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!

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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.  

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