Repairing an old sheath and progress on the Trollstein knife sheath

Well,  this is a really old and treasured knife I have had since the 1990s,  a Helle Fjellkniven in H3LS steel. I have used this really slicey cutter on and off, really hard,  and it always came back for more. 

Trouble was, the sheath was made without a welt or inlay. Actually this was less of a problem as it might seem at first glance,  because the leather was molded really intelligently to the shape of the knife. But leather gets softer with time, so the mold got loosened up and consequentially,  the blade cut through the stitching. So I removed it altogether, cut a welt and stitched everything back together with pitched twine. 

I also made a concoction to harden the leather and give the handle a bit of love. I took 3 parts spirit alcohol, 1 part spruce resin,  1 part beeswax from old candles, and 1 part turpentine oil. You can see the effect on the handles. 

I also worked on the Trollstein knife sheath. It really IS tricky to convince it to keep the knife in (see my previous post). Maybe this is why that reindeer hunter lost it in the 6th century... I think,  I will have to add some kind of retention device,  maybe some brass sheet or something like that. 

 All in all,  I really like how it all turned out...

Now to the other projects...🤣

Sheath for my #Iämpedahler waldmetz

 Some two weeks ago I came home from work and, after opening a bottle of beer I realized it tasted like piss. So I thought, that couldn´t be it, made myself a tea and took out the leatherworking tools.

 Way late into the night I worked, and yup, I am not exactly proud of it, but at least I did something useful;-), and it does the job quite nicely.

In fact, I like these knives a lot these days. While they are absolutely badass due to an all-steel construction, selective temper and overall layout, they are well balanced and not-so-tactical at all. The sheath I made from top-grain, vegetable tanned, cowhide leather, hardened with soda and spirit and hot-waxed around the knife... I like it and it rides in my rucksack most of these days now...

New sheath for a snack and allround bush knife

This is another simple sheath, for a snack and utility knife (the one that got stainless by accident ;-)). Nothing fancy, really, just plain vegetable tanned leather, lacquered with violin veneer and hotwaxed and wet-formed around the knife. It goes on a belt, and works with a snap that keeps the knife in quite good, even upside down.