Making a sheath and sharpening a knife

[Ruben Calo]

Yesterday Nestor came up to pick up a knife to ship and since I was in the middle of making a sheath for a knife, I asked him to take some pictures to post, I hope you enjoy :)


Stitching the sheath.

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking0_big.jpg

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking1_big.jpg

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Knife.

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking3_big.jpg

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Sanding the sheath to get rid of the imperfections on the edges.

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking5_big.jpg

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Dyeing the leather with special paint.

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking7_big.jpg

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Materials used and knife (sheath is getting dry to I can polish it)

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking9_big.jpg


Applying leather polish to the dyed sheath

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking10_big.jpg


Polishing the sheath

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking11_big.jpg

[Ruben Calo]

Finished leather with knife

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking12_big.jpg

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The knife had an edge already, but I always leave the final sharpening to when I finish the sheath. This way I don't have to mind about the knife getting dull from teh process and most important, I minimize the risk of cutting myself deeply as it had happen in the past.

First step of the final grinding: big belt

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking16_big.jpg


Second step of the final grinding: small belt

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking17_big.jpg


Third step of the final grinding: stropping on a greased leather piece pinned to a flat piece of wood.

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking18_big.jpg


Final step of the final grinding: ceramic rod

One direction:

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking19_big.jpg

Other direction:

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking20_big.jpg



Finished knife and sheath:

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking21_big.jpg

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/work/sheathmaking22_big.jpg



To finish, some shop knives :)

I use the small sheepsfoot to cut leather, the small clip point for general tasks and the big persian as BBQ knife.

The huge criollo was the second knife I made, and it wasn't even tempered until some weeks ago, now I'll use it as a BBQ knife too.

The mini kukuri was my very first knife, made entirely on a small dremmel sized bench grinder about 13 years ago. I gave it as a gift to a friend, who got it misplaced, so it got really neglected and when he found it he gave it back to me so I can restore it and he can display it.

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/images/shopknives1_big.jpg

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/images/shopknives2_big.jpg

http://www.calocustomknives.com.ar/images/shopknives3_big.jpg

Regards,


Ruben

[Stabber]

Nice Ruben, Love the educational pics!! http://www.jerzeedevil.com/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif Stabber

[MeEatsPlaydoh]

nice work. never really knew how to sharpen a knife.

[Geode]

Thanks, Ruben. I never fail to be amazed at the amount of work that goes into a handmade knife.