Crook Knife Case Tutorial

I'm sure many of you bushcrafters have a Crook Knife for carving out spoons and bowls. When you purchase the knife they don't come with a sheath of any kind. The basic case i make in this tutorial is to protect the knife from damage but also to protect you from the blade when its not in use.

If you don't look after your tools, they wont look after you!

I'm sure a sheath could somehow be made from leather. My design with wood isn't as pretty as leather but it does the job.
 
To start i cut two pieces of wood exactly the same size. The wood should be long and deep enough to encase the whole blade. One of these pieces will be the main case and you can split a thin slither of wood off the other to make the lid.
 
Now take your crook knife and press the blade against the main thicker piece of wood to make a slight indication as to where you would like the blade to be inserted.
Put the wood to one side for a moment. For this part you will be needing a metal kebab skewer which you can purchase from your local supermarket. Heat it up in a red hot fire until it is easy to bend.

You will need to make the end of the skewer the exact same shape as your crook knife blade. Use a pair of pliers to bend the metal into shape.

Always wear protective gloves when working with hot metal!
 
Now heat your bent skewer up again, Really hot!

Take your piece of wood and press the red hot skewer onto the depression you made earlier with the crook knife.
Keep reheating the skewer and pressing it down in the same place until the burn is as deep as the blade of your crook knife. You might have to reheat the skewer time after time to get the depression the right depth.

The charred wood may prevent the skewer from burning deeper so you may have to scrape it out with the tip of your knife.

 
Carve and sand the block and lid to a desired shape. By clamping them together they will be exactly the same size.
 
To make the lid secure in place, i drilled a socket in the main block and glued a peice of dowel to the lid.
 
Make sure the dowel and socket are a snug fit, you dont want the lid to come off when you dont want it to.


Make sure that everything is perfectly aligned before the dowel glue sets!
 
I then oiled the wood........Finished!