An east meets west knife and sheath.....

[ChuckBurrows]

Those who know my work, know I generally work in a western American Frontier style, either recreations of original pieces or more often than not these days work inspied by those originals - in this case I tried something completely different as Monty Python once said.....

In this case a beautiful east meets west knife by ABS mastersmith Bill Burke gets an east meets west sheath by yours truly......

The lower section carving was inspired by the carving on an original Japanses sword - the upper section is a rayskin overlay wrapped with black silk cord ala a Katana. The belt loop has a rayskin inlay.......pictures aren't the best - there's a lot of texture and color nuances that just didn't captured i.e the lower leather is an oxblood wash over a black ground and the rayskin surrounding the natural white diamond is burgundy......

Anyone note the "hidden surprise".......

Edited December 8, 2008 by ChuckBurrows

[tonyc1]

Yes! Looks great like that!

Tony.

[Rhome]

Beautiful work !! how did you hide the stitches on the top portion of the sheath, I like that and am curious.

Best,

Rhome

[oldtimer]

Beautiful knife - beautiful sheath !

/ Knut

Edited December 8, 2008 by oldtimer

[jbird]

amzing !! But how did you hide the stitches.

Josh

[TexasJack]

Chuck! You've been hanging out with Tai Goo!!!

Not that anyone would be surprised, but it really came out looking nice!! Very different from most of your stuff.

[ChuckBurrows]

Glad ya'll enjoyed the look see.......

regarding the stitching......

It's an old leather crafter's technique called hidden stitching. You very, very CAREFULLY cut a 45° angled slot along the edge and separate the two pieces.

They used to make a specialized knife to do do it with (maybe still do?), but I just do it by hand and eye. Then using a curved awl and needle you sew it all up along the bottom of the slot. After it's sewn you glue things back together and voila! Much easier said than done though. In this case it's a variation on the original technique wherein BOTH sides of the thread are hidden - I developed this variant style and call it half hidden. When I used to do shows it would really get the folks to scratching their heads! Lots of double takes....

For those who would like to see the original technique illustrated I HIGHLY recommend the book "Art of Handsewing Leather" by Al Stohlman. A must for

anyone interested in leather craft....

[MADMAX22]

Glad ya'll enjoyed the look see.......

regarding the stitching......

It's an old leather crafter's technique called hidden stitching. You very, very CAREFULLY cut a 45° angled slot along the edge and separate the two pieces.

They used to make a specialized knife to do do it with (maybe still do?), but I just do it by hand and eye. Then using a curved awl and needle you sew it all up along the bottom of the slot. After it's sewn you glue things back together and voila! Much easier said than done though. In this case it's a variation on the original technique wherein BOTH sides of the thread are hidden - I developed this variant style and call it half hidden. When I used to do shows it would really get the folks to scratching their heads! Lots of double takes....

For those who would like to see the original technique illustrated I HIGHLY recommend the book "Art of Handsewing Leather" by Al Stohlman. A must for

anyone interested in leather craft....

Agreed that book is a great reference. I got so many good pointers from his books its not even funny.

[Beaverslayer]

Beautiful sheath Chuck, I really like the way you've hidden the stitching on the front. Also the Ray inlays are very complimenting.

Ken

[jbird]

Glad ya'll enjoyed the look see.......

regarding the stitching......

It's an old leather crafter's technique called hidden stitching. You very, very CAREFULLY cut a 45° angled slot along the edge and separate the two pieces.

They used to make a specialized knife to do do it with (maybe still do?), but I just do it by hand and eye. Then using a curved awl and needle you sew it all up along the bottom of the slot. After it's sewn you glue things back together and voila! Much easier said than done though. In this case it's a variation on the original technique wherein BOTH sides of the thread are hidden - I developed this variant style and call it half hidden. When I used to do shows it would really get the folks to scratching their heads! Lots of double takes....

For those who would like to see the original technique illustrated I HIGHLY recommend the book "Art of Handsewing Leather" by Al Stohlman. A must for

anyone interested in leather craft....

I thought that was it but just wanted to make sure.

Josh