With the Jaguar knife practically complete - just a couple touch ups to go - I decided it was time to pull out some leather and flex my sheath-making muscles. I've only made a few sheaths, but my client was willing to commission me to give it a go. So, here's how I made the Jaguar sheath.
Everything must start with a pattern, and the Jaguar sheath is no exception. Knowing that I was going to have to make this sheath, I did a test run for my own Glaucus knife a couple weeks ago. It turned out pretty good, so I have high hopes for this one too. The sheath will be a simple fold over style sheath out of a single piece of leather. Above is the paper pattern that I will work from.
Here's what the sheath will look like when it's folded into the final position.
A good piece of 8-9 oz. leather cut to shape and ready to be carved and tooled.
Here I have cut in the groove for the thread and marked the stitch spacing. I drew up a simple scroll pattern and transferred the design to the moist leather. I did quite a bit of leather working back in my younger days. I decided to give my client something unique and worthy of his investment, so I am going to carve and tool this sheath as apposed to simply stamping it.
Tooling done! Looks pretty darn good.
Here's what it will look like when folded into shape. I like it.
The sheath gets a light brown stain and a top coat of Super Sheen for a nice, rich color.
After lots of sewing, buffing and burnishing, the sheath is complete. It fits the knife quite nicely and I think it compliments the style of the knife too. I hope my client likes it.
This project is almost complete. As I mentioned before, I have a couple places on the knife that need to be touched up, and I'm not terribly satisfied with how the thumb studs and lanyard bead turned out. I finally pulled the trigger and purchased a small metal lathe that should arrive this week which I will use to remake those parts to much tighter specs than I was able to make by hand with my wood lathe. I love new tools! Thanks for following along with me on this build.
- Brandant Robinson