Making A Small Knife Sheath for a Nordic Knife
Last year I wrote an 'how to' article about Making A Nordic Knife after attending a blacksmith class.
This year I am following it up with, How To Make A Small Knife Sheath for my Nordic knife.
The knife itself is quite small at only 4" long by 1" wide and was forged from using a bar of 01 steel.
I have cleaned it up and put a nice sharp edge on it and thats as far as it has got for a year now.
But at this year's Bushcraft Magazine May Meet I was able to sit down with Tim from Green Man Knives and be guided through the sheath making process.
With Tim's expert knowledge he managed to guide me through the whole process and I am now the proud owner of a lovely hand forged knife and hand crafted leather sheath.
This is the whole sheath making process from start to finish:
The knife cutting edge is traced out with the knife spine set on the center line, then carefully cut out to leave the main template.
With the new template in place, a section of leather is marked out around the paper template and the leather cut out.
The center line is marked and a groove made along the mark with a 'V Racer' cutting tool.. Next, the 90 deg center groove is enlarged to form a relief on both sides using a 'Edge Beveler' tool.
This is to ensure it will fold back on itself comfortably.
The outside edges are chamfered to give a nice edge finish using a 'Edge Beveler tool again.
The 'welt' is cutout from another piece of leather and contact adhesive added to the welt and the main sheath edge.
The welt and the rope loop are glued down.
Guide holes were pressed through the loop and the stitching begins. Once the loop was stitched to the sheath some more glue was applied to the welt and sheath and the whole sheath folded in half, sticking the back of the welt to the sheath, clamped and left to dry.
When dry the welt edge was trimmed smooth and square.
A final smooth over using a sandpaper rasp and the welt edge is finished off.
Next a guide groove was made along the welt edge using 'Stitch Groover' tool. This gives you a guide to run the 'Stitch Marker' tool along it for the stitch hole centers.
The hole marks were pierced through using a Stitching Awl' tool ready for more cord.
The cord used is synthetic sinew and Tim used a special kind of knot to ensure the cord did not pull off when you threaded it through the holes.
Stitching well on the way now...
Tim done the tricky top and bottom edges and I did the middle section.
All that's left to do now is the final stitch and the welt edge is secure.
A drop of water on the edge and now I polished it with a bone polishing stick to bring out the natural leather shine along the edge.
A final polish up with Tims secret leather polish and I'm now the proud owner of a 'one off' Nordik Neck Knife Leather Sheath.
I hope this article has inspired you to have a go at some knife leather work. It really is interesting and very rewarding.
Of course, for some real perfection in handmade knives and leather sheaths you need to pop over to Tim's website; Green Man Knives and see exactly how it's done.
In the meantime here's a little glimpse of some of Tim's work:
So folks, I hope you enjoyed this article - it really makes you appreciate the amount of work involved when you buy your next handmade, custom bushcraft or survival knife.
A very big thank you to Tim for helping me to complete this lovely little knife sheath.
Happy Prepping Folks.
Steve
