SOTW #2 - Making a Leather Sheath With a Hammer and Knife @islandblacksmith

Uploaded July 2013 | Updated September 2026, 18 hours ago

This is the sheath for the Desert Ironwood Skinner, a commissioned project. The full video footage is about 90 min long, so each minute of video here represents about 25 minutes of work, all by hand, using only a knife and a hammer to construct the sheath. The leather is cut out, painted with warm water, embossed and shaped, allowed to dry overnight, coated with neatsfoot oil, punched, riveted together, trimmed, and burnished with beeswax. Finished photos here: knives.islandblacksmith.ca/available-work/desert-ironwood-skinner

The tool used to cut the leather is a small vegetable knife: knives.islandblacksmith.ca/available-work/oak-nakiri
...and if you are into technicality, the knife and the punch were made with a hammer so this could be titled, "Making a Sheath With a Hammer"

SOTW #2 - Making a Leather Sheath With a Hammer and Knife

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$Soulsmithing: adventures in hitech/lotech part 5 - chopping and sorting charcoal Pierre Nadeau of soulsmithing.com prepares to light his new forge in Canada. The focus of this video is sumi-kiri, charcoal chopping, screening, and sorting techniques, and will offer some valuable details for astute observers. The charcoal is chopped and then processed through four sizes of screen, the largest is for tanren, the second for hizukuri, his third size isnt highly useful but may be used in mini forges or crushed into fines, the fourth is the fines for lining the bottom of the forge, and the remainder is dust used for mixing into yaki-ire clay or for brasque refractory. See the rest of the series here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpmPJRiiS-E&list=PLBJ5AOs7cMwCSinW7foaiHFZKbZDkasQL&index=14 I met Pierre several years ago in Japan where he spent almost a decade working as a swordsmith apprentice. I am very grateful for his advice and assistance over the years. He is now continuing his research into traditional Japanese swords and historical crafting techniques. Soulsmithing channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Soulsmithing An interview of Pierre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNKymP1QF4M Read about apprenticeship: http://islandblacksmith.ca/2015/05/on-swordsmith-apprenticeship/ Pierre also specializes in making hempcrete mixers and custom wood-fired ovens on the side, the pizza was so good that unfortunately there is no footage! http://soulsmithing.com$

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SOTW #2 - Making a Leather Sheath With a Hammer and Knife