Geez, now I really am blushing. Honestly there are so many little things that I know could have been done better. PK can tell you that I was really shy about posting pictures of my work and only his and Linda's needling made me do it. Grey, I am bringing it to Wichita, so you can see it in person and know that you can do just as well without a sweat. ;)
Al thanks for noticing the tooling work I did. That, I was rather proud of. As for the leather weights I used 2.5 oz for the scabbard and 5.5 oz for the belting. I would love to have used around a 4 oz elk for the belting but that isn't the easiest stuff to find and is expensive as...well, you know. On the seam I used the two needle method, starting from the tip. Learned several things, guessed correctly on a few tricks, and managed to make a nice seam. (Yep, I was one lucky SOB!) Here are a few in-progress shots showing the cross-section from the throat and the sewing.
Thanks again everyone for all the compliments. Fires me up to continue refining the process, and having fun as well!!!

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Finished core ready for covering

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Throat shot

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Note the two needles - No blood!!!

Outstanding! Doubly so for a first attempt. :cool:

A little research and planning makes a project so much easier, doesn't it?

My compliments on a job well done. Your next scabbards will be most impressive, I'll warrant.

Cheers!

Greg,
That is a fine scabbard. For your next one, you be able to shave a little more off the core still, especially the edges. Below are pictures of the core Aaron Schnatterly made for my Sovereign scabbard. The top picture was already pretty thin and looks similar in thickness to yours. He then planed it some more to make the bottom picture.


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I don't know how thick it is off the top of my head; I'll try to get a measurement in the next few days.

Okay, that is what I figured it had to be, but it's still early, and may brain has not been my greatest ally this week. Maybe I should take up coffee drinking....

-Grey

Jean,
I've had a wee bit of woodworking experience in the past. Started out watching my father do gun stocks as a gun smith (his side business) while I was growing up. Then did quite a bit of odds and ends for a number of years, mainly for myself and friends. Unfortunately I gave away all my old tools about 7 years ago and most of those things are hard to come by now. As for leather working.......new experience for me, but one I'm starting to enjoy a lot. Especially when it's added with the wood crafting. I've been doing a few belts and frogs for historical kits because all the ones on the market are made from too thick of leather and we are trying to be accurate in our portrayals. Haven't really thought about doing any of that besides the scabbards since there are a lot of people already making that kind of stuff at resonable prices, but who knows. ;)

The core of Gregs scabbard isn't as thick as it appears in that less than stellar photo. He brought the core over when he finished it and I honestly wouldn't want it any thinner than it already is.

Here's a photo of the mouth of my PJ scabbard.
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I think this one is pretty good as-is and Gregs scabbard is actually a bit thinner than this one at the mouth.

Thanks for the compliments and for the advice, Chad. Tips and other sets of eyes are one reason I posted these pics. I see what you're saying and I'll take that into account on the next one. Unfortunately, as Patrick said the picture I took was not a great shot and even though it doesn't show it (maybe because of the cord wrapped around it already), the edges actually have a fairly sharp, thin plane. I really appreciate everyone's overly kind words. It was a fun project and I'm extremely happy with the way it turned out. Enough so that after all the positive responses I'm fairly well convinced that the quality is up to doing it on the side for others. As I already have at least two more lined up to be done, we'll see how much I can dorf them, and then go from there. :p :D :lol: