Axe sheath/ cover help

[DaveP]

Found my old Norlund axe recently and need to make a sheath or cover for it.  What have you made for an axe? Thanks for sharing...David 

 

Edited February 12, 2022 by DaveP

[Frodo]

please do not sand the handle.  the original patina is beautiful

is the handle help in place with a wedge?  remove wedge, separate wood from metal

.  soak the wood in linseed oil for 90 days then let it dry for 90 days

use 0000 steel wool and oil on the metal ,Just to remove rust/dirt  do not sand down and remove pitting or other blemishes

wrap the handle with leather     then a traditional blade cover with belt straps 

[gregintenn]

There are several ways to go about it, buy here's what I settled on.

[TexasJack]

Let's start out with a question:  What do you hope to accomplish?

Do you just want to cover the head to prevent the edge from cutting something while not in use?  (Presuming that you sharpen it.)

Do you want to hang it from a belt, or on a hook?  That will require adding a loop to the cover.

Maybe a pocket for a small stone to re-sharpen in the field?

Ax covers are the one application where I'm ok with using rivets instead of stitching.

 

[chuck123wapati]

i've made a couple for my hawks. I'm sure you could adapt. they wrap around. And like Frodo says don't lose the looks she's a beauty.

[DaveP]

The handle is held in with a wedge. The rust color on the axe head is original coating from the factory. It's how almost all the Norlunds came. Not hardly any corrosion at all.  I just want to protect the edge once sharpened. This is the Canadiene model...1973-1986. They stopped production in 1986, closed permanently. Thanks for the ideas for a cover. 

[gregintenn]

Much like a knife sheath, you’ll want to sandwich an extra layer or two of leather against the cutting edge for protection of the stitching.

[Northmount]

Seems with a lot of typical axe sheaths you have to feed the handle through the sheath.  I would much prefer to put the sheath on the head with the flap on the handle side rather than on the top side.  Much less fuss putting the sheath on and taking it off.  The more you have to handle or fuss with a sharp axe, the more likely to accidentally drop it or injure yourself or someone else.

I have the typical sheath that I bought in a store many years ago.  I swear at it every time I use it and that I need to make a new one that works like it should.  Quick off and one.  This is on my main axe with a 36" handle.  Would never be carried on a belt because of the length.  Just needs some protection against nicks, and to protect others that might pick it up.

Maybe I'll start working on it today.  Need some distraction and some work that might not kill my shoulder.

 

[DrmCa]

5 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

i've made a couple for my hawks.

Nice hawks and sheaths. Mind me asking, where do you usually buy heads? I am looking for nice 'hawk heads myself.

[chuck123wapati]

2 minutes ago, DrmCa said:

Nice hawks and sheaths. Mind me asking, where do you usually buy heads? I am looking for nice 'hawk heads myself.

I bought both of these online several years ago, The throwing hawk was hand forged at one of those living museum things, the camp hawk has a 20 " handle. I will have to do some thinking on where exactly. My old brain don't remember so well anymore lol. Neither one is branded. 

[DaveP]

Here's what I came up with handle is held in with a wedge. The rust color on the axe head is original coating from the factory. It's how almost all the Norlunds came. Not hardly any corrosion at all.  I just want to protect the edge once sharpened. This is the Canadiene model...1973-1986. They stopped production in 1986, closed permanently. Thanks for the ideas for a cover. 

[DaveP]

Here's what I came up with.  Not perfect but this is my 1st. It'll need tweaked a little.  Rivets I smashed too much, which in turn made it really tight and pushes the top up. Thoughts for 1st attempt?

 

[DaveP]

Couple more pics. 

[chuck123wapati]

i think it will last for years! The blade isn't sticking out to cut you and it wont fall off so your good to go IMO. your front piece took all the form and the thickness of the head so that's what made it pull down in the back. a bit. No one will ever notice. 

[DrmCa]

1 hour ago, DaveP said:

Here's what I came up with. 

I like it. It follows the KISS principle.

