Rawhide sheath I made for my Turley

[Plainsman]

Tried my hand at a Cohea style Rawhide sheath for my Turley Soldier River. Seemed like a good fit for the style of my knife. I really like how it turned out.

And yes this started life as a dog chew bone.







And an antler bead on the bottom

[Hanshi]

Very fine sheath.  It is interesting you used a doggie chew bone; I never thought of anything like that.

[Hawken50]

  I echo Hanshi.Please tell how you dif it. Looks great.

[Plainsman]

Thanks fellas, here is another I did for another forum

I start with a dog chew, these are 10". Brand doesn't matter to me, but i make sure to check the ends to see if it's one rolled piece or a small piece with a bunch of filler shoved in.





After buying what I hope to be good dog chews, i then go home and soak in a bucket of warm/hot water. Until they are soft enough to pry open and lay flat.



There always seems to be some filler, but these ones were pretty good with just a little filler



Here is what three chews rewarded me with



I then dye them the colors I want, and make sure to put in a zip lock baggie with a damp paper towel, to keep them workable.

If I am going to not get started working with them right away, I will lay them between a couple towels with some weight on them to dry flat.

But, this go around I started on the sheath right away.

Got the patterns all traced on the rawhide and the leather



All cut out and ready to get started, in the zip lock in between steps, as the rawhide will dry out and be like working with cold kydex.



From this point, I follow John Cohea's tutorial. I don't feel I can improve on his at all. So I will just post the link to it:

http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/19744/Rawhide-sheath-tutorial


Here is the finished project:

This one is for an Old Hickory Skinner that is headed to Croatoan.

I used both fake sinew and waxed cotton string for the stitching. Which I played around with and tried to make look old and like it had been repaired The "charms" are a turkey spur, a racoon tooth, deer antler beads and some brass and copper beads. Croatoan plans to add a bear claw from a bear he took.














Any questions on the process let me know, I'll be happy to at least point ya in the right direction.

The reason I like this style so much more then normal leather work, is I can get alittle more creative and if you mess up you just make it part of the sheath and it really doesn't look out of place.

[Watauga]

Plainsman That is Wonderful Workmanship
And a Great looking kit you have Too!

[ErikPrice1@msn.com]

 That looks fantastic. Just score a old hickory from a thrift store for a buck and was trying to think of which way I wanna make it. Think I'll give her a go if the dog will let me have his toy. 

[crazell]

I would have never thought of this... Great idea and fairly cheap..Fits right in around here...Thanks for the tutorial and the pictures...

[beowulf]

nice work    surprised more skinners dont try this ! did a few things with raw hide dog chews back in the 80`s . but have kin who do their own butchering , and raw hide you make yourself is a bit easier to work  and if you do it right a more uniform thickness ! but aint nothing wrong with using dog chews 

[Hammerhead]

im gonna give this a shot this weekend

[Hammerhead]

what store did you buy those rawhide chews from. the brand i bought had way to much filler in them

[Hammerhead]

i tried this and messed up. i tried to die it in hot water and rit dye and it shrunk to half the size

[Dogshirt]

DUDE! NO hot water with rawhide!

[Plainsman]

Those came from Menards, I have also had good luck with some I got from Walmart and Target.

And i only use paint on dye with these, RIT doesn't work worth a darn. Im using a home brewed walnut dye right now that I really like the look of.

[Rev]

I learned the hard way on the one I posted elsewhere on this site today. I was using tap water & it was still too hot. One piece shrank to half its size...