My second mule sheath

Hector Castro · #1

Here is my second mule sheath. It is made of Veg tanned leather. I tooled it with two different stamps and dyed it with British tan colored dye. It is hand sewn with a black thread. It does not have a belt loop on it. I made this so I could carry it in a pack, or throw it in a drawer with out having to worry about the blade cutting something.

Veg tanned

MrCharlie · #2

What are those scales made of? They're sharp.

Hector Castro · #3

They are Black paper micarta with a red liner. More pictues of this knife can be seen here

tonydahose · #4

nice work. did the whole mule project get you into this sort of thing? i see alot of people getting into making scales, sheaths, and even progressing into knifemaking/modding. i wonder how many future knifemakers Sal has accidentally started or maybe that was one facet of the whole plan :) . ok back to your sheath. how to you get the leather to keep the shape? is any heating involved? i am clueless on this if you couldn't tell. i dont think i will be making any but i like to know the process of it just the same.
thanks :) !

Hector Castro · #5

Tony,

I have been into knives since 90' and I took a some time off in early 2000'. I went to ebay one day and saw the mule, and it has been like wild fire since then. The short answer is yes. I saw the mule and making handles for it as a natural fit for my already developed woodworking skills. Soon after making many sets of scales and putting them on mules, my wife told me she was tired of all thes sharp knives laying around, and why couldn't they have some kind of plastic or leather thingy like my other ones.

This is when I decided to make a sheath. I will be making several more sheaths since I bought about 10 sq ft of leather.

I think you are correct about the natural progression of this. I would be experimenting with making knives right now if I had the correct metal working, sander/belt grinder, and heat treating tools for this. My shop space and limited funds currently limit me from this.

It took some time to collect all the woodworking tools I have, but I think in my near future I will have some tools to make my own knives with.

"If it is worth doing, it is worth doing to extreme"

vaa · #6

They look good! Do you or will you be selling the scales and sheaths? Keep up the good work.
________
Roll Blunts

tonydahose · #7

thanks for the answers Hector. i think you need to have a little of the woodworking bug in you already but then the knife obsession/collection :p hits you too for a one, two punch and all of a sudden you have a mini knife shop in the garage :) . so how do you get the leather to keep its shape?? one more quick question for you, what is the min width you need on piece of wood for the mule team scales. i am going to bid on something that's measurements are 1 and 7/8" X 6" X 15/16". is the sub 2" enough to cover the handle? thanks. you should do a step by step process of the sheath making, i think everyone on here would enjoy it...just an idea :)

Jay_Ev · #8

That looks great. The sheath and the knife (with the micarta scales) look very well done. Keep up the good work. What other handle materials have you used for the Mule Team knives?

Hector Castro · #9

Tony,

I meant to answer your question about the shaping in my first reply, sorry about that. I kind of went off on a tangent. The leather is "Wet Molded". You wet it down really well with some warm water, then you press it into shape around the knife and handle. The leather shrinks and takes the shape of the knife as it dries. I read about this on the british blades forum. What I just typed does not sound very detailed, this is about the same thing I read on the BB forum too. I thought........ there has got to be more to it than that??? It really is that simple though. Wet it, squeeze it around the handle and knife.... voila. it dries like that!

Jay,

I have made handles from Wood, micarta (paper, linen, and canvas), and G-10. I think I am going to try some camel bone for a new challenge. Look in the mule picture gallery. I have several of them in there.

CajunMike · #10

Nice work Hector! I love the color and the texturing.

Cheers,
Mike

Hector Castro · #11

Thanks for the kind words Mike,

BHDKnifer · #12

Very classy sheath. Nice tone. How does it attach to the belt? Take care.

tonydahose · #13

BHDKnifer wrote:How does it attach to the belt?

Hector Castro wrote: It does not have a belt loop on it. I made this so I could carry it in a pack, or throw it in a drawer with out having to worry about the blade cutting something.

Thanks for the info Hector. i thought i'd answer that question above for ya

BHDKnifer · #14

LMAO! Thank's Tony. I need to read instead of admire the photo. :o A horizontal mount would be nice. In fact 2 of them a left and right hand for the swell of the back. A new york reload. :cool:

Monkeywrangler · #15

Looks nice Hector! Did you show off the first sheath (black) that you made?

Hector Castro · #16

Yes it is named "My first sheath" it is also in the mule picture gallery!

JLS · #17

Hector, coming from someone who's done a number of the Mules myself, your work is fantastic.

It's inspiring to see what others can do.

Hector Castro · #18

JLS,

thank you for the kind words.

OtisCampbell · #19

Nice looking leatherwork!