Hi all. This one is for the seax experts. I'm currently in the design stages of a scabbard for a langseax (re-mounted Kris Cutlery blade) and could use some insight. I've done leather-only scabbard in the past, so no trouble there, but for this one I'd like to incorporate a scabbard lining; probably out of sheep skin. I'm curious as to how to execute this. Would the lining first be constructed around the seax (stitched? glued?) and then the leather shell wet formed around it? Or would a wooden core be required for a lining? If anyone has any info from practical experience, or from historical specimens, that would be great.

- Josh

To be honest I really don't see the point of a lining for a leather only scabbard. The lining in the wood scabbard protects the blade from being marred. If you really want a lined scabbard you form the wood core, put strips of fleece in the grooves, and form the leather to the core. Without the wood I don't know the reason to have a lining, but I'm sure if I'm wrong and missing something someone will know better.

A lining in a leather sheath would help protect the blade from corrosion from the tannins in the leather if the sheath got really wet. You could sew a lining to the flesh side of the leather using a tunnel stitch (like a running stitch but it doesn't penetrate the leather all the way to the grain side) before folding, forming and sewing the sheath. This would be particularly easy with a seax sheath with a side seam, more difficult perhaps on a back-seamed sheath. As far as historical accuracy goes, I personally have never seen evidence for a lining in a leather seax sheath. Even the broad-seax sheath with wooden stiffeners from Groningen in the Netherlands apparently lacked a lining.

I believe fleece ( and hide) linings in sheaths were what we today would call "Shearling", basicly, fleece with most of the wool clipped away. Using simply sheepskin, without shearing off 95 % of the fleece would have made for an extremely bulky sheath. As far as natural oils protecting the blade go - today you'd get a similar effect, more easily, by gluing a bit of wool fabric in the sheath, then, when glue is dry squirting some oil or silicon spray into the sheath. But, most important - if you are planning on putting some sort of lining in the sheath, make allowance for the extra bulk in the planning stage :) It's very embarrassing (and frustrating) to create a good, lined sheath and be unable to get the blade in when finished

Another effect of using clipped sheepskin or other animal hide inside a sheath is sort of mechanical. Wool/ hair has a natural "Lie" on the skin..it brushes more easily in one direction than the other. When you orient the clipped skin inside the sheath, it makes inserting the blade fairly easy, but withdrawing it slightly harder. This results in the weapon being more secure in the sheath, and not potentially falling out un - intentionally.

Also consider raw vs tanned hides. A raw hide will be much stiffer and possibly suitable without being just a liner but an entire unit.

Cheers

GC

(not worded very well)