Nice homemade hose knife @ ~US$100

[Paul Henry]

Your description of wet-forming the leather is interesting. I've never known anyone to use heat in this process. I've wet-formed all manner of knife sheathes, gunstock wraps, and watched my wife build saddles, canteen covers, etc., all using cold water. I don't see why the heat would be necessary to the process. As long as the leather soaks sufficiently, it will stretch and form to the surface.

As long as the end result is what you want, though, that's all that matters!

I;ve worked with hide shaping on many occasions, but have only ever worked cold and thorougly wet as well, and then being patient in allowing it to dry.

I did once experiment with cuir boille , which is a method the ancient romans used to make very hard shapes like scales or breastplates to act a bit like armour ,the boilling water treatment radically skrinks the leather and makes it incredibly hard when dry , so any shaping or cutting or making holes is best done first, but dealing with a hot bit of heavy leather is really not easy.
I was experimenting making bookcovers because of the hardness, but didn't persue it as it was just to difficult to work with

[creagdhubh]

Very interesting process, thank you for sharing. I hope all goes well for you with your new, DIY sgian dubh.

Cheers,

[AKScott]

I've worked with hide shaping on many occasions, but have only ever worked cold and thorougly wet as well, and then being patient in allowing it to dry.

I did once experiment with cuir boille , which is a method the ancient romans used to make very hard shapes like scales or breastplates to act a bit like armour ,the boilling water treatment radically skrinks the leather and makes it incredibly hard when dry , so any shaping or cutting or making holes is best done first, but dealing with a hot bit of heavy leather is really not easy.
I was experimenting making bookcovers because of the hardness, but didn't persue it as it was just to difficult to work with

The hot wet method was the one used over on knives dot com in the "knivslida" article that is no longer posted over there. Once I had read that article, I googled around a little bit about hot/wet versus cold/wet and I have worked cold/dry a while, so I just went for it.

The leather piece does shrink, it is kind of a bother to deal with while it is hot, but the sheath does come through the process tough as nails. I stopped using a punch awl and switched to numbered drill bit sizes years ago to prep for sewing, I would not want to get the thread holes in this any other way. Maybe a 20 watt laser if you see one on sale at Harbor Freight tool warehouse this weekend.

Apparently ( I have been googling in another tab whiloe composing this) "knivslida" is also a Scnadinavian word that means either "knife sheath" or a special kind of custom knife sheath that grips the knife firmly without requiring a strap and snap, or stirng and knot or etc, the leather is shaped to the knife and grips it. The bolster is made a tiny bit bigger than the handle to provide a peg and notch sort of arrangement ...gotta go, BRB

[AKScott]

Ooh, found my old link, they added a how to section over there. I found it by recognizing a picture of the knife on google images. Anyroad, here is a current link to the cold/wet method for making a sheath that grips the knife tight enough to hold it without a safety strap, but loosely enough the knife can be drawn one handed.

http://www.knives.com/knives/howto/81-kniveslida.html

Working it hot/wet I end up with harder leather and have to deal with final shaping and hole drilling after the leather is dried and quite hard. I got tin snips, no biggie.

[AKScott]

So I got it knocked out.

Stitchery at my place is a do what you got to do, git-r-done kind of activity.



My bolster was way too big this time. My last one was a tiny bit too small ;-) I cut a relief out of the back (leg) side, and added a piece, a third layer, to the back side as well. Once I had the leather stitched up I had to do some file work ahead of me to get the knife back in there.



And ready for kirk in the morning.

[MacGowan]

I like simple and practical. I've made a few utility knives over the years. They get the job done.

I'd like to thank you for the nice compliments on my Sgian Dubhs. My Grandfather once told me that I have "Gifted Hands". It's about the only explanation I can come up with.


I like your well done tutorial..



Thanks!

Ron