Wooden Knife Sheath

Morablades

Morablades

Joined
Dec 29, 2007
Messages
1,990
I saw a lot of pics on the net of people making knife sheaths out of wood, so I decided to try one. It's just a basic generic sheath with a leather snap and leather insert to ease the movement of the blade in the sheath. I stained it today. The wood I chose is red oak. One of the old timers that I work with suggested that I use linseed oil to seal it. I wasn't intending to wear it on my belt. I'm making a leather shoulder strap instead. Also I will add the Native American symbol for the bear on the front of the sheath, also made of wood.
Has anyone else ever carried a knife in a wood sheath? Feel free to post any tips that may be handy for me to consider. Thanks.
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Thats pretty sweet man.

I have zero experience with a sheath made of wood, but it looks cool.
 
The only tip is to be careful that you are not in a situation where the tannins can leach out of the oak and stain/corrode whatever you put in it. Otherwise, great job on the initiative.
 
Thanks for the tip and comments. I really enjoyed making it and am honored to be able to show it off here.
 
warm up some Danish Tung Oil and use 0000 steel wool to apply it. Soak the entire thing and then polish. It will repel water. You want to get some too on the INSIDE of the wood sheath.

nice sheath!
 
Nice job on the sheath. I love traditional styled stuff like that - a lot of people see 'traditional' as a low-tech compromise, but wood and leather are great material to work with.
One suggestion, if I may: I don't think I'd use an oil finish on Red Oak because it needs to be maintained. If it's not, the oak will darken as moisture gets to it. Something like varnish or even a laminating epoxy will give you a deep-looking hard finish that will seal the surface really well. But hey, that's just my .02.
I haven't done wooden knife sheaths, but I have done scabbards for machetes. Those canvas sheaths they ship 'em with are an accident waiting to happen IMHO.

Sorry in advance for the lo-res phone pics...
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The face you see on this one (as well as the handle) are cherry. The welt is yellow cedar as is the top cap (I don't know what it's actually called). The back is a piece of teak and the whole mess has a heavy layer of varnish (half a dozen coats IIRC). It's wrapped in brass wire, which is then buffed to a high polish. Like you, I didn't want to carry it on my belt, so I made a leather frog for the time being until I learn how to make a leather baldric sling for it. Because of the finish, the scabbard isn't really a 'user' although the new handle is a perfect fit to my hand. I did make another 'user' scabbard with 1/8 mahogany ply and fiberglassed. It looks like exactly the same shape as yours but w/o the retention strap (not needed with a machete). Not so traditional, but it only weighs a few oz and is easy to carry on my pack.
 
That looks good Deadeye! What's the technique for wrapping the brass wire? Thanks for all your tips by the way.
 
Thanks, Morablades. Fortunately for me, the low resolution picture hides a multitude of sins...lol
The wire is just brass picture wire. The end is secured similarly to a paracord handle wrap, by wrapping the wire over it. IIRC, I took a short (6"?) piece of wire and folded it over to create a bight(loop) and wrapped the wire over it. When done, the running (free) end gets passed through the loop. A smooth pull on the ends of the short piece will pull the running end under the wraps. I don't know if that makes sense - it was easier to do than to describe !
After polishing it on a buffing wheel (Dremel would work too, or probably just Brasso and a rag) it got some varnish as well to keep it from corroding. I don't know if that's the 'right' way - I'm still learning this stuff myself.
It's kind of funny, but when I was assembling it after cutting the pieces, I accidentally put the back piece on backwards which made it a left-sided (right handed) sheath. One pretty much HAS to cross-draw an 18" machete and I'm LEFT-handed....D'oh !!
 
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