Fiber glass sheath pics

Bruce Bump

Bruce Bump

Forum Owner-Moderator
I started this new thread so I can just put finished knives on the Gallery thread. With this new given authority I can move posts around and hopefully organize things better.

Here is some more progress on the dagger sheath.

I changed my mind on the throat size to trim things down. The collar is made from .070" thick 1018 sheet metal and welded the seam on the back side. The top plate is a 90 degree bent piece of 1/8" steel plate and milled slots. "Thin is In" so I ground the heck out of the body to fit inside of the metal collar. It was a good move to make things smaller and thinner. I ground so much fibre glass away that it went back down to the leather liner so another coat of glass had to be applied for strength.

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It fits pretty good now but see the leather showing? I just need to recoat those small areas and regring the body until my leather cover just fits in this gap. Thats what I like about the fiberglas is its easy to apply and regrind until things fit. Wood sheaths can swell up and/or warp with humidity changes but the fiberglass will be stable for life. If they use it for Corvette bodies its good enough for my sheath.

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Nice job Bruce. Did you take any pics of that fiberglass sheath construction? Is it glass laid up over formed leather?
 
BossDog said:
Nice job Bruce. Did you take any pics of that fiberglass sheath construction? Is it glass laid up over formed leather?
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Yest it has a thin leather liner with no welt.
I didnt take a shot of the liner and the first layups of fiber and resin. The fiber glas kit is available at Home Depot or any auto parts store. I ran out of hardener because I use way more than the directions say but it dries in minutes and can be ground off and shaped much sooner. The smell is minimum too that way. More hardener is only $3 at ACE Hardware.

If you make one be sure to seal the leather before applying the wet resin. I used superglue along the edges with the knife inside until it stiffened up good and took the knife out to finish sealing the entire outside areas. If ya dont seal it from the reasin the smell stays inside the sheath for weeks. I cant prove it but think the smell may be a gas of sorts and may rust the blade. That is my only worry. This one is sealed and barely smells inside and when completely dry wont have a smell at all.

I dont know anybody else doing hard body sheaths like this so I cant ask advice from anyone. I can tell ya one thing I like the hard stable resulting sheath body better than a wood one. Wood can cause problems because of moisture.
 
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That was fascinating! I dont see too many fiberglass sheaths at all so this is a real treat.

I've only seen a handful of fiberglass sheaths, one of them is the old WW2 Navy Kabar style knife. I still have that one around here somewhere.

A while back I saw a carbon fiber sheath, I cant remember who did that, but I'll see if I can find the fellow that did it.

As for sealers, Have you tried Satin Sheen? Its an acrylic based sealer and leaves a dull finish that the fiber glass shouldn't have any problem bonding to. Might be a bit less expensive than the super glue and less chances caustic response with the resin.
 
leatherman said:
That was fascinating! I dont see too many fiberglass sheaths at all so this is a real treat.

I've only seen a handful of fiberglass sheaths, one of them is the old WW2 Navy Kabar style knife. I still have that one around here somewhere.

A while back I saw a carbon fiber sheath, I cant remember who did that, but I'll see if I can find the fellow that did it.

As for sealers, Have you tried Satin Sheen? Its an acrylic based sealer and leaves a dull finish that the fiber glass shouldn't have any problem bonding to. Might be a bit less expensive than the super glue and less chances caustic response with the resin.
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Thanks for the encouragement.
Question for ya: I want to cover this one in alligator hide. Its very thin and should wrap around well. I designed this body with straight lines so there is less stretching needed. What type of glue should I use to bond it to the glass? I have Barge cement. It works even with wet leather.
Bruce
 
you asked leatherman but barge is pretty darn good stuff...
 
Barge is very good stuff, but the same formula as Weld Wood contact cement at half the price. I was turned on to the stuff by Sandy Morissey years ago and never looked back. You cant go wrong with the Barge you have though. :)
 
I now have the tip finished and in the mail to Ken Hurst for the engraving on it and the throat. Before sending them I had to make sure the body fit inside of both with the proper amount of space for the leather cover. The alligator wasnt big enough so I'm going with goat leather. Its thin and soft and stretches tight so I need to make sure the fiberglas body is the correct size and has no imperfections that will show through the tight wrapped leather.

Here is some shots of the tip. I cut out the sheet metal and hammered, bent, formed, twisted, ground, cussed, sanded, flattened, cussed and soldered to a center spacer. Then It got chiseled, sanded, buffed, rechiseled, cut, ground, dremeled, and sanded again and finally test fitted on the body. I'm glad pictures speak a thousand words.

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Bruce, What do you have planned for the outside finish of the sheath/scabbard? I took a quick look to see if that was mentioned in a previous post but I no see.
 
Raymond Richard said:
Bruce, What do you have planned for the outside finish of the sheath/scabbard? I took a quick look to see if that was mentioned in a previous post but I no see.
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I plan to cut a paper pattern that wraps around it and slightly overlaps at the exact center on the back side. The pattern will be used for cutting the leather to the correct size. I'm going to use Barge cement to glue the leather on the body and overlap the back. I need to cut the overlap so it has a nice butt joint. I have black nylon cording that will go into the butt joint. No sewing involved.
 
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