The Bloodletter and The Boner

The much anticipated springtime activities are taking over our thoughts, and all our crafty winter projects are getting tucked away to wait for the next round of snow.  But, before I get distracted by chickens and tomato plants, I wanted to let you see how the leather gun holster project turned out once it was stained, and also show off the cool leather knife sheaths Brandon made for my butchering equipment during our recent snow days.

  

Brandon used a respectable brown leather dye for his gun holster, but used a dye called ox blood for the knife sheaths. I wanted something cool stamped on the leather sheaths, too, so the giant eleven-inch blade we used for cutting chicken throats was titled the Bloodletter, and the boning knife I used for gutting was titled the Boner.  Chickens will cower in fear when they see me stroll into town with the Bloodletter and the Boner strapped to my hips, right?  

Here, you can see the leather stamp kit that Brandon uses to make letters and numbers.  He can place the letter on the end of the little metal punch, and use the hammer to pound the shape of the stamp into the leather.  This is not a peaceful craft to have happening in the dinning room, by the way.  

Brandon used a scrap piece of white leather for the Bloodletter sheath, and when he applied the first coat of ox blood leather dye, it turned the sheath a brilliant pink.  I thought it was fabulous when it was pink, and he tried to leave it that way for me, but just couldn't resist tinkering with the dye until he got it to be a deeper, less flamboyant, color.  

While he was busy working, I had fun investigating his gear, and was very impressed to see that he has created these swatches of leather with the different colors of dye he has used, so he can see what each color looks like when applied in a single coat to untreated leather.  This was the first time he's used ox blood, so he made a new swatch and stamped O B into the leather.  

The Boner started as a brown piece of scrap leather, and took the red dye to a nice burgundy color.  As you can see in the pictures at the top of the post, as they were drying in a basket, they ended up with matching color, and also each have a leather loop and snap which holds the knives securely in place.