Well, I did not stomp out of the room in rage nor did I die of exasperation, but I must say the leather stamping did not go as well as I would wish. Despite making three mock-up sheaths from crappy leather upfront and practicing on several more leather off-cuts, I have messed-up the basket-weave stamping bigly. I do not know why. Maybe the stamp is crap, maybe it is the slight deformations of the leather that happen during work due to the stamps, but the end result is a bit chewed-up in places because I did not position the stamp correctly and I had to redo that spot several times. I have resigned that I cannot do better and decided to not give it another go.
So unless I mess up at some following step and have to start all over again, this is the final design.
© Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
The wooden mallet did help a lot, allowing me much better control of the strength with which I hit, so that at least worked out well. The burnisher worked like a charm on edges too.
Carving the badger paw-print was a bit of a challenge, but I think I got it acceptably on this final piece. Working with a swivel knife is interesting and it takes some getting-used-to, especially on tight curves, but it did seem fairly intuitive to me (mind you, I only did these simple designs). The home-made beveler for the fingerprints worked well too, I have no complaints there.
I have colored the mock-ups with three different color schemes and what you see here on the final piece is what my mother has assessed as the best combination. In case it went south, I had a secret backup plan, called “Operation: Full Black”. But the dyeing did not go south so far, I made no blotches in the light patches, there are no streaks or shadows when it is all dry and no bleeding over the borderlines either. The claw prints are not ideal, but I can live with that.
Tomorrow is gluing, stitching and wet-forming time. This is only a second sheath of this construction that I make – and first with a belt-clip – so there are no guarantees as to the result.
Edit: Publishing this did not go well. Butterfingers.
Oh, sympathies on the leather stamping. I do very tiny ones so even the slightest distortion shows up really well. It’s looking good though, coming along well!
I love the headline but I think the accepted verb is “dyeing”. Nice work too.
The exwife was a leather carver and saddlemaker with years of carving experience behind her before she could do such nice work. That’s amazing, Charly!
Badger paw… hmmm.
Charly you are being far too hard on yourself, it looks really good.
Well, today I had to redo the whole thing because glue got where it should not have got to and irreparably ruined the surface. But I managed to make a new much quicker and better, and I also managed to sew it together in one day. I will let the glue set until tomorrow and then I shall see whether or not I will be able to wet-form it into its final shape.
Charly, that’s amazing. And for a “first” nonetheless. You are too critical of your own work.
Wow! It looks amazing, you can be really proud about your work there!
I did a few pieces for my medival stuff years ago and it is really not easy to do, so you did good, practicing beforehand.
Well done, Charly. It looks beautiful.