Winter 2016-17: Making a knife sheath inspired by 14th century examples
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 10:45 pm
[quote=Elleth]
Caedmon, I like the idea of wooden lasts. I don't know if I have that much patience, but it does seem a wiser idea.
My (vague) memory is that a lot of medieval sheaths were two layers of thinner leather - I wonder if the same would be true in our context? Not that I'm inclined to remake anything.
[/quote]
Elleth,
Re: the wooden last, I didn't go into it in particular dept but I use the wooden last for 3 reasons:
1. I rusted a new Cushman* when I didn't make a perfect seal with saran-wrap and tape.
2. The last allows a more precise end product when making an asymmetrical sheath.
3. It's really useful if you start cranking out multiple knives of the same pattern.
As for multi-layer sheaths, they are absolutely attested in the archaeological record, but I have doubts about their commonness. I only have one source, so these doubts are just that.
From the amount of time and illustrations in K&S, you would think that they were common. But of the 120 sheaths depicted, only 16 were multi-layered. Of those, most (12?) were for multiple knives. K&S hypothesizes that, for some of the others, the inner lining was used to keep a hat.
As for our context, that's a good question. I haven't made a multi-knife sheath yet, but have one planned. Aragorn's movie scabbard had an integral by-knife which could have been made like the single sword scabbard in K&S ( but I believe it was actually wood core).
* Chris Cushman is an Alaskan bladesmith of Elleth and my acquaintance.
Caedmon, I like the idea of wooden lasts. I don't know if I have that much patience, but it does seem a wiser idea.
My (vague) memory is that a lot of medieval sheaths were two layers of thinner leather - I wonder if the same would be true in our context? Not that I'm inclined to remake anything.
[/quote]
Elleth,
Re: the wooden last, I didn't go into it in particular dept but I use the wooden last for 3 reasons:
1. I rusted a new Cushman* when I didn't make a perfect seal with saran-wrap and tape.
2. The last allows a more precise end product when making an asymmetrical sheath.
3. It's really useful if you start cranking out multiple knives of the same pattern.
As for multi-layer sheaths, they are absolutely attested in the archaeological record, but I have doubts about their commonness. I only have one source, so these doubts are just that.
From the amount of time and illustrations in K&S, you would think that they were common. But of the 120 sheaths depicted, only 16 were multi-layered. Of those, most (12?) were for multiple knives. K&S hypothesizes that, for some of the others, the inner lining was used to keep a hat.
As for our context, that's a good question. I haven't made a multi-knife sheath yet, but have one planned. Aragorn's movie scabbard had an integral by-knife which could have been made like the single sword scabbard in K&S ( but I believe it was actually wood core).
* Chris Cushman is an Alaskan bladesmith of Elleth and my acquaintance.
