in the field getting banged around and dirty.
When other scythe users ask you to make one for them, then you can practice the pretty stitching for your customers. 

Edited July 13, 2022 by DJole

[chuck123wapati]

that is one of the coolest and well thought out projects in along time. And that has to be some hard work using that scythe. 

[battlemunky]

Way to go! That looks like a frustrating yet worthy project. Struggle makes worms into butterflies

[Klara]

Brilliant! I want one - I have a metal water holder with a belt clip where the water sloshes out regularly. Gotta check out how to make pine pitch...

@chuck123wapati I find using a well-made, sharp scythe is easy enough and a lot more pleasant than a motorized mower. The most difficult part is sharpening the scythe...

 

[Bert03241]

Great project you did a wonderful job making a useful tool for yourself.Great presentation here also , I would never have know all the stuff you taught us , thanks I learned something new today.