[DaveP]

32 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

i think it will last for years! The blade isn't sticking out to cut you and it wont fall off so your good to go IMO. your front piece took all the form and the thickness of the head so that's what made it pull down in the back. a bit. No one will ever notice. 

Not sure what you mean? There's 2 layers of welt on the bottom. Figured that would fit really well. The rivet is too tight and smashed the extra welt. 

[chuck123wapati]

1 hour ago, DaveP said:

Not sure what you mean? There's 2 layers of welt on the bottom. Figured that would fit really well. The rivet is too tight and smashed the extra welt. 

You can see the leather is formed around the head right at the base of the handle past your welt, at least that's what the photo looks like Smashing the welt there probably helped also. Your welt works until the head gets wider, then the leather forms around the head, that's what pulled your top down in the back.

[gregintenn]

Works for me!

[Northmount]

@DaveP  Looks great.  Protects the blade and anyone that picks it up that know nothing about axes.

 

[MtlBiker]

On 2/12/2022 at 3:52 PM, DaveP said:

Couple more pics. 

Dave, that's really nice looking! 

I'm learning how to hand-stitch leather and I thought a good project would be to make a sheath (similar to yours) for an old axe I have.  I saw a Weaver Leather video on YouTube which made it look fairly simple and straight forward.  So following the instructions in the video, I traced around the axe blade, added 3/8" for the welt and stitch line and started cutting out my leather from some 9oz veg tan I had.  I cut a strip for the welt and wet formed it to follow the contour.  When dry, I glued it onto the back piece (the back has the flap).  Then I laid my axe on it to see how it fit and I was very pleased.  Then...

I placed the top piece on top and found there was no way I'd be able to fit the axe in it if I finished the sheath.  The video didn't run into this problem or even address it, but the axe blade is really thin at the sharp end (of course) but quite a bit thicker nearer to the handle.  So if I'd stitch the top piece onto the back with the welt, it wouldn't allow the thickness of the axe blade to fit.  Duh.  My only excuse is I'm a novice and didn't think of that (and the video didn't either).  If I understand right, you used a double welt on yours.  With 9oz leather in my case, I think a double welt still wouldn't give me enough height for the thickness of the axe there (nearer to the handle), nor would I as a novice be able to punch the holes and stitch it up.  My axe is at home but I think it was about 3/4" thick at that point, maybe even a bit more.

So I'm back to the drawing board on this one, and I'm looking for a different and easier project to practice my stitching with.  SIGH  But I think you did really well with yours.

[chuck123wapati]

17 minutes ago, MtlBiker said:

Dave, that's really nice looking! 

I'm learning how to hand-stitch leather and I thought a good project would be to make a sheath (similar to yours) for an old axe I have.  I saw a Weaver Leather video on YouTube which made it look fairly simple and straight forward.  So following the instructions in the video, I traced around the axe blade, added 3/8" for the welt and stitch line and started cutting out my leather from some 9oz veg tan I had.  I cut a strip for the welt and wet formed it to follow the contour.  When dry, I glued it onto the back piece (the back has the flap).  Then I laid my axe on it to see how it fit and I was very pleased.  Then...

I placed the top piece on top and found there was no way I'd be able to fit the axe in it if I finished the sheath.  The video didn't run into this problem or even address it, but the axe blade is really thin at the sharp end (of course) but quite a bit thicker nearer to the handle.  So if I'd stitch the top piece onto the back with the welt, it wouldn't allow the thickness of the axe blade to fit.  Duh.  My only excuse is I'm a novice and didn't think of that (and the video didn't either).  If I understand right, you used a double welt on yours.  With 9oz leather in my case, I think a double welt still wouldn't give me enough height for the thickness of the axe there (nearer to the handle), nor would I as a novice be able to punch the holes and stitch it up.  My axe is at home but I think it was about 3/4" thick at that point, maybe even a bit more.

