Post by lordriebsam on Aug 7, 2019 23:16:11 GMT
imgur.com/a/G4tfbAR
This is a cold steel thai machete that I've been wanting to customize for a while. I finally started on it last week. Finally finished completely yesterday. Might need to clean some of the cotton off the seam but its finished. Well I still have to tie this dark green paracord inside the lanyard hole but its done
Hardest handle I've ever wrapped. It was a biotch
Reminds me of a hanwei banshee or some other kind of hanwei blade. this took me like 4 days because my polishing pads were worn down.need new ones. But I'm so broke. I havent even eaten yet today lol
4 days-12 hours of polishing
4 hours of leather wrapping handle
1 piece of grade a black veg tanned goathide
4 leather lace risers
Cotton twine for chord wrap
Weldbond glue
Eventually dark green parachord.
goathide(this is my favorite leather to use, easy to work with, finish and grain looks and feels great,always comes out looking good)
New high polish finish, and a beautiful grade a veg tanned black goathide handle with 2 chord wraps at thr bottom, 1 at the top, and also 4 risers added for ergonomic and aesthetic purposes.
I polished off the black coat finish, and I kept polishing. One side only took a couple hours to polish to a high polish, but the other side took alot longer because all of my polishing pads had like no grit left and were worn down. It took me a couple hours a day to match the 2nd side to the first side. Had I had fresh polishing pads, I wouldve been done alot sooner. Anyway, so once I got the polishing done, and was comfortable with the new finish, I started on the handle.
My original plan was to do a dark green veg tanned lambhide full chord wrapped handle, also add poplar wood to the outside of the cordura? scabbard and wrap it in black kangaroo hide, to have a wooden scabbard wrapped in leather, then glue my dads dark green special forces ranger/airbourne badge to the top of the outside of the scabbard. The badge has a symbol that is a sword with lightning strikes crossing the sword. I love my dads extra badges he had laying around, and I like to use them as decoration for my stuff. So the original plan was to have a kinda army themed(not camo) dark green leather handle with black leather scabbard that has a dark green army airbourne badge on it, but I'm so broke, I cannot afford any new materials, leather poplar or anything, and I needed to get done some blades so I could sell them. So I used what I have in my house.
Grade a black veg tanned goathide handle. Covering the handle entirely, leaving no polypropylene showing at all. I wanted to do a full chord wrap, but because of cold steels design, the chord wrapped wouldve looked inconsistent in some spots, and it wouldnt have come out right, so I had to work around cold steels original design and chord wrap the spots where it was practical.
Before I started the wrap. I added 4 leather lace risers. 1 at top, 2 in the middle, and 1 about 3 inches from the bottom of the handle.
I didnt want to half ass it, and leave polypropylene guard and pommel exposed. It wouldnt have looked as good in my opinion.
I've done quite a few leather wraps now,but this one was tricky. I actually cut my first piece a couple inches short, and I had to cut a 2nd piece of beautiful goathide before I even started the wrap.
I've never had to wrap a handle of this shape, and it was a little daunting, and I only had 1 chance because I'm low on goathide. I was very careful in finding where the seam would naturally close near the guard and pommel. Like I said it was tricky, and it took alot of adjusting before I finally started to glue it down. Had to work out where it was krinkiling up at guard and pommel. Had to work the wrinkles out, make sure I worked all the air out and the leather lay flat on the guard and pommel. I was outside in my shed, and the heat made working more difficult because glue and leather was drying faster than normal, had to keep bowl of water around to keep it soaked,soft and pliable. After sweating my balls off for 3 hours in my hot ass shed, I had finally closed my seam at the guard and pommel, and i took it inside to do the chord wrapping. Chord wrapped with soaked twine, and once chord wrap was finished, I poked the lanyard hole out on both sides, cleaned up edges and let sit for 24 hours. Came back next day and this is the finished product. After 4 days of polishing, and 4 hours of leather wrapping the handle, I'd say the finished product was worth it. It was the hardest handle I've ever wrapped. I've never had to do so many different shapes and sizes for one piece of leather. Event though it wasnt my original dark green army themed plan I had in mind, and even though Some of the seam could be better, I'm still very proud of the way this turned out.
