Remember what I said about how to dye it? Well, I again decided on an oil-based dye, and the first step with that is to wipe it down with oil and let it set for a day before dying. What that got me was this:
Finished scabbard
…and I decided it was just too pretty to dye, so I gave it a coat of sealant and called it good.
I think I’m actually getting good at this…
The last event we went to, we brought out the fire pit and I ended up using the Gulach BFK9000 to split kindling. It worked, but it really isn’t designed for the task and it’s actually too sharp now for this sort of thing.
With that in mind, J went out and bought us a new camp hatchet, and sure enough, i decided it had to have a scabbard for safe transport.
I’m not sure if J and Illyana intended for me to be making a scabbard for it, but they sure didn’t complain when I offered. They’re no dummies.
Anywho, here’s what it looks like before the dye. I made it ambidextrous, so it’s pretty on both sides.
Those rivets are called double-caps, and designed just for projects like these where you can’t hide the ugly side.
In this design, the top and bottom rivet are there to keep the scabbard from pivoting off the blade (the tips of the blade are almost right at the points of the trefoil) and the two middle rivets are there to keep the blade from cutting the stitches.
Now to figure out how I want to dye it…
You remember that scabbard I made for the huge knife? Well, a problem developed after a time with the finish. It seems to have tarnished to a greenish sheen reminiscent of that found on old copper. The scabbard’s owner thought it was an effect I had aimed for and rather liked it, but it’s been eating at me since I saw the green the first time. Here’s a pic:
Obviously, this just won’t do. The problem is, how to fix it?
Well, I took the piece down to the good folks at Oregon Leather, and they showed me how to use Carnauba Cream to remove the tarnish. Rub the product on, let it dry, and then buff it out with some sheepskin. Here’s what you get afterwards:
Not too bad. It may take another coat before I’m completely happy with it though.