Posts: 226 Location: Texas
Sun 23 Sep, 2012 12:09 am
Thank you very much :D That's exactly what I did - I used to get rolled up rawhide chews or the rawhide bones (with the knot at either end) to make knife sheaths, but I found a 1lb bag of rawhide at pets barn for $10 that just consisted of a bunch of relatively flat 3x5" (or thereabouts) strips which seemed suitable. It was fairly inconsistent in thickness but I suppose that would be typical anyway - the thinner bits were definitely easier to use, though. Not sure how much of a difference the thickness makes, practically speaking.
The rawhide I used to get dried more translucent and slightly brown colored - different animal, perhaps? It was generally thinner (some of this stuff I got was about 3mm) so easier to stretch and dried a bit harder and more brittle. I think it would look better, but perhaps not be as tough. This stuff felt as though it may have even been tanned slightly - but again, perhaps just a different animal! After applying it to the
shield, it dried harder than it was when I bought it. This did remain fairly tough after soaking, as opposed to the aforementioned stuff that achieved a barely-solid gel-like consistency - I recall a few times when I pulled the thread right through it when I wasn't being gentle enough in my stitching.
I recommend tacking the front of each strip (the side facing the enemy!) before doing the back rather than trying to alternate sides - it seemed to me after doing a few strips that it was easier to stretch it over the edge of the shield this way, while keeping the lines even on the front. I wound up trimming the back with an exacto knife after I was finished, rather than pre-sizing the rawhide to the right width.
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