Knifes and leatherwork

Saturday was Lisa's birthday. We don't have a lot of money to play with now, but we went out in the morning and got her a few presents anyway. We ended up at a Pagan/Wiccan store called Book of Shadows, and she picked out a few things there. We had a REALLY odd thing happen...the total came to $44.40. That night the lottery pick-4 numbers were 4409. OK....Lisa turned 44 this year, which is '09. Creepy huh? Arrgh, why dont we ever play the lottery???

After we left, we went to get an inexpensive lunch, then came home. Lisa sat down here in my room with me, reading her new book and practicing with her new flute, (she's wanted to learn native american flute for quite a while) , and I decided to try making something with some scrap leather. We laughed at the noises that came from the flute, some of which I dubbed "dying owl" and "deafens thje wolves"....lol she's a beginner, we can laugh all we want. I had that Western brand knife (right picture) laying around with no sheath, so I decided to try making one for it. (I bought that thing wayyyyy back in myWoolworth days, and have no idea what happened to the sheath)

I traced the knife on the leather, then gave it enough room for stiching, then marked out a belt loop for it. I cut the pattern out, then used the scrap to make the frings along the side. Rather than cut thin leather strips for the stiching, I just used some boot laces I had in a drawer, and they worked just fine. After it was all stiched and the fringes were cut, I decided it needed some decoration somehow, so I dug out a book on Mountain Men I had on the shelf. I found a simple line drawing on a page, and Lisa drew it on the sheath for me. I just used my woodburning tool to mark it on the leather, then rubbed the whole thing down with mink oil. Not bad for my first leather working project in 15 years or more..... I had some small pieces left over, and saw a pipe carrier in the same book, so I decided to make it too. It only took about 20 minutes, and came out halfway decent actually. It still needs oiled, and I think it needs something etched on it too, though nothing really comes to mind. Those little projects are by no means any kind of professional work, but I'm happy with the results for being so far out of practice.

After I was done, I realized that the knife needed sharpened, so I sat down with a fresh cup of coffee and my handy whetstone. It took a while since that knife has been neglected for so long, but I was able to get a good edge on it. I couldn't remember which of my knives I had sharpened recently, so I set down with all of them and my stone. Lisa left for the evening to spend time with her sisters, and I carried them all upstairs and finished them while my friend Bill was here and we watched some GREAT concert dvd's. ( Halford and Raven! oh yea) I managed to get to all of them but the fillet knife, which I'll probably end up working on later today. The one that's 3rd from the left, I found in a drawer upstairs. I have absolutely no idea where it came from, I dont remember it at all. But hey, its a Kabar!

I've yet to have any kind of "survival" knife, though I do want one someday. With the selection I have, I really don't need one, but I'll still get one when I can. Along with these, I have 2 nice hatchets down here in my prep gear that I keep clean and sharp, along with an old bayonet I can use for a "beater" if I choose to. I STILL can't seem to locat my belt pouch that's missing. It has a mini mag light and my Leatherman tool in it. It's dissapeared somewhere in the realms of the house, and refuses to be found. (along with my dremel) The house gnomes strike again, lol, and we thought they just hid socks from the drier.......