native American

[trav]

Chuck, i keep seeing your sheaths which are what i call Native American style. simply put, they are the best there is. HOW can we see a demo on this type sheath. i have both of your tapes and my customers have commented on the improvements of my work. thanks for the help. maybe another video?

[Bearpaw]

I second that request!

[Chuck Burrows]

Howdy Guys - Sorry I don't get around that often - work (and a bout with the flu ) has got me back logged to where my "free" time is very limited. Anyway glad the DVDs helped and as for one on my "native" style sheaths - I'd like to but I don't see it happening right away.
One suggestion is get the book "Plains Indian Knife Sheaths" by Alex Koslov - available from Crazy Crow for about $17.00 bucks - the color pictures of originals is alone worth the price......

For now.............Here's a sort of step by step montage of how I recently made a 18th Century NDN inspired sheath. It shows how I did the quillworked cuff and cover. To simplify things/make it easier to build - Rather than using rawhide for the liner you can use vegtan (depending on size 6/7 up to 8/9). You can also cover it in rawhide rather than buckskin - as an alternative to real brain tan you can use the so called imitation (a period tanning known as oil or chamois tan). Crazy Crow offers it as German Tan and you can even get it smoked.........Rawhide can be a real pain/challenge to work with since it has to be worked wet but not too wet (the only way to learn what the right "temper" is is by working with it - too wet and it is super stretchy - too dry and it will be too hard to push an awl through and can tear). Still it has such a great look and it makes for one TOUGH sheath - especially nice for big blades.....See the sticky at the top of this forum for more info on working with rawhide - and I will try to answer questions ASAP.....


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.



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.

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 flap 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 what 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.



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. The buckskin cover is sealed with a mixture of bear oil, beeswax, and pine rosin, which also helps protect the quills.




and here's the finished product.....the knife is by Mike Mann of Idaho Knifeworks......



Hope this gives ya'll a bit of inspiration for now.........

[trav]

Chuck, Thanks for the reply. Information and pictures made it easy to understand. The book has already been ordered. Thanks for sharing. Trav

[Luis Paulo]

My book has already been ordered too. There is another suggestions about these kinf of books ?

Tks

[John Gonzalez]

I just wanted to chime in here to say that the book "Plains Indian Knife Sheaths" is great! I was surprised by all the nice color pictures and detailed instructions. Thanks for the tip, Chuck. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Indian or frontier style sheaths... a great reference guide and purty to look at!

Oh, and Crazy Cow is great too. Lots of neat stuff there. I got a nice first order and plan to make another very soon...

Thanks, Chuck, too, for this tutorial (and ALL the others that have helped me so much over the years!!)...