Thursday, July 15, 2010

Sheath for a Mora 164 Crook Knife

The crook or spoon knofe is one of th most useful tools when it comes to wood work. One of the most widely used models is the Mora 164. The big problem however, is that it does not come with a sheath, and making one for a knife of that shape has proven to be rather challenging. Over the years I have seen sheaths made from wood to leather, and everything in between. I though I would take a shot at making one from duct tape. Ah yes, duct tape; the city dweller's birch bark. Here is what I was able to put together.

The one thing that I noticed is that the widest part of the blade hook is about as wide as the largest part of the handle.

Start by taking a piece of duct tape about twice the length of the knife.
Fold it in half, with the sticky side on the outside. Then overlap the edges on one side by about 3/16 of an inch, letting them stick to each other all the way along the side.
Then take the knife handle and placed it between the two pieces of duct tape.

Wrap the duct tape tightely around the widest part of the handle, and overlap the pieces on the other side, letting them stick to each other. If the fit around the handle is not tight at this point, the blade will be loose within the sheath.

You should now have something of a tube. Take the bottom end and fold the corners. That should give you a width on the bottom of about 3/8 of an inch.
Take another piece of duct tape, 2-3 inches in length and tape it over the bottom.
Fold over the ends.
Then wrap another piece of duct tape around the circumference of the tube at the bottom end, so it covers the new piece you just taped.
Now take two long pieces of duct tape and place them over the full length of the sheath, covering all sticky areas.
Measure the length of the tube, and trim the top part so when the knife is in the sheath, about 3/4 of an inch from the handle sticks out.
You should now have a functional sheath.

I am sure that the same result can be acheived with different materials.