Soda Bottle Neck Sheath


I Absolutly Hated the duck tape and cardboard sheath I made for the band saw knife and after reading posts on the Hoodlums forum on the subject, I decided I would try and upgrade it with a soda bottle for sheath material (Thanx Muddyboots!)

Heres what I came up with:
I layed out all the things I THOUGHT I would need for this project. I ended up needing a pair of scissors and another bottle...


Tools and Supplys:
two soda bottles (empty)
shears
Swiss Army Knife
a nail
pliers
Lighter
Duck Tape
Staple Gun
twine
Craft foam(bought at any craft store)
Bowl of fruit (to eat while making this)
Can of Beer: to "lubricate the thought process"






I started by cutting off the top and bottom



Then I cut the sides to make two "flat" pieces (this was a real pain throughout the process as the sides wanted, naturally, to curl back into their original shape.




I then cut out 4 bands of Craft Foam for spacers between the sides of the sheath. I also cut two large bottom pieces to wedge in the bottom.. I also folded and creased the top using pliers (this took two hands and no amount of trying with my toes allowed use of the camera!) the fold on both pieces was used to reinforce the aperture where the knife goes in
 Reduced: 80% of original size [ 640 x 480 ] - Click to view full image

I inserted the spacers in their appropriate places and used little bands of duck tape to temporarily hold the sides togeather



I then stapled the sides together in lieu of rivets (I got this idea from WWII K-Bar sheaths)



If you notice, I cut the sheath to shape at this point too!

I heated the aperture with the lighter to make room for the knife


The result

I then added strips of black duck tape around the edges:



From here I added line to the sheath to use it as a neck rig. I did this using the same twine I have been using for my other projects and reenforced it with the reverse twist method. I purposely made two different cords so that I could bind them in the middle with duck tape. This keeps the wearer (me) from getting strangled should it get caught...


I finished the whole thing off with a later of black duck tape over both sides and wrapped the sheath in twine for three reasons:
1) it looks cool
2) it adds weight to the sheath; the knife tended to upend itself as it is handle heavy, this removed most of that problem
3) it gave me yards and yards of emergency cordage!




All in all this is a very basic sheath that took about 3 hrs to make. be sure to take safety precautions when working with edged tools, fire etc!