Can I make a functional sword scabbard from only leather? I'm asking because all tutorials I've seen use a wood scabbard covered in leather. I was wondering if I could skip the wood and just go for more leather instead.

If your concern is for historical accuracy, then the answer depends on the period represented by your sword. If your concern is only stability/durability, I can only observe that Windlass swords come with leather-only scabbards, and those seem to be very sturdy (though not historically appropriate in most cases).

Anders, ALL my scabbards for my Mad Piper claymores are leather only (plus steel lock and chapes). I've handled many period 17th and 18th century scabbards that were all leather, plus I own an early 19th century briquette with its original all leather scabbard. Also, my recently delivered Todstuff Scots Dirk has a double-thick period all leather scabbard w/metal fittings. So I would say, yes, all leather scabbards are not only possible, they work quite well. A wooden core is historically correct for certain time periods, and not as much so in others, so it depends on the time period your sword is from.

take a good thick hide. trace your blade on it. draw the outline of your sheath around it. leave about a half inch around the tracing of your blade.

cut out your outline and the tracing of your blade. this will form the center of your scabbard.

take that core and use it as a template to trace and cut out two sides.

put all three together and sow them together. the sheath will be tight at first, but will break in with use

Personally as a maker I don't like all leather sword scabbards. For knives and daggers I think they work very well, the dirk menttioned by Christopher Gregg for example, but I have encountered 3 principle problems with larger scabbards.

1 generally you dampen the leather to work it, over a sword length this means that any increase in size say 2% due to absorbtion, means that on drying you get the shrinkage back down and that may equate to half an inch/12mm. ie you make the scabbard fit and it ends up 2 days later 12mm too short. I know this, I account for it and still I cock them up.........

2 they tend to bind the blade much more and I wonder if they ever got wet in a rainstorm etc, how easy it would be to draw the sword

3 chapes and lockets are harder to fit and to fix.

That being said they don't break when you fall on them, they are easy to make and they can work very well, just in my experience it is harder to make a decent leather/leather scabbard than a leather/wood one.

Tod

I have read in A few books about vikings that they would sometimes use just leather but with wool glued to the inside, fur touching the blade the natural oil of the wool helped protect and probably help with pulling the sword from the leather scabbard if the outside was wet.

I have had fair luck with leather only sheaths as far as sword storage and the occasional outing. However, if you have a sharp sword and you construct a leather scabbard with no welt - eventually you will have cut through. This has happened on some of my older Windlass sharps.

In my personally experience, building a wood-core scabbard with a leather cover is easier than leather. Of course, you could take the easy way out and have Mr. Fletcher make you one of his for $100 then customize it yourself to your liking. ;)

I have made a few scabbards with a leather core and a thinner leather cover.

The secret is to dry the scabbard ON the sword (using protection to prevent rust) to get a good fit.

All of these have been used in re-enactment combat (in most weathers) with no major problems of rust or binding.

I have found them to be easier to use than wood cored scabbards as they don't trip you up or break when you fall on them.

Obviously this is for blunt swords, I couldn't comment on what would happen if you made such a scabbard for a sharp blade, then again my eating knife has a leather sheath and is still going strong!

JonT

I wonder how much risk of cutting through a leather scabbard over time there truly IS? My early 19th cenury briquette has its original all leather sheath, and the leather broke near the point long before there was any sign of the sharp side's leather being cut.. Also, my sharp Mad Piper claymore's leather sheath is VERY thin and extremely flexible, and it's been to reenactments with me for 8 years, and no signs of cutting the sides, despite fairly rough battle reenactment use.

If you carry this thought through to knife sheaths, they pose the same supposed risk, but several of my antiques are in their original all leather sheaths and no sign of the sharp side being cut through is evident, even after 150+ years. I think the idea of an all leather sheath being somehow less durable is a bit of a myth. The main reason I can see for wooden cored sheaths, whether they be for knives OR swords, is rust prevention. And since there are other methods of this (sheep or wool lined, etc.), it should be only a matter of period appropriateness or personal taste to shoose one system over the other.

Just my oberservation. ;)

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Sean, my concern was stability/durability. I've never really cared for historical accuracy. Whatever works, basically.

To be more specific, I'm imagining a rigid scabbard made out of layers of stiff leather, possibly with some kind of coating to make it more resistant to water.

JE Sarge wrote:

I have had fair luck with leather only sheaths as far as sword storage and the occasional outing. However, if you have a sharp sword and you construct a leather scabbard with no welt - eventually you will have cut through. This has happened on some of my older Windlass sharps.

This was actually my chief concern. I was going to use hardened leather, but I'm not sure that will be enough.

Quote:

Of course, you could take the easy way out and have Mr. Fletcher make you one of his for $100 then customize it yourself to your liking. ;)

Now, now. If I did that, next I'd be paying someone to make my swords for me as well! :p