It's finally done!

After two months of owning the Tank Buster, countless hours of planning, at least 20 hours of just stitching (a full inch of stacked leather is nearly impossible to puncture), and it's finally done!

And I assure you, you've never seen anything like it before.


Here it is in full lockdown, that thing ain't coming apart.





Here's partial lockdown. The buckle could be put under the retention strap, but I wanted to show off the pretty flag. Not too often you see the maple leaf on stuff like this.



Here it is in normal carry mode. Just the sheath on the dangler.




Normal sheath? I think not.





Snaps? Velcro? That stuff is sooo last century. This thing is held together with MAGNETS!
You know how it always bugs you when you sit down with your favorite knife on your belt, only to have the sheath snag on the arm of the chair. Well now all I have to do is pull it off and there you go, just the dangler on your belt, and you're free to stick the sheath to any metal object near by.
The magnets do their job incredibly well, the main set that secure the sheath to the dangler can hold up to 20lbs of weight. The retention strap holds the knife in nice and tight. The knife itself fits snugly in the sheath, with virtually no wiggle.

There is one downside.
The sheath alone weighs 3lbs 5oz, without the lockdown straps. Add on the 18oz Tank Buster and the whole thing weighs a total of 4lbs 7oz! That's as much as a sword!
But, this is the Tank Buster, so in a way it's kind of appropriate.


BTW, my little brother thinks this is not the first of its kind, if any sheath makers or knife nuts have seen anything like this before please do tell.
Anything with magnets in it is automatically supremely awesome (thus the sheath).

Thanks.

Very cool and nicely done. I do have to mention that it weighs MORE than most of my swords. LOL. Very creative though.

Really, no blade shots! ahhh

Nice work btw.

Well done JJ - looks like a tank could roll over it and NOT bust it! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Good job. I've seen some magnet sheaths before. Don't recall one quite like that though. A tip - an easy way to make the holes instead of puncturing is use a drill with a small drill bit. I use a drill press so the holes are at the right angle, but you can use a hand drill too. When I was in school, I used a hatchet