Second Skinner, First Sheath
My second skinner was made for my uncle Ed who got me into hunting and fishing. I made many great memories going up to his cabin in Canada and one of the ways I felt I could pay him back was to make a hunting knife for him. I used the same pattern as for my first skinner but this time had a belt grinder and knew to stop my grind well before going beyond a full flat grind. Although I had a belt grinder, I still finished the knife at 400 grit by hand to get a smooth satin finish with a scotchbrite pad.
As I was doing my grinding on the weekends at my parent's house I started working on multiple knives at once. Eventually I learned not to try gluing up two at once, but not at this point!
I had some time before finishing this knife, but unlike my first skinner, my leatherworking skills had improved by this point. After finishing the knife I set about taking my first attempt at a wet-formed sheath.
Hand stitching took some work and I was pretty nervous about putting a brand new carbon steel knife into a wet sheath but ultimately the process worked. I protected this knife with some coconut oil and then a ziplock baggie. I really liked the ebony handle on this one although I still felt that my shaping wasn't quite there. It fit well in the hand, but still had quite a blocky appearance. Using the belt grinder was still nerve wracking and removing too much material was a major concern of mine.