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.

[Rbarleatherworks]

Check out Bob Blea's last post

I just came across it and it has hair on hide inserts for a wallet.... that might give you some idea's.

hth ... Regan

[TargetRockLeather]

10 hours ago, toxo said:

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.

 

7 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

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.

toxo, RockyAussie: I gave that a try. It works as far as making the hair shorter and more manageable, however the moment I trimmed the outermost layer of hair, it immediately lost the beautiful brown coloration and glossy fur look. The piece I ended up with might have well been squirrel hide lol. I'm uploading a picture of what I ended up with when I tried buzz trimming the fur. The piece on the left is obviously the trimmed piece.

2 hours ago, Rbarleatherworks said:

Check out Bob Blea's last post

I just came across it and it has hair on hide inserts for a wallet.... that might give you some idea's.

hth ... Regan

I found the post you are referring to. Yes, that looks like something I should try. I like the idea a lot. Thanks for pointing that out!

 

[toxo]

For me I'd go further. How about clipping a bit more to get it even all over then really short down the middle so when you fold it they'll be a longer fringe around the outside curve? Just a thought. Don't shoot me

[TargetRockLeather]

In case anyone is interested, this is what I came up with. I went with the inlay approach. It's not great but it was a good learning experience. I don't think I would attempt it again unless it's for a larger item. Thanks for all of the suggestions!

 

[Rockoboy]

It looks like you have a perfectly functional item there. With the benefit of 20/20/ hindsight, if I was making the sheath, I would have made the inlay, the same shape as the front piece of the sheath.

Maybe the hair could be shaped a little to make the bottom end of the hair not so square-cut. Maybe its just me being ultra-picky on a nice job.

[TargetRockLeather]

2 hours ago, Rockoboy said:

It looks like you have a perfectly functional item there. With the benefit of 20/20/ hindsight, if I was making the sheath, I would have made the inlay, the same shape as the front piece of the sheath.

Maybe the hair could be shaped a little to make the bottom end of the hair not so square-cut. Maybe its just me being ultra-picky on a nice job.

By all means be picky. That's how we learn! I actually had the same thought. The reason I made the bottom square and not all the way at the bottom of the sheath is that I thought the hair would look better flowing across the leather rather than hanging beyond the bottom of the sheath. In hindsight, as you said, continuing the shape of the sheath toward the bottom would have looked better.

Also I know that the edges of my leather are uneven. I admit that I rushed through it because I was just experimenting. I tore it apart and put it back together a couple of times so the the edges of the leather got a little beat up.

Thanks for the feedback!