Sheath For My Custom Karambit

[Chief Filipino]

I made this a few months ago but haven't been very active on this forum (something I look to remedy). I had Rich Greenwood, a local bladesmith, custom make me a karambit for my gigantic hands. I then made the sheath for it, going for a friction fit. I feel like the tooling is my personal best (I know there isn't much tooling) but I don't do a lot of tooling so my growth is slow. I am a big guy with ham-sammich hands so the handle/knife is big. To many it may be a weird looking knife but I love it and Rich did an excellent job meeting my specs. 

While the tooling came out well, I ran into an issue when putting the knife back in the sheath. The shape/design and thickness made it very difficult to get a smooth re-sheathing. I still have to fiddle with it when trying to return it, but it draws fairly smooth. I think that I will make another sheath for it someday, perhaps using a combination of wood and leather.   

I know this is the show off section and people feel a little uncomfortable adding critiques, but I have improved so much because of your input. If you see something you would like to add your two cents on feel free! I appreciate it! 

 

[DJole]

I like seeing the Filipino-style designs. And that's some pretty good tooling there, even for a ham-handed amateur as you call  yourself!

[kiwican]

Chief. Your skill set is always improving! Great job! 

[billybopp]

Looks pretty darn good, Chief!  That's a great looking knife too.

I only see three things I'd suggest doing differently - and bear in mind these are just my own opinions so take with a grain of salt.

1.  The stitching looks good, but does not exactly follow the outline of the sheath.  You could probably still trim off a small bit of leather from the edge to match the stitch line and it'll look good.

2.  The parallel lines in the figure at the right of the sheath aren't quite parallel.  It ain't easy,  to get them exactly right and is something that I had trouble with too.  There is a simple solution ... A beader blade for your swivel knife.  It has two cutting edges a set distance apart.  I think I got mine from eBay, but Barry King sells them in varying widths.  If you aren't really going for parallel, you can exaggerate the curves a bit more to make it look more intentional.   All that said, it still doesn't look bad!

3.  There are a few stray tool marks where the tool went onto the smooth leather.  That's still possibly fixable by rubbing those areas with a modelling spoon.

Nevertheless, really good work!

-Bill

[Boriqua]

I LOVE the tooling. My father was great with what I I will call primitive style patterns. Its a gift I don't seem to get the hang of. I am Jealous .. your piece looks fantastic.

[Chief Filipino]

11 hours ago, DJole said:

I like seeing the Filipino-style designs. And that's some pretty good tooling there, even for a ham-handed amateur as you call  yourself!

Thank you! 

 

5 hours ago, kiwican said:

Chief. Your skill set is always improving! Great job! 

Thank you! There's still so much to learn, I'm definitely hustling to do my best on pretty much everything (sometimes I skip steps or get lazy when I make things just for myself). 

19 minutes ago, Boriqua said:

I LOVE the tooling. My father was great with what I I will call primitive style patterns. Its a gift I don't seem to get the hang of. I am Jealous .. your piece looks fantastic.

Thank you! I'd love to see some of your father's work.

2 hours ago, billybopp said:

Looks pretty darn good, Chief!  That's a great looking knife too.

I only see three things I'd suggest doing differently - and bear in mind these are just my own opinions so take with a grain of salt.

1.  The stitching looks good, but does not exactly follow the outline of the sheath.  You could probably still trim off a small bit of leather from the edge to match the stitch line and it'll look good.

2.  The parallel lines in the figure at the right of the sheath aren't quite parallel.  It ain't easy,  to get them exactly right and is something that I had trouble with too.  There is a simple solution ... A beader blade for your swivel knife.  It has two cutting edges a set distance apart.  I think I got mine from eBay, but Barry King sells them in varying widths.  If you aren't really going for parallel, you can exaggerate the curves a bit more to make it look more intentional.   All that said, it still doesn't look bad!

3.  There are a few stray tool marks where the tool went onto the smooth leather.  That's still possibly fixable by rubbing those areas with a modelling spoon.

Nevertheless, really good work!

-Bill

Thank you for the tips! I always struggle with tooling because I will often stray outside of the lines. I haven't tried smoothing them out with the spoon... didn't even think of that. As for the beader blade, I haven't even heard of this! I was going for parallel but my swivel knife skills aren't there yet so that blade is a must now! Thank  you again! Next pay check I think I'll pick me up a couple blades. Are they hard to sharpen? 

[Boriqua]

I wish I could share them. My father was gifted and would collect wood and such from the empty lots in the Bronx and make wonderful sculptures. He was also a fine painter. His drawing skills brought him here to be an illustrator but his best stuff was the stuff he did from his heart. He was born and lived most of his life in the mountains of Puerto Rico.

