Knives, sheaths, and Leather...oh my!!

[Davjacva]

This is kind of a lesson for those who suffer from eclectic-isms I guess. Where one follows some process trail which this time started with shaping knives and ends up with making moccasins. When I had some downtime after completing my last tank project and going into the Nautilus project I typically look around that stuff that has been gathering dust...that is when I also got caught up on the never-ending car maintenance. So it started with two knives I've had to overhaul for a long time. One is a family butcher knife that I've had for a while that my mother gave to me and it had a partially rotten walnut handle. This butcher knife was outfitted on my dad's P2V navy anti-submarine patrol bomber and we had two of them. The other was a sawed off machete I carried when I was a paratrooper that also had a busted up handle and also needed to be shaped better. So my wood of choice is Goncalo Alves (also known as tiger wood). You see this dense wood regularly as the handles for pistols, so much better choice than walnut and the like. So this is about cleaning up the knives and cutting and shaping the new handles. As this wood is thick, it was better to use a Dremel as it would start to smoke if it was something more aggressive. Lathed some brass pins and peened them in (don't just glue them) if you want lasting strength. After that shaped the handles with a belt sander.

[Davjacva]

So...with the knives completed they need something to put them in. So need to learn and tool up for another new discipline. This was quite a bit of outlay and a dedicated space in my ever-shrinking work shop, BUT, leather tools are very cheap in comparison to hobby, gun, yard, electronic, and car tools. So tooled up, figured this all out and then family members started lining up for services...right?

[Davjacva]

So got all these awesome leather tools and ran out of knives to do. What else? My wife had these awesome barstools that the faux-leather seat covers had become worn out and she replaced them with some new ones. When I made my workshop, I used kitchen cabinets because I liked the height, but they're too high for regular chairs, so I co-opted her old barstools and cut the legs to length, put floor caps on the bottoms and I'm all set. Except the seat covers look like ass. So figured out how to do seat covers and found a place online that sells leather remnants for a cheap price. This was pretty damn easy-peasy and I was an instant celebrity with all the female member of my family who wanted to line me up for their own seat cover jobs (still have six more to do).

[Davjacva]

So now I have all this 2-3 oz leather left over from doing the seat cushions...what next? Damn, 2-3 oz is the thickness need for moccasins, get to learn yet another discipline and I already have all the tooling. So unlike the garbage off the shelf, and the slightly better moccasin kits, I'm pretty picky about moccasins, especially in that they have to fit like a glove. Fit so perfect that you really don't realize sometimes that you even have them on. So out of watching a ****-ton of Screw-tube videos and reading, finally came up with some solutions that I could divide for versions for boys and girls (the girls get rabbit fur allright?). So the process goes like this; I draw out the person's foot on a garbage bag and get it as accurate as possible, then you average out the shape of the foot. You transfer this over to a semi-clear pattern-making rigid plastic and you then label out all your measurements. From that plastic master you can cut all of your pieces out. There's two separate pieces for the leather, one above the foot and the other being the sole/base. I don't like the single piece type that wraps around the top of the foot. I also do an inner piece made of sherpa, that is the same pieces as the leather, but sewn in. For girls, I also do a rabbit fur lining. These were a big hit with the girls in my family. If you thought girls and phones went together, girls and shoes are more-so. I bet back in the day, cave men had to create shoes for women before they created the wheel. Just sayin'. A few things to help; Always label what side is what and individual foot pieces together. It's very easy to mix them up and flip them wrong side out; The hardest part by far with the rabbit fur. Rabbit furs only come so long, and you need the longest you can get, and you may only get one strip off of one pelt. Luckily, most girls have small feet, unless she's Bertha Butt, one of the Butt sisters with humongous feet then you'll have to go with something else (Sasquatch fur?). The other thing with rabbit fur is that the longest length is typically along the ridge of the back. This area is far darker than the sides, so getting a match is often problematic. What I do is measure the circumference of the foot opening, then add two inches. Sewing it in is far harder than leather, but there's a method to all madness and you'll get the hang of it. Now I get to go back out to the shop and work on the Type IX's upper decks. It's been slow-going lately as I've had doctor/dentist/ and car appointments soaking up my time.