Wooden Sheath Question

[RassilonMonk]

Hi all,

after my previous posts regarding making a sheath I settled on someone's suggestion to go with a combo wood/leather sheath. I picked up a block of spalted maple to match the knife handle. My question is: should I be cutting the sheath "blocks" along the grain or across it. My suspicion is that across the grain would lead to a lot of splitting if it were to be dropped on a hard surface and would be harder to cover up or deal with any inclusions.... advice much appreciated. (I can post some pics if I'm not clear enough).

Thanks!

-Will

[MeetTheGeeks]

my words would be along the grain, thats how I did mine...

[Scoutmaster]

Along the grain

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s269/alf-branch/alysheathmaking2.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s269/alf-branch/alysheathmaking.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s269/alf-branch/alysheathmaking3.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s269/alf-branch/Compknife8.jpg

[MeetTheGeeks]

have you got an overall view of that sheath mate?

[Scoutmaster]

The leather is wet formed and held in place by friction with groves all round the wood.
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s269/alf-branch/Compknife6.jpg

[RassilonMonk]

although the knife is different and the sheath will also look a bit different, that is the basic thing I am aiming for... hope it turns out :). Thanks for the advice guys. I start this weekend.... :O

-W.

[g4ghb]

if you split the wood with the grain you can often glue it back together and clamped well you can be hard pushed to even see the join ;)

unfortunately I haven't anything to show but if you grab some waste wood and try i'm sure you will see what I mean....

[flexo]

if you split the wood with the grain you can often glue it back together and clamped well you can be hard pushed to even see the join ;)

unfortunately I haven't anything to show but if you grab some waste wood and try i'm sure you will see what I mean....

that how i do too,and finish is fair

[MeetTheGeeks]

Thanks for the pics mate, fantastic work

[RassilonMonk]

Well good to see people do it different ways because it looks like I have a bit of a conundrum. Due to the size of the block, the blade and a chunk missing from the block my options on how to cut it up are limited. Here are a couple of photos to explain what I mean, you should be able to see the grain lines and the knife is on it for size comparison.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2597/4158542663_33388255b2.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2497/4158542665_d761506a80.jpg


-W.

[parbajtor]

I'd say you need to go with the grain, as the handle also goes that way. Personally I'd take a handle thick slice (or thick scale slice) so that you can use the rest of it elsewhere. I'd probably take the slice from the damaged face, if you drew a line along the cutting edge of the knife on your first photo of the block and then continued it to the end, you'd get what I mean. This would square up the block a bit better but the 'wedge' you'd be working with could only be used for wooden sheaths. You should get 3 or 4 sheaths running with the grain and the rest of the block would be more useable.
I have a japanese hand saw with interchangeable x-cut and rip saw blades. They're 0.5mm thick and the teeth are flush with the blade. You get a very thin smooth cut that needs no further sanding.When you put the cut pieces back together you get an almost invisible seam. This is very important when using the "japanese" style of sheath making where the split is "off centre" (avoids the cutting edge running along the join, where there may be hard glue to damage the edge and also avoids wedging it apart) If you look at scoutmasters 4th photo, you can see the offset I'm talking about

[RassilonMonk]

I'd say you need to go with the grain, as the handle also goes that way. Personally I'd take a handle thick slice (or thick scale slice) so that you can use the rest of it elsewhere. I'd probably take the slice from the damaged face, if you drew a line along the cutting edge of the knife on your first photo of the block and then continued it to the end, you'd get what I mean. This would square up the block a bit better but the 'wedge' you'd be working with could only be used for wooden sheaths. You should get 3 or 4 sheaths running with the grain and the rest of the block would be more useable.
I have a japanese hand saw with interchangeable x-cut and rip saw blades. They're 0.5mm thick and the teeth are flush with the blade. You get a very thin smooth cut that needs no further sanding.When you put the cut pieces back together you get an almost invisible seam. This is very important when using the "japanese" style of sheath making where the split is "off centre" (avoids the cutting edge running along the join, where there may be hard glue to damage the edge and also avoids wedging it apart) If you look at scoutmasters 4th photo, you can see the offset I'm talking about



I see what you mean, I have a small japanese saw that might do the trick for that but I'll have to give it a go next time because I finally finished the job. Thanks again to everyone in this thread. Here is the final knife:

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94866

-W.