Having a custom sheath made for my Sgian Dubh

[unixken]

I'm on my way out the door to meet with a local man who makes custom leather holsters, to discuss a custom sheath for the knife documented in this other thread. Several of the guys at the local gun shop have had him produce sheaths for a variety of knives and blades, and I'm curious to see what we can come up with.

[Friday]

Just remember it did not happen if there are no pictures.

[unixken]

I spent about an hour with the man (he lives only a mile away.) We talked about what I wanted and he showed me samples of other sheath's he's made, each with different looks, textures, and features.

The use of welting along the edges, sandwiched between the front and rear, will create a gap between each face of the sheath, and we chose a leather that will have enough structure to prevent the opening from collapsing on itself, when the blade is removed. This will allow easy one-handed re-insertion. We've devised a way to have the flash garter "lock in" against two small bands of leather stitched onto the face of the sheath that form ridges, one above where the garter will pass, and one below. These ridges, and the channel between them through which the garter will lie, will prevent the sheath from slipping up or down in the hose, upon drawing or reinsertion of the blade.

I chose a dark brown leather, as a contrast to the light wood of the sgian dubh's handle. Other than the makers mark, there will be no tooling, branding, or embossing of the leather (it's still all about the sgian dubh, after all.) The only visual embellishment will be the use of white thread for all the stitching, for a little accent (not that anyone will see it, when the sheath is in the hose.)

Will post pics when it is completed, in just a week or two.

[CMcG]

...We've devised a way to have the flash garter "lock in" against two small bands of leather stitched onto the face of the sheath that form ridges, one above where the garter will pass, and one below. These ridges, and the channel between them through which the garter will lie, will prevent the sheath from slipping up or down in the hose, upon drawing or reinsertion of the blade.
...

I like the sound of that. Hopefully the research and development will pay off in the actual product!

[unixken]

I attended a herding dog trial hosted at my friend's sheep farm this weekend, and had a chance to try out the new sheath for my sgian dubh today. It worked brilliantly. It stayed put, was secure despite numerous removals and re-insertions of the knife, and remained comfortable all day long. As hoped, the sheath had enough structure to easily allow for one-handed re-insertion, yet with plenty of retention of the blade to keep the knife from falling out while chasing down dogs or sheep! So here are the photos...

[Friday]

Very Very nice.

[Beardie Beastie]

[Beardie Beastie]

Hi, I've been trying to upload some images of new sgians. "A think ma bluddy heid's gonna blaw up!"
I've finally got it sorted out using photobucket but that means I'll have to upload them there first to them to download here! Whit a life!
cket.com/albums/s574/beardiebeastie/PICT1153.jpg[/IMG]

[Beardie Beastie]

[Beardie Beastie]