Nickel silver sheath for a Woodhead

oldknife

Well-Known Member
I just finished this nickel silver sheath for this knife, it is a George Woodhead made in Sheffield England in the mid 1800s , the handle and guard are silver. The knife can be put in the sheath eather right or left witch is not common with this style of a blade, the sheath is a little longer to make this happen, also the tip is lower than the spine, I usuly make them to fit the shape of the blade, the customer wanted it made this way so here it is. Deane I forgot here in Reno up to the 16th. of Feb. is the desplay of Decorative Arms Treasures from the Robert M Lee collection at the Nevada Museum of Art, it is the most incurable collection of fire arms I have ever seen under one roof, the masters of the world, if you are able to get here it is worth seeing.
 

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VERY GOOD!!! Most folks don't know what it takes to make one of those.....and you did a great job!! ;)
 
Awesome work!
Being (still) a novice, I have very little insight into the character or value of that piece of history, but it strikes me that the owner of the knife entrusted exactly the right person to create the sheath for it!
 
Gentleman, thank you for the kind words, the first ones I made gave some problems but now I have made enough of them that things go well, but they are time consuming.
 
Here are some pictures of how this is done, you make two dies out of 1/4" stock ground the same, you are going to make a right and left so they need to match, put the silver between the two dies put it in the vice an drive the silver over the bottom die, take the two halves and glue strong back on so you can hold on to and helps keep is straight, I grind them with a 50 grit belt then finish with an 80 , keep it cool and even side to side and end to end, use the liner material you are going to use and make two dummy liners to fit the knife to the case as you grind the halves make sure you have no gaps or the solder will show. I use medium silver solder to put the case together, soft solder on the rest, finish just like you would a full polished knife blade, I take them to 200 grit light buff and polish by hand. This is the basic procedure
 

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