Thread: HGD dresses up a pair

So I had picked up a couple of Svords and whilst I like the blades, they are a good bang for the buck, the sheaths that Svord make are well, to put it politely, are shite - they were not always that way, the used to make the sheaths out of house and as such were made by a saddler and were quite good, now they are made in house and are pressed out of leather or PVC and are riveted together, they are functional in that they will stop you cutting yourself when reaching for your knife but thats about the most that can be said for them - and I suppose thats what a sheath is for...

Or is it? I believe that a good sheath should complement the knife, it should protect both the knife and the user, keep the knife handily at hand without it being snatched away by a piece of supple jack or bush lawyer, yet being able to be accessed with one hand to deal with whatever needs slicing (perhaps more bush lawyer) without dropping your bow (or rifle) in the muck.
Also, and not everyone agrees, I like my equipment to look good, at least to me anyway, this means I am more likely to take care of it and look after it, and well maintained kit lasts, so for me its a win win situation.

So with this in mind I sent my curved skinner (which is a good blade with lots of belly but lacks a point) and my peasant knife (which has plenty of point but not a great deal of belly) down to HGD to rectify this.

A fe mails back and forth to sort out colours and stitching and a few weeks for Hamish to get to them and this is what came back:





So you can see the old sheath and the new double sheath that holds the pair (and who doesn't like a nice pair?).

HGD did a great job, the leather is nice and stiff yet well waxed, the belt loop is wide enough to accommodate a 50 mm belt and is attached with four rivets, the yellow leather has black stitching and the black leather has yellow stitching, the start and bottom of the stitching has rivets and the dome that holds the flap closed is nice and solid and there is enough flap to allow you to easily pull hard enough to open the dome even when wearing a pair of gloves.
The exposed bits of leather on the side has been nicely burnished and right at the bottom there is a drain hole to let water or gunk out.
So all in all HGD has done a FANTASTIC job, this is not the first piece of equipment I have ordered off of Hamish and I doubt it will be the last, I am very happy with the sheath, but, and I do hesitate to say this here but full disclosure and all that, but the black is not as black as I hoped it would be, I am going to try and darker it with some kiwi boot polish, and there are some small spots of black dye that must have fallen on the yellow when it was being applied that have stained the yellow, these are both minor (in fact the black spots are on the back), and in no way affect functionality or performance but then I am a fussy bastard and did pay good money for the sheath, but like I said HGD did a stellar job and I will continue to get products off of Hamish and do not hesitate to wholeheartedly recommend him to all of you guys and gals who like good quality leather products!

Stay Sharp
Shelley