A Point of Interest.........10/18 Sheath Update.

[PetahW]

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Last month, my Green-eyed Monster & I attended Mooseup CT's annual town-wide yard sales (200 venues), with a flea market store or two also taking part in the sale-a-thon.

One item I jumped on (@ $2), was this 6" unfinished Bowie that the seller had scavenged when cleaning out a former knife factory building (the other knives the seller had were unfinished steak knives).

   



This blade has a very faint Colonial "anvil" stamp just forward of where the guard will go (bracketed by "Prov" & "USA"), and I've been inside the Providence (RI) Colonial factory many decades ago, in the late 1960's, when I was a business machine serviceman.

This blade isn't lightly etched with the "TUF-STAG..(deer head)....ULTRA HONED" - it's deeply stamped.

I've seen the fake stag (ugh ! ) before on Colonial & Imperial knives - one of the reasons I decided to go with black Micarta ILO real stag for grip scales, because of the possibility that future viewers of the finished knife would pooh-pooh the real stag, thinking it was imitation.

Soooo, as soon as I got back home, I ordered a brass cross-guard & a set of black micarta scales, and intended to polish the blade, then fit/finish the knife guard & scales as soon as possible.

Last week, I got the crossguard, black Micatra scales, & a pack of rivets that I ordered from the CRAZY CROW TRADING POST for the bowie knife blade.

I then started the rehab by filing/fitting the crossguard to the tang via enlarging the pre-made slot in the guard so it slides onto the tang.

I also started polishing out the blade, and will permanently affix the guard when the polishing is done.


(after a slight polishing)

   




I cut out the scales, then decided that I wanted to try a 2-piece look, with the front portion of the grip separated from the longer/rear portion by a brass spacer.

After inletting the scales for the tang, I attached them in their rough/as-cut condition first, then hacksawed off the extra/protruding portions of the brass spacer.

   



Then, I worked the scales down to roughly the shape/feel I wanted, and riveted the scales to the tang with plain brass rivets.






The next steps I tackled are a clean up of the blade, and the  final sanding/polishing/etc of the grip & the brass guard, spacer & rivet heads - then try to start on a leather/rawhide parfleche sheath for it, like these two, below:






For the sheath, I first made a paper pattern & cut it out  so I would have to cut the leather only once.


 



 




Then, I used the paper pattern to cut out the leather & trial-fit the bowie into it.


 




Next will come finalizing the sheath's outer & belt slot shapes, then lacing/sewing the sheath edges together, before adding some brass tacking & warpaint :horse


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I finally caught a break from re-working my home's kitchen cabinets to accept a larger, bottom-freezer refrig I bought, and started to work on my yard sale blade's sheath.

I had bought a Japanese-style 7" Santoku kitchen knife, that happened to have been supplied with a plastic blade guard.

Since the knife didn't need the guard (I have a knife block), I thought that I could use it as  a sheath liner, to prevent the blade from eventually working through the leather sheath.





The blade guard was a tad long for my bowie's 6-1/2" blade, so I reworked both the guard's throat and the overall length.


   



Here's how it will lay, hidden inside the sheath:

(I have already sewed a beadwork Thunderbird device onto what will be the outer face of the sheath)


   


My next step(s) should be sewing a single belt loop to the rear/outside of the sheath, then sewing the sheath together before installing a line of brass rivets just outside the bowie's cutting edge, down the sheath from the throat to the bottom.

After that, I plan on testing my artistic ability by painting a Native American design onto the facer of the sheath - I can only hope that I'll be up to it.

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[amm1851]

Looking good. How did you afix the guard to the blade, if I might ask?

[PetahW]

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Thank you......

Since the guard's pre-punched (cast ?) center hole was too small to slide the guard onto the tang, I filed the hole for a snug sliding fit on the tang, then epoxied the guard to the tang - after which I drilled & pinned it to the tang with a piece of thin brass rod, which disappeared when I polished out the brass with my buffing wheel.

I likewise epoxied the scales to the tang, but used brass rivets ILO a headless rod to permanently secure them.

The thin brass spacer was once a boughten shoe buckle from a hobby shop, which I flattened, then drilled & filed the center of, so it would also slide onto the tang.
(I cut off the excess brass after the epoxy cured - it was further file-cut down & shaped when I worked down the rough grip)


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[Hanshi]

I really like what you've done so far.

[PetahW]

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A friend stopped by yesterday, while I was working on the sheath, and gave me  nice-size hunk of tanned buckskin - soooooo,I decided to make a 2nd sheath from some of it, alongside the sheath I've been working on.


I cut out the buckskin just like I did previously, then laced the edge(s) closed (below, with the 1st sheath and a factory sheath I decorated last year for a Cherokee Bowie I have)




I drew up both sheath's outlines on a piece of paper, then made several copies of each, so I could (color) pencil in a few different designs, to make mockup's, to see how it might turn out.


This is what I came up with for the 1st sheath:




This is what I came up with for the buckskin sheath:




Whaddya think ?   Suggestions ? ?


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[Uncle Russ]

Ain't no fleas on that dog.
Looks good to these old eyes.
 

Uncle Russ...

[PetahW]

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I got busy & finished one of the sheaths today - the buckskin sheath.

I first drew an outline of the decorative pattern I wanted onto the leather.





I then applied some of the colors, and let it dry overnite.





After that, I decided that an orange/amber color looked better to me than the blue I had planned on.






The last thing I did was to clean up the black lines that separated the colors.






Now, back to finishing the other/original sheath..........      


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[Uncle Russ]

Nice!

Uncle Russ...

[PetahW]

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Thanks for the kind words !     , I applied paint to only one color/section at a time, then letting it dry/cure before either second-coating a color or applying a different color.

As can be seen in the pics, where the colors flowed beyond their the edges of their section(s), I was able to clean up when I went over the black section borders.(aka: out of sight, out of mind )


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[PetahW]

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(10/28 Update - sheaths done, except for edge lacing one0

Well........ Just about done - I finished lacing the 1st (AND last) sheath today, with suede leather lacing.





Here's all 4 of my bowie knives, with their respective sheaths (for reference, the table they're on has 6" tiles):

(L to R: re-handled Cherokee Bowie w/re-worked sheath, re-handled Cold Steel Trailmaster Bowie w/CS sheath, re-handled Colonial Bowie w/new sheath, and an unknown pig-sticker w/new sheath)




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[Ohio Joe]

Very nice work indeed!

PetahW, I think your work looks great!  

[PetahW]

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Thanks, Joe !  


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[Bison Horn]

Wow really nice, that sure is some eye candy for sure! BH