How-to: build a rawhide lined braintan covered knife sheath

[ChuckBurrows]

Coache asked about this so I thought I'd add this tutorial to the list here - while this is for an earlier style the basic construction method (other than the sash flap which is questionable anyway) is the same for the later Plains style sheath:

Folks seem to be interested in the process of building things so I took some "sort of" step by step pictures as I made this sheath. Most of my frontier sheath work is based on the Mountain Man/Scout period of 1820-1870's in the Rocky Mtn west, but this time I went back to the 1760-1770 Longhunter era east of the Mississippi and west of the Appalachians.......

The knife is an 18th century rifleman's style with a 9" forged steel blade by Mike Mann of Idaho Knifeworks - the blade is based on an original excavated at Ft. Ticonderoga, NY. The style of the sheath and porcupine quillwork decoration is based on a couple of existing original 18th sheaths, but is not an exact copy of any existing sheath. On this sheath I did it as much as possible using only the methods and materials that would have been available at the time.

Step 1) - After doing the research (IMO an important step to get it "right") I always do a sketch to put my thoughts/ideas into some semblance of order - with quill and/or beadwork I usually work out a color scheme as well. This is only a general idea at this time - as you'll see the design wasn't "written in stone" - the whole thing will often change and/or be adapted as I go along.

[ChuckBurrows]

Step 2) The sheath liner is double thickness elk rawhide - in this case I doubled the liner since one thickness wasn't stiff enough for the size blade. The inner liner is a standard wrap around pouch sheath with a welt sewn into place along the cutting edge using well waxed/rosined linen thread. It also has a piece of braintan buckskin sewn in at the top as liner for the handle and to which the outside braintan cover will be sewn - something I do to make it a "neater" package and to give it a bit more "grip" on the handle.
Rawhide must be worked wet, but not too wet, something only working with it will you learn - it's a bit of a hassle, but well worth the effort. Once the liner was sewn I protected the blade and ferrule from the moisture and then clamped a couple of boards over the blade until the liner was almost dry. I then took the boards off and let it dry completely. Clamping it between the boards isn't absolutely necessary - but if you don't use them you need to keep a close eye on it as it dries so that it doesn't warp - let it air dry only! Once the inner liner was dry I sealed it with varnish - I use my own home made traditional linseed oil & rosin based varnish - other period type sealers that can be used are spar varnish or a thin coat or two of hide glue. Then I sewed a second piece of rawhide over the first - I whip stitched it along the outer edge and let it air dry with the knife still in the sheath to maintain the form. Once dry I sealed this piece as well.

In the back ground are most of the materials I planned on using: at the top is a hunk of elk sinew for sewing (I also used linen and hemp thread since the sinew I had on hand wasn't the best quality and didn't make enough good thread as I wanted), the porcupine quills and antique pound beads (about 8/0 size), and the brain tan buckskin dyed with walnut hull dye - the bottom portion almost black for the cuff and the rest a lighter color.

[ChuckBurrows]

3) Here is the cuff (at top), cover, and sash flap (made of buffalo rawhide) all quilled and beaded. The beads on the cuff and sash flap are attached with sinew - on the far left are a couple of sinew threads. Serendipitously the sinew on the back side of the flap makes it sort of rough/sticky which will help with retention on the wool sash. With this style sheath the body of the sheath is worn under the sash with the falp on the outside. The quills and beads on the cover were sewn on using hemp thread.
For info on how-to bead and quill, a good starting place is www.nativetech.org, This along with several books available will teach you waht you need to know. There are several techniques for both beading and quillwork and my advice is to study as many sources as possible and then practice, practice, practice.....
When you compare this picture to the original sketch, you can see I changed both the overall pattern and quill colors somewhat. The pattern changed since the sheath wound up being wider than originally sketched (a not unusual circumstance) and the colors changed since I didn't get the natural dyed green/blue I wanted.
The dyes used for the quills were: walnut and charcoal for the brown/black, red ocher for the red, and rabbit brush flowers (a member of the sunflower family) for the yellow. I did try using indigo, a fairly common commercial dye of the period available either in it's raw form or from boiling trade blankets dyed with it, but the quills came out so dark that they looked like the black/brown so I decided to just use the three natural dyes. To dye the quills I steeped them in hot, but not boiling water mixed with the dyes for a couple of hours.

[ChuckBurrows]

4 & 5) Here are front and back views of the cover and sash flap sewn onto the liner - the cover is sewn along the edge with a double whip stitch - a whip stitch was the stitch most commonly used by the Indians - I like to use a double stitch as it gives a nice look, but also makes it stronger and longer lasting since with the whip stitch the threads are exposed to wear - although in this case the beaded edge helps protect the thread from wear. Additional decoration is two hand made brass cones stuffed with buffalo hair. They are attached to the sheath with linen thread running through some larger antique pound beads and a couple of old copper beads.

[ChuckBurrows]

6) And here it is all finished up and aged. The buckskin cover is sealed with a mixture of bear oil, beeswax, and pine rosin, which also helps protect the quills.





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

[ChuckBurrows]

for more info on making later 1800's Plains Style sheaths I can HIGHLY recommend the following book - both for the methods illustrated and for the bunch of pictures of originals included

Plains Indian Knife Sheaths -Alex Kozlov. Published by Crazy Crow Trading Post, 2006. CCTP Product No. 4105-058-900

Crazy crow also offers a nice tutorial on making a rawhide/parfleche sheath
http://www.crazycrow.com/crafts/parfleche-knife-sheath-kit.php

[Cliff Fendley]

Beautiful work Chuck and thanks for the tutorial.

[will ghormley]

Very cool to see that come together right before our eyes Chuck!  Great inspiration.

Will

[GunClick Rick]

Jesus o mighty that is nice Chuck!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing that,i'd never be able to do it but it is nice to know something about it just in case i got a wild hair to try..Man man man i love quill work.it's a heck of a process!

If you think there is no GOD just look at what he gave us to work with in nature..You must have been somewhere close,the other day i saw a porkypine with yellow red and black quills I thought "must belong to Chuck~~

[Marshal Will Wingam]

Fantastic, Chuck. Thanks for posting this. Like Will says, it's an inspiration.

[GunClick Rick]

This one has rawhide

I was just piddlin around when i did this one,did the old lay the blade down and flip it over and trace,Layed it flat when i cut it out and glued the suede to it then folded,put some fringe i got from the material store,then laced it and glued the other stuff on.I cheated like crazy,i didn't know about welts then,i learned about welts here,it ain't got nary a one.. It works though