A look into the Sarki's art...

The biggest difficulty was holding the tools in place to stretch the leather. You could also tack (or sew) the tool holders to the wood form, as the Kamis do.

As far as kydex goes, yes you could make the karda sheaths entirely out of leather. You could also recycle (reuse) plastic from a milk jug or a plastic liter bottle. That plastic is tough stuff! I used the kydex to keep the leather away from the blade, as tannins or moisture that collects there may stain the blade.

Good luck!

Keith

En Ferro Veritas.
 
As far as kydex goes, yes you could make the karda sheaths entirely out of leather. You could also recycle (reuse) plastic from a milk jug or a plastic liter bottle. That plastic is tough stuff! I used the kydex to keep the leather away from the blade, as tannins or moisture that collects there may stain the blade.
Click to expand...

Milk jugs sound like a great solution, thanks for the suggestion!
Yes you are right, the whole story about how to fasten the two holders sounds tricky and probably your way is the right one; I will give it a try later this summer, now I have my hands full with some works in the house and my mother going to the hospital for some minor surgery. Thanks again for all the good tips.
Fausto
 
Good work, Ferrous! And thanks for posting his stuff, Uncle!

Now a question or two from me, and if you find them maybe just a little bit stupid, I apologise and acknowledge my ignorance: (1) When you took the two wooden halves apart, did you find them glued, or was the leather cover holding them together? (2) By exactly how much was the wooden core larger than the blade in width; in other words, how wide was the outer edge, where the halves lay edge on edge, to keep the blade relatively free from binding?

The reason for this question is that this was the greatest "mistake" I made when I crafted the Mk I scabbard, as I made the glued edges too wide. My scabbard should have more closely imitated the profile of the blade.
 
"mother going to the hospital for some minor surgery"--Fausto
Fausto, good wishes to you and your mother, I'm sure things will turn out fine.

Johan:
1."When you took the two wooden halves apart"--They did not seem to be glued at all. There was a piece of cardboard glued to the inside of one of the wood forms, perhaps to correct the fit of the blade? I think leather only was holding the forms together, which is why I used strapping tape to hold the form in place while I sewed the leather over the form.

2>"how much was the wooden core larger than the blade in width"
Near the spine, there was at least 4-5mm toatal, so 2mm to 2.5mm on each side. At the blade edge, there was about .5mm between scabbard and blade, if that much. very close fitting near the edge. Because of this, I used very thin kydex (.5mm) to line the scabbard.

"keep the blade relatively free from binding..."As it turns out, the little bit of leather at the throat of the scabbard is where you get the blade to fit snugly, without binding. Here's the deal: If your M43 is loose in the scabbard, just use some spray adhesive on thin leather, and slip just a bit of it in the top of the throat of the scabbard. This should tighten the fit of the sheath while the khuk is in it, and it should keep the blade from coming out.

The snakeskin I used in the pics was thicker than the original bit of leather at the throat of the scabbard. I needed the khuk to fit nicely in the scabbard, so I glued the thicker snakeskin in there, and it made the fit much more secure. The blade may move about a bit whle in the scabbard, but it wil not fall out, and this fix does not cause binfing because the pressure holdking the khuk securely ins located only at the throat of the scabbard.


Hope this helps!

Keith
En Ferro Veritas
 
Ferrous, thank you for your kind answers and further advice, which I appreciate! I'd like to tell you (and all interested forumites) that I have just yesterday evening completed a sheath for my Kurdish jambiya. This is not to take over your thread, but just to shortly tell of a parallel project to yours. All I had, was a genuine Kurdish jambiya, a bit worn with age (c. 1910) with brass discs absent from the horn handle, and a blade loose from the handle. Nothing else. I read up as much as possible (all to my advantage), collected pix from the internet and went about making and fixing the four brass discs, fixing the blade to the handle, bought thin black leather for the sheath, made the two wooden halves (EXACTLY the same size as the blade in profile), worked the leather around the wooden core with the blade inserted (of course), and viola! the project is finished. I even made a "finial" - little knob of buffalo horn, which is attached to the point of the sheath. Friendly people who have looked at the job said it is a complete success. All I did NOT do was put a pattern into the leather. I did not glue the wooden halves - the leather gives just slightly when the knife is inserted. The ridged blade slides into the corresponding groove I cut into both wooden halves. At the throat of the sheath I whittled away some wood so that the leather could be turned in, into the throat and epoxied there. Just like you said, this makes it very neat at the throat and it gives just the right amount of friction to hold the blade in the sheath.

Ferrous, be so kind as to email me, if you will, at johanz@glen.agric.za with regard to photographs
 
Looks great. I can't believe you painstakingly carved a groove for the raised ridge! Good and skillful stuff!

Of course for anyone folowing this thread, my comments on the emailed pic make little sense...

Keith
En Ferro Veritas
 
Ferrous, I'm not a psycologist, but in the following quotation "Of course for anyone folowing this thread, my comments on the emailed pic make little sense..." I seem to "read" a hint that I should suggest to you that you let us all see the pic. (If you will be so kind.) I can only suppose it's technically possible to attach the e-mailed image here. I can think of quite a few jambiya enthusiasts who prowl this forum by night(!) who would like to see the pic. But I don't mean to muscle in on your thread.
 
Basic members like us cannot post pics to the Forum, only gold and premium members can. If you send it to Uncle Bill, he may have time or inclination to post it. He has been very kind to me by posting many many pics to the forum for me.

"But I don't mean to muscle in on your thread."--Nonsense! This is a thread about sheaths and scabbards. You're on topic.

Keith
En Ferro Veritas
 
Anyone can insert pics in their messages
if they take an extra step.
Save load the picture into their web page directory
on their ISP server or on one of the free
web page servers available to anyone.
When you click the IMG button above the text
window of your REPLY, point to where
the pic is stored on your web page server.
Walleye! The hook is set.

The bladeforums server doesn't have to keep the pic
on hand, so it just pulls in the pic when it's needed.
Which means you can change it or delete it from
the message at will by changing the file you have stored.

All the web page accounts I've seen include
at least a meg or two of storage space,
these days often more.

And if not there are still the free (ad based
I guess) web page storage options.
Search for "free web page" &/or
"free web storage" at www.google.com..

Some responses include :
www.geocities.com
angelfire.lycos.com/
angelfire.lycos.com/cgi-auth/webshell
(selected 'webshell' from homepage)
 
Good luck to you, Ferr. I'm still seeing little dancing stars in front of my eyes from reading ddean's kind advice. No fault of yours, ddean! I'm just not that computer literate. Gimme a sheath to make, any time. There's a well-used panawal (16" AK) lying around the house w/o sheath that I'll have to tackle next. You eager to go on to your next project, Ferr?
 
Yep. Either etch&blue of a villager I got fer a buddy, or a snakeskin/kydex sheath for a long cable-forged blade made by a local Blacksmith.
The cable forge has been etched and blued to bring out the forge weld pattern, which looks remarkably like snakeskin, (or like the cellular look of your fingerptint, magnified 10X) thus the snakeskin shealth will really bring the piece together.

Keith
En Ferro Veritas
 
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