SW Trade Knife & Sheath.....

[LaBonte]

Over the holiday I finally got around to building a sheath for this one that's been hanging around the shop for some time..........

This style knife and sheath can be documented as early as circa 1800 so it would be appropriate for the 1807-1840's western fur trade era, but the same style can be also be seen as late as the 1860-1880's Indian Wars period (or any period in between for that matter).
The knife has a 7 3/4" hand made blade. The blade is thin like the originals and was "converted" from a circa 1900 extra large Old Hickory blade. The birdshead grip is Osage Orange with a cast pewter bolster and a buffalo rawhide wrap - all with an aged finish. OAL is 12 1/2".
The aged sheath was inspired by a couple of originals whic were made from thich buffalo rawhide. Since I didn;t have any on hand, I made this one out of harness leather with a brain/smoke tan beaded cuff and fringe. Decoration includes period glass beads, brass tacks and beads, and tin cone tinklers.
The sheath is pretty neat since it can be worn in several positions including left or right hand crossdraw in the front or in the middle of the back as seen so often in A. J Miller's prints of the mountain men. Also with the open slot it can be easily removed yet is real solid when the belt is cinched down.

hope ya'll enjoy the look see.........

 

[davy]

Wow very nice! :thumbsup:

Davy

 

[onepaw]

excellent sheath, beautiful!

 

[50cal.cliff]

Turned out really well! :thumbsup: I am a big fan of that style of sheath. I attemted to do a little of the bead work like you used at the top of the sheath and it will make you say things that make Mamma blush! Also it is very hard to find alot of actual info on the internet about how that kind of beading is sewn.
What do you do with the point on the tacks? I assume they are cut off for length and the tack is held in place by expoxy! I like the contrast between the large tacks and the small brads!

 

[mazo kid]

NOW....that is a beautiful piece of work!! Emery

 

[JohnnyO]

wow! those are great! :applause:

 

[Dutchman58]

Very nice. Classy look to that entire rig!

 

[PitchyPine]

Super nice. :thumbsup:

 

[renovato]

Excellent work on the sheath. It really compliments the style of the knife. What a gorgeous set! :thumbsup:

 

[LaBonte]

Glad Ya'll enjoyed the look see.......

Also it is very hard to find alot of actual info on the internet about how that kind of beading is sewn.
What do you do with the point on the tacks? I assume they are cut off for length and the tack is held in place by expoxy! I like the contrast between the large tacks and the small brads!

Cliff that beadwork is the "common" lane stitch which used to be called the lazy stitch - I use the metis method (since I are one) wherein the thread goes all the way through the leather and then back up to the next "lane" rather than the Sioux method where you just catch a small bit of the top surface. www.nativetech.org shows the basic how-to, but IMO anyone wanting to do beadwork should check out some books...

The large headed tacks - the first set on one side was tapped through, clipped off just proud of the other side and then peened flat. For the large set from the other side I measured the thickness, addrf enough so that they would hit the bottomside of the other cap and curl over - since these are steel shank tacks in order to made sure they curled over I pounded the tip of the shank thin and flat before tapping through - no glue used. The small brads are solid brass and I just clipped to length and tapped in place - no glue used - the brass is "coarse" enough to keep most in place - I say most because on most originals some tacks are almot invariably missing....

 

[paulvallandigham]

If the shaft of the tack is long enough, you can " clinch " the end, by bending the point of the tack, and hammering it back on itself so that the point re-enters the leather with a bend at the point where the shaft comes through the leather. You can use needle-nose priers to bend the point to 90 degrees, and then begin the bend at the point where the shaft of the tack comes through the backside of the leather. Then a blow from a hammer on a hard backing surface will complete the " clinch". This technique was used in boat building hundreds of years ago, when iron and copper nails were finally available in quantity to use in boat building. You see it in leather working in museums all the time, but I do not know how old the technique is for that purpose.

I used a brass "rivet" to hold the two pieces of heavy skirting leather together for my Bowie Knife, back in 1959, or so, peening the end over a washer places on the backside of the leather. Only two such brass rivets were used at the mouth of the sheath, and the rest of the sheath was stitched with leather. The two brass rivets do help protect the stitching from being cut as the knife is withdraw, or put into the sheath. That was the main reason we used them.

Now that brass tacks are available, along with fine stong synthetic threading, I would not make a sheath like I did back then, today. The one shown here is true art, and compliments a knife that is also artistically made- such that you want to pick it up as soon as you see it! Congratulations on your art! :thumbsup: :hatsoff:

 

[LaBonte]

FWIW - Yes clinching is another method, but of the several hundred original tacked pieces I've examined over the last 40+ years both in books and in person I've yet to see, but one sheath in which the tacks were said to be bent over (illustrated and footnoted in one of the MFT sketchbooks - the cutlery one IIRC). Doesn't mean that there weren't more but by far most apparently had peened tacks.

Now that brass tacks are available

Solid brass tacks (shank and head) were trade as far back at least as the late 1700's. The solid brass headed tacks with steel shanks that are so often used today have been in existence since the early 1870's. As for synthetic thread I personally prefer real linen - about the only time I use synthetic is for beading - mainly so that the piece can't bet be pawned off as an original 19th Century piece...

Copper and/or brass rivets with burrs were used "in period" for saddlery and harness work - the mountain man sheaths so often illustrated by A. J. Miller may very likley have been riveted rather than tacked since many saddle/harness maker made sheaths show up in the trade records and were regularly sold at in inexpensive price with the common trade knives. Such riveted sheaths would have been fast and easy to make thus making them a likely candidate. Most of the heavily tacked goods are of later period than the classic Mountain Man one of 1822-1840, generally the 1870's and later.....

Here's a pic of the back of some original sheaths albeit circa 1870's.

 

[GreyWhiskers]

Wow! Beautiful knife and sheath. :thumbsup: How did ya age the pewter? GW

 

[rabjr]

Wow very nice! :bow:

 

[paulvallandigham]

My apology. My comment about the availability of Brass Tacks was referring to the fact we could not find them in 1959 when I made my first sheath- not that they were not around in the 18th or 19th centuries. Sources for Brass Tacks began showing up in the mid to late '60s, if memory serves me correctly. The primary reason we chose to use the rivets at the tip of my sheath was to protect the leather thong we used to sew the sheath. This is boot lace "latigo" that we bought at a local shoe repair store- out best source of material then. The belt leather we used for the sheath Dad got at work from the scrap bins. They still had some ancient equipment that were powered by long leather belts off overhead drive shafts. When those belts were replaced, the ends cut off were scrapped, and Dad grabbed some of them. I used the same heavy skirting leather for the sheath, and later for " discs" to form the handle. I was 14 when I first made the knife, and remodeled it again when I was 18 and finishing HS. Randall was making custom knives, as were others, I later learned, but Only Randall advertised enough to be well known. There just was not any information on making knives back then.