I couldn't have put it better myself. Check out Stick's posts in the "Bushcraft" section. He does a lot of wet form fitting and is doing great work. ETA: http://www.survivalmonkey.com/forum/bushcraft/17850-made-couple-sheaths.html http://www.survivalmonkey.com/forum/bushcraft/16011-simple-way-make-sheath-wet-forming-part-1-a.html http://www.survivalmonkey.com/forum/bushcraft/16012-simple-way-make-sheath-wet-forming-part-2-a.html
Wet Sheath project Very nice. I checked out his blog page as well. I have made several knives handles so far but am now working on one that I plan to keep. That will be the one to try my hand at sheath making. Thanks for the links... Have a great weekend...everyone!
shaping the sheath...or how not to screw it up! Learned a valuable lesson the other day. Bought two unmolded leather pouch sheaths to try out. Thinking (first mistake) that I had read all the info on how to do this, I promptly setup my pan of heated water and dropped the first one in. WOW To say that it shrank is an understatement. It went from a nice piece of leather for a 5" blade to a leather thumb guard. Again I say...WOW I'm sure there are numerous things that I did wrong here. Suffice it to say that I didnt expect that! Wrapped up a knife, stuffed into the pouch and gently, slowly dipped the sheath in the water. As it softened I used my fingers to press into the leather to fit around knife. Success! With a healthy dose of embarassement, bitterness and chagrin. Lesson learned. (Note that many words were spoken in anger that I will not copy here)
Wow. I never would have thought it either. Thanks for sharing. I am about to take the plunge when I find some leather scraps around here. I just read a great article in Backwoodsman about holster making and I have a new H&R 999 that needs a little holster for hunting. Keep us posted on how it goes. I will be looking to learn from your experiences.
Hotwater= Well I always start a training session at work with my own mistakes. So here you go- Hotwater + unsupervised submersion = thumb puppet. I'll definitely buy loose material in the future instead of semi finished sheaths. Hopefully that will save a little money over the carnage. (not to mention my blood pressure) Maybe it will be calming like knitting. \;^) As GI Joe says... Knowing is half the battle!
Kydex sheaths?? I am hoping that this is not too much off topic. But I am considering buying a kydex sheath for my rat izula on ebay. My question is just whether or not the kydex should be formed to my paticular knife. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Havent tried it yet Dave, but what I've read is that is the way to do it. Seems to me there were some precautions to fitting your knife in while forming. Don't have the site address at the moment but will look for it. I'm sure one of the other folks here can fill in the gaps with more experience. Let me know how it works out.