Opinions please
This is a cold steel thai machete that I've been wanting to customize for a while. I finally started on it last week. Finally finished completely yesterday. Might need to clean some of the cotton off the seam but its finished. Well I still have to tie this dark green paracord inside the lanyard hole but its done
Hardest handle I've ever wrapped. It was a biotch
Reminds me of a hanwei banshee or some other kind of hanwei blade. this took me like 4 days because my polishing pads were worn down.need new ones. But I'm so broke. I havent even eaten yet today lol
4 days-12 hours of polishing
4 hours of leather wrapping handle
1 piece of grade a black veg tanned goathide
4 leather lace risers
Cotton twine for chord wrap
Weldbond glue
Eventually dark green parachord.
goathide(this is my favorite leather to use, easy to work with, finish and grain looks and feels great,always comes out looking good)
New high polish finish, and a beautiful grade a veg tanned black goathide handle with 2 chord wraps at thr bottom, 1 at the top, and also 4 risers added for ergonomic and aesthetic purposes.
I polished off the black coat finish, and I kept polishing. One side only took a couple hours to polish to a high polish, but the other side took alot longer because all of my polishing pads had like no grit left and were worn down. It took me a couple hours a day to match the 2nd side to the first side. Had I had fresh polishing pads, I wouldve been done alot sooner. Anyway, so once I got the polishing done, and was comfortable with the new finish, I started on the handle.
My original plan was to do a dark green veg tanned lambhide full chord wrapped handle, also add poplar wood to the outside of the cordura? scabbard and wrap it in black kangaroo hide, to have a wooden scabbard wrapped in leather, then glue my dads dark green special forces ranger/airbourne badge to the top of the outside of the scabbard. The badge has a symbol that is a sword with lightning strikes crossing the sword. I love my dads extra badges he had laying around, and I like to use them as decoration for my stuff. So the original plan was to have a kinda army themed(not camo) dark green leather handle with black leather scabbard that has a dark green army airbourne badge on it, but I'm so broke, I cannot afford any new materials, leather poplar or anything, and I needed to get done some blades so I could sell them. So I used what I have in my house.
Grade a black veg tanned goathide handle. Covering the handle entirely, leaving no polypropylene showing at all. I wanted to do a full chord wrap, but because of cold steels design, the chord wrapped wouldve looked inconsistent in some spots, and it wouldnt have come out right, so I had to work around cold steels original design and chord wrap the spots where it was practical.
Before I started the wrap. I added 4 leather lace risers. 1 at top, 2 in the middle, and 1 about 3 inches from the bottom of the handle.
I didnt want to half ass it, and leave polypropylene guard and pommel exposed. It wouldnt have looked as good in my opinion.
I've done quite a few leather wraps now,but this one was tricky. I actually cut my first piece a couple inches short, and I had to cut a 2nd piece of beautiful goathide before I even started the wrap.
I've never had to wrap a handle of this shape, and it was a little daunting, and I only had 1 chance because I'm low on goathide. I was very careful in finding where the seam would naturally close near the guard and pommel. Like I said it was tricky, and it took alot of adjusting before I finally started to glue it down. Had to work out where it was krinkiling up at guard and pommel. Had to work the wrinkles out, make sure I worked all the air out and the leather lay flat on the guard and pommel. I was outside in my shed, and the heat made working more difficult because glue and leather was drying faster than normal, had to keep bowl of water around to keep it soaked,soft and pliable. After sweating my balls off for 3 hours in my hot ass shed, I had finally closed my seam at the guard and pommel, and i took it inside to do the chord wrapping. Chord wrapped with soaked twine, and once chord wrap was finished, I poked the lanyard hole out on both sides, cleaned up edges and let sit for 24 hours. Came back next day and this is the finished product. After 4 days of polishing, and 4 hours of leather wrapping the handle, I'd say the finished product was worth it. It was the hardest handle I've ever wrapped. I've never had to do so many different shapes and sizes for one piece of leather. Event though it wasnt my original dark green army themed plan I had in mind, and even though Some of the seam could be better, I'm still very proud of the way this turned out.
Opinions please