So I'm back to the drawing board on this one, and I'm looking for a different and easier project to practice my stitching with.  SIGH  But I think you did really well with yours.

you can add the variable thickness with a wedge shaped welt also. with welt or without the width of the blade has to be added to the pattern even with a two piece pattern, if the blade is 1/2" thick you need to add 1/4" on both pieces, what i would do on this is leave even extra leather along the bottom or edge you can trim off and dry fit test the sheath, always test fit as close as possible before gluing it up and leave some trimming room as well. Most times a paper pattern will work to test the size especially on semi flat patterns 

[MtlBiker]

2 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

you can add the variable thickness with a wedge shaped welt also. with welt or without the width of the blade has to be added to the pattern even with a two piece pattern, if the blade is 1/2" thick you need to add 1/4" on both pieces, what i would do on this is leave even extra leather along the bottom or edge you can trim off and dry fit test the sheath, always test fit as close as possible before gluing it up and leave some trimming room as well. Most times a paper pattern will work to test the size especially on semi flat patterns 

Thank you, but I'm not quite sure what you mean (due to my lack of experience probably) about a wedge shaped welt...  Are you talking about sewing in a welt as you would a gusset on a bag or somehow building up multiple layers of welt "strips" in a staggered way, with skiving where appropriate?  I'm with you on the width (thickness) of the blade needing to be added to the pattern, but that totally slipped my mind as I followed along the video tutorial.  In that tutorial, no mention was made of that at all, nor was any extra measurement given that I could see.  Looks like they skipped out an important part, which as a  novice I just followed along blindly.

I think I'll try again but this time use one piece of leather for the top and bottom, having the leather wrap around one side of the axe.  Which should take care of the blade thickness there, and then on the other side not bring the pattern back toward the handle as close.  I still need a welt of course, but I won't have to worry as much about the thickness of the blade.  I did find another YouTube tutorial on this style... Leather Axe Sheath | Easy DIY

[chuck123wapati]

41 minutes ago, MtlBiker said:

Thank you, but I'm not quite sure what you mean (due to my lack of experience probably) about a wedge shaped welt...  Are you talking about sewing in a welt as you would a gusset on a bag or somehow building up multiple layers of welt "strips" in a staggered way, with skiving where appropriate?  I'm with you on the width (thickness) of the blade needing to be added to the pattern, but that totally slipped my mind as I followed along the video tutorial.  In that tutorial, no mention was made of that at all, nor was any extra measurement given that I could see.  Looks like they skipped out an important part, which as a  novice I just followed along blindly.

I think I'll try again but this time use one piece of leather for the top and bottom, having the leather wrap around one side of the axe.  Which should take care of the blade thickness there, and then on the other side not bring the pattern back toward the handle as close.  I still need a welt of course, but I won't have to worry as much about the thickness of the blade.  I did find another YouTube tutorial on this style... Leather Axe Sheath | Easy DIY

yup you can use two or three pieces of welt whatever adds up to the thickness glue the pieces together then skive them down into a wedge shape. That is a good pattern the takeaway from that video = he made it a half inch bigger at least than his pattern. What he didn't show = checking the pattern against the blade to make sure it was big enough.

Edited March 15, 2022 by chuck123wapati

[MtlBiker]

10 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

yup you can use two or three pieces of welt whatever adds up to the thickness glue the pieces together then skive them down into a wedge shape. 

Great!  So I might be able to salvage what I've got so far.  Just by building up the welt with a few more layers.  And I just saw another video, this one by JHleather and that's what she's done.  But she only used two layers of welt and said she should have used more.  And remember from the other thread... I was worried about how I would make my stitching holes with three layers of 9oz veg tan and now I'll even have more!    Talk about jumping in at the deep end!

I really appreciate your helpful advice!
 

[chuck123wapati]

1 minute ago, MtlBiker said:

Great!  So I might be able to salvage what I've got so far.  Just by building up the welt with a few more layers.  And I just saw another video, this one by JHleather and that's what she's done.  But she only used two layers of welt and said she should have used more.  And remember from the other thread... I was worried about how I would make my stitching holes with three layers of 9oz veg tan and now I'll even have more!    Talk about jumping in at the deep end!

I really appreciate your helpful advice!
 

 

glue the pieces of welt together chisel or make your holes then skive into a wedge.