Hair-On Deer Hide Suggestions

[TargetRockLeather]

Someone gave me a hair-on deer hide and asked to incorporate it into a sheath design. I'm looking for any suggestions on how to use it. I thought about making a normal cowhide sheath and covering it with the deer hide. I could glue it to the leather but I'm not sure what to do about the seam. I considered punching holes and lacing it with artificial sinew or perhaps leather lace.

Also, the hair is rather "fluffy" which seems like it will hide the shape of whatever I attach it to. I think it might make the entire project look like a ball of fur.

Does anyone have any suggestions or better yet, examples that I can look at for ideas? I've done a fair amount of searching and haven't found it used anywhere. I can't be the first one to attempt it. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

[HaloJones]

Does it need to cover the whole sheath or can you do panels?

Is the hair short fluffy or long fluffy, if long you may be able to trim it?

[TargetRockLeather]

I guess I would consider it long fluffy. Panels might work on a larger project, but this one is probably too small for that. Maybe that's my problem, that the sheath is too small for what I'm trying to do with it. I never thought of trimming the hair. I might try that on a piece of scrap. This is what it looks like. In the last photo it's wrapped around the leather sheath and as you can see it just looks like a ball of fur lol.

[HaloJones]

Looks like a fluffy hedgehog!

if it can be trimmed then all good

if not then an fluffy trim /tassel / mane?

[HaloJones]

Or bottom half fluffy: with hair pointing down to knife tip & top half leather with some carving / stamp decoration 

[chuck123wapati]

you could make him an awesome fur hat with hidden sheath. Just thinking outside the box, its not going to look like a sheath so make it look like something that fits fur and hide the sheath inside. Bracers maybe. 

 

Edited June 28, 2019 by chuck123wapati
more thoughts

[TargetRockLeather]

7 hours ago, HaloJones said:

Or bottom half fluffy: with hair pointing down to knife tip & top half leather with some carving / stamp decoration 

I sort of like this idea. I'm going to experiment with that.

 

1 hour ago, chuck123wapati said:

you could make him an awesome fur hat with hidden sheath. Just thinking outside the box, its not going to look like a sheath so make it look like something that fits fur and hide the sheath inside. Bracers maybe. 

 

I laughed when I first read this, but you're actually right. The hide does lend itself more to a fur hat than a knife sheath. Not sure how I would hide a knife in a hat though lol.

[toxo]

My guess is it would look awesome if you took some dog clippers to it. practice on a scrap piece, gradually clipping shorter until you get the best look. I think a hairy look rather than furry would be the way to go.

[Alisdair]

How about using it for some fringing...?

[RockyAussie]

If it is of any help I found that you can use the electric hair cutting trimmers with the different plastic spacers to trim the hair down to a lesser height and it works not too badly. Over here they call them buzz cuts I think. I'm not sure as I have been cutting my own hair with scissors for many many years and that's pretty rare as well.