I am a citified brat born and raised in NYC. I grew up in a world of order and grey. I think he was just in touch with something I am not going to get. My adult life has been about creating for others so I slavishly try and watch the details. Even in my painting and other artistic endeavors I am a little to rigid and so will never be a really good artist. 6 yrs of art school and 18 years in design and production of exhibits just means I am a art "Contractor"

I may have to disagree with Bill's suggestion but with a caveat. I think the work is beautiful as it is. I think those two lines running perfectly parallel would ruin it for me. The errant cut is distracting because that is a skill thing and not an art thing but I wouldnt change those lines at all.

So the caveat starts with a question. Are you trying to become an accomplished carver in the strictest sense? If so then Bill is dead on. If you are trying to create unique practical art .. I think your there and it would be lessened by the carving getting much tighter.

Practice your skills so that strange cuts dont appear and even stitch lines are a peeve of mine but the carving and the quality of it I think is wonderful.

I have produced all sorts of public display but if I could do this below I would be more thrilled than any of those pieces I made for the masses.

[ComputerDoctor]

I like it!

I am an Amateur and I can still critique even the professionals stuff---if one looks closely. Hiding errors of diverse kinds is a skill I have had to learn but they already know:)

Just imagine critiquing Bosch, Picasso or  Vincent Willem van Gogh! Truthfully their art looks pathetic but later proved visionary and surrealistic.

I think you art is beautiful.

Sam")

[Chief Filipino]

On 4/26/2018 at 11:21 AM, Boriqua said:

I wish I could share them. My father was gifted and would collect wood and such from the empty lots in the Bronx and make wonderful sculptures. He was also a fine painter. His drawing skills brought him here to be an illustrator but his best stuff was the stuff he did from his heart. He was born and lived most of his life in the mountains of Puerto Rico.

I am a citified brat born and raised in NYC. I grew up in a world of order and grey. I think he was just in touch with something I am not going to get. My adult life has been about creating for others so I slavishly try and watch the details. Even in my painting and other artistic endeavors I am a little to rigid and so will never be a really good artist. 6 yrs of art school and 18 years in design and production of exhibits just means I am a art "Contractor"

I may have to disagree with Bill's suggestion but with a caveat. I think the work is beautiful as it is. I think those two lines running perfectly parallel would ruin it for me. The errant cut is distracting because that is a skill thing and not an art thing but I wouldnt change those lines at all.

So the caveat starts with a question. Are you trying to become an accomplished carver in the strictest sense? If so then Bill is dead on. If you are trying to create unique practical art .. I think your there and it would be lessened by the carving getting much tighter.

Practice your skills so that strange cuts dont appear and even stitch lines are a peeve of mine but the carving and the quality of it I think is wonderful.

I have produced all sorts of public display but if I could do this below I would be more thrilled than any of those pieces I made for the masses.

Nice! To answer your questions, which gave me a lot of food for thought, I think that I want a mix of both. There are times where I do what I want to do and feel perfection is whatever comes out, and there are times where I want it to be almost machine perfect but made by hand. I think this comes from me vacillating between wanting to just make what I want (my own art) and wanting my stuff to sell so that perhaps one day I could do this as a full time job. I lean more towards making art, but then I look at my stockpile of things I've made and think of all the money I've invested and haven't gotten back. Then again, I haven't been hustling as much to sell it. I haven't gone out and gotten a booth to try to sell my work in over a year, mostly relying on my Etsy store... anyways, I'll figure it out one of these days. 

It is never too late to learn something new! As you said your father's best work came from his heart. I don't really know you personally, but it kind of seems like you are letting your head get in the way of your heart. There are times where I try to go into a meditative state and just focus on my breathing or nothing at all and just create. Maybe something like that could work for you, maybe abstract painting could help you get out of your head and into your heart. Of course if you're trying to sell works, those often tend to be the most difficult pieces to sell, at least in my experience. 

On 4/26/2018 at 12:15 PM, ComputerDoctor said:

I like it!

I am an Amateur and I can still critique even the professionals stuff---if one looks closely. Hiding errors of diverse kinds is a skill I have had to learn but they already know:)

Just imagine critiquing Bosch, Picasso or  Vincent Willem van Gogh! Truthfully their art looks pathetic but later proved visionary and surrealistic.

I think you art is beautiful.

Sam")

Thank you! As the saying goes, "I am my own worst critic." I have to remind myself of that and just let go of trying to gain perfection.