Sheath for my Ralston

[CraigC]

Just finished this sheath with full elephant hide overlay for my new Ralston knife. I like the stuff but elephant tends to elicit mixed reactions. Hindsight, I might've used a lighter weight leather to build the sheath and should have moved the button stud about a quarter inch towards the fold. I think it turned out pretty good. It's going on a 3" safari belt I'm working on, along with a few other surprises.



Detail showing how I tapered the welt to match the contour of the blade. You can see everything because I dye and burnish my edges, rather than covering it all up with edge paint.

 

[bannockburn]

CraigC

Great looking sheath to go along with your new knife! Nice touch with the tapered welt; as usual exemplary detail in it's design and construction.

 

[jmr40]

I'm impressed. Great work

 

[CraigC]

Thanks guys, for the kind words!

 

[Barry the Bear]

Yeah that is an awesome sheath!

 

[Cocked & Locked]

Nice work as usual!

 

[redneck]

Nice to see you stack a welt like that. I've been doing mine that way, but hadn't seen it done much. Was thinking I need to get better at folding and boning instead of doing thick welts, but if you're doing it on a sheath that fancy it's got to be fine on my stuff
I like a tapered welt a lot better than a wide mouth sheath with a narrow body for the point to catch sliding in.

The elephant hide is interesting, does it dye that way naturally with the stripes?

 

[CraigC]

Thanks for the compliments!

Far as I can tell, the only way to get elephant hide is chrome tanned and already dyed. All the processing is done in Africa prior to export. I get mine from Roje, three hides so far.

 

[Jaymo]

Very nice work. I like elephant hide.
I have an elephant hide wallet that my uncle bought in Vietnam during the war.

 

[redneck]

I don't think I've ever seen elephant hide in person aside from some very expensive boots in a booth a horse show once. Wouldn't have guessed you can only get it chrome tanned but that makes sense with the import laws.

Thanks for the info, always look forward to seeing your work.

 

[Kookla]

Gorgeous. Just gorgeous.

 

[CraigC]

Thanks folks!