I
start my work on the knife sheath by splitting the antler piece. I use
a saw with a thin saw blade.
Here
are the two halves. I draw the shape of the sheath on one of them. I grind
the shape out and use it as a pattern for the other half.
I
carve out the space for the blade with a wood chisel.
I
glue both halves together with polyurethane glue. Then I use the knife
to take out the form of the knife sheath.
Sanding,
sanding and even more sanding. One could use a grinding machine. I don't
since I find it hard to have control when I'm grinding on a machine.
Here
you see me chamfer the antler so the knife will slide smoothly into the
sheath.
The
leather is my own tanned moose leather. It's of a half-tanned type and
the only way to shape it is more or less to soak it in water. When the
leather is drying it will shrink a lot. That's why I'm wrapping the handle
with aluminum foil and that's why I am grinding the tracks that you see
on the top on the sheath. The foil makes it possible to pull the knife
out. The leather shrinks into the tracks and that is how the leather and
the sheath is held together.
I'm
sewing the leather, using a thread made out of fiber. The stitches are
so called shoemaker stitch.
Engraving
the pattern is almost more work than making the knife itself. I have a
special knife for engraving. The blade is made from very hard steel. When
I'm engraving, I do it from two sides so the track will have a shape of
a "V". The lines can be thin or thick, depending on the angle
I have on the engraving knife. If you are interested in trying, begin
with an easy pattern and don't cut to deep.
After
the engraving I fill the tracks with a mix of ground alder bark and lacquer.
Copper rivets look good and they have a meaning. Antler is a living material
and sometimes the glue can't hold both halves together. But the copper
rivets and the leather will.
