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knife sheath for my daughter's first deer hunting adventure

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Josh B:
A couple weeks ago, my oldest daughter asked me to taking her rifle hunting for deer :o.  This was a big shock because up to this point, she has only showed an interest in bird and small game hunting.  Needless to say, I'm more than happy to oblige her on this new endeavor.   I immediately set out to facilitate  this last minute request.  First thing, set her up with a rifle.  First problem, she's a lefty and all my rifles are right handed with either a roll over cheek piece or thumbhole stock.  Decidedly not left hand shooter friendly!  So I kept digging and found an 8 mm German mauser that I had sporterized about 20 yrs ago that did not have a rollover cheek piece.  Lefty friendly, but 8 mm mauser kicks like a mule.  I explained the problem to her and she said get it out.  She would decide if the recoil was too much.  2 boxes of shells later she's demanding more ammo.  OK...recoil not a problem.  Next thing was hunting clothes and boots.  $300 bucks later that problem is solved.  We're starting to hear some muttering from uMomma at this point.  Instead of buying a pop up blind, we decide to build one on the cheap.  $200 later, that pop up is looking like a bargain.  Low growls from Momma now.  Now we need a license and tag and while we're at it, duck stamps.  $100 more and momma's fit to be tied!  My daughter, not paying a bit of attention to her mother's cold fury has the audacity to ask for her own hunting knife since she's gonna be hunting large game now.  And that's when the explosion happened.....  I decided that maybe we had spent enough on this adventure.  I dug out my father-in-laws US Navy MKI fighting knife that he carried in Korea.  Unfortunately the sheath to it has been long since lost.  When I explained to my daughter about the knife's history and that I could make her a lefthanded sheath for it, she was ecstatic.  So I got to work with what I had on hand.  This was my first attempt at leather stamping and I discovered that it is not as easy as I had imagined it to be.  To further complicate things, I have no leather stamps.  I ground the head of a 3/8" bolt to a triangle shape and used that for my stamp.  I'm not real happy with the results, but my daughter is plum tickled.  So I guess that's the important part.  Well...that and we didn't further antagonize Momma with more spending.  Anyway, here's the knife and new lefty sheath such as it is.  Thanks for looking!  Josh

bubby:
Very cool story Josh, good luck on the hunt

Ranasp:
Funny story, and good job working with what you had.  For stamping, did you case the leather first (wet it and let it dry a bit) and surface cut the parts you wanted raised?  That makes it a lot easier to get clean stamps into the leather.

Aaron H:
This makes me smile,  good for your Josh

osage outlaw:
Nice work Josh.  I hope you and your daughter have successful deer season.  Good luck!

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