In my quest to prepare for camping, distance hiking and possibly hunting, I've come to the step where I clean and prep my equipment. With my pack pretty much set, I've begun focusing on my bowie and machete. Both needed a good cleaning and sanding. Both still need more sanding true be told, but I still struggle with that sort of patients and so I'll get there. Anyway, i'll do the machete at another point as I still need to make a replacement handle for it.
So, a little about this knife. It was my grandfather's. He got it serving in the Army during the Korean war. He gave it, and the machete, which he made, I'm guessing from some scrap metal (he was a welder by trade) to my father just before passing. After I returned home from my time in the Army, my father gave them to me.
The years haven't been the best on them. They were stashed on a cabinet in a little work area in a basement. Both have some putting from surface rust. The bowie being of higher quality has held up better. Neither have a sheath though.
And so, here is my DIY in progress. I am making sheaths for them both from some scrap 1x4 wood, epoxy and paracord. So far I have chiseled out the area the blade will slide into and epoxied the two halves together. I think next I am going to drill some holes along the outer perimeter of the blade and fill them in with epoxy to help further fasten the two pieces and add more color to the finished sheath. Anyway, to the good stuff.
Here is what I started with
And after the first round of sanding.
And here is where I have gotten with the sheath.
Should have this done by tomorrow night. Think I am going to stain it black and maybe do some inlay work using some colored epoxy.
Speaking of epoxy...
Not sure what to do with these yet. Just left over epoxy from other jobs. Tossed some wood in with a couple them. My mom seems to think I should keep making them, wrap the edges in metal, make them pendants and sell them on etsy. Ehh...