Simple short sword sheath with Celtic knotwork ending in a fox's tail.

A friend of mine had just purchased a beautiful sword, and she needed a sheath to go with it. This sheath, an early effort, is not truly worthy of one of Oso's beautiful blades, but she was happy with it even so. The fox tail is a reference to her family name.

Similar sheath covered in springbok hide and laced with wet rawhide.

I am not pleased with this sheath, but the customer is always right. The same friend's husband wanted a "barbaric-looking" sheath for his short sword. So I made a standard sheath as before, but instead of dyeing or tooling it, I covered it with the springbok hide he'd provided.

Now, one of the characteristics of the springbok is that they have this tuft of hair on their back near the tail that stands up like a Mohawk haircut. He wanted this tuft sticking up through the rawhide thongs. It was quite the learning experience as I struggled to keep some of the hair poking up while attempting to stretch the damp rawhide and wrap it around the springbok hide. (The rawhide is for appearances only; the springbok hide was glued to the sheath with a saddler's glue.)

Simple sheath for a leather crafter's most-used tool: the round knife.

My round knife didn't come with a sheath, and as it has to be kept razor sharp for leatherwork, it's quite dangerous to leave lying around. This is something I slapped together for myself in an hour or so.

Send any comments or suggestions to thalek@keyway.net