[Jared Smith]

I have previously seen photos of actual scabbard chapes (including a Roman period chape at a web site auction last year) that mentioned or showed a drain hole. I wondere if this was common, or very rare. In the case of the Roman item, specific mention was made regarding signs of deliberate drilling marks still visible on the metal.

In cases where there was a drain hole, does anyone know if this exteneded through the core of the scabbard itself? I was thinking it might have been done to permit water that manged to enter the mouth to escape (wading through rivers, heavy rain during campaigns, etc.) This seems like something that would have good and bad aspects. If one could wade through a river without getting in over waist high, they would probably be better off not having a hole to let the water in from the tip. Likewise, scabbards could be carried with an oil or wax soaked rag around the mouth and guard during marches in rain.

Any other scabbard fanatics out there please comment on what is known regarding drain holes!

[Jean Thibodeau]

I used rubbing alcohol once to clear out some debris from the inside of a wooden scabbard that needed a little removal of material near the bottom. ( Used narrow files and bent piece of coat hanger to get to the bottom: Scabbard shrinkage to fix. )

In any case, the point is I used rubbing alcohol because I did not want to uses water and with the theory that the rubbing alcohol would evaporate quickly: Well, it didn't It seemed to take forever to really dry out.

With water a drain hole might be a good idea but the first thing is to not let any water or humidity in the scabbard in the first place.

And, general advice about cleaning the inside of scabbards or drying them out without damage would be useful.

Not forgetting the original question of the topic about what is known about drain holes.

[Russ Ellis]

Interesting, I've never heard of such a thing. Which of course means exactly nothing. I wonder how much utility it would really have. If the scabbard was filled up with water turning it over and dumping it out would seem to be just as effective as having a drain hole and as for the remaining moisture after the fact I wonder how much more air having some sort of hole in the bottom would really allow in...

[Thomas McDonald]

I've read that later period scabbards, like Nazi daggers, etc., had drain holes for oil release !
Perhaps the goal was to release excess lubricants moreso than just water ?
Of course this could lead to a messy uniform and right to the stockade ;-)

Just a thought ? Mac

[Kjell Magnusson]

I have a Luftwaffe mod2 dagger lying around in the house (my grandmothers father bought it as a souvenir when he visited Germany right after the war), and for what it's worth, I couldn't find any holes in the sheat apart from the one for the dagger. A bit small sample size to draw any conclusions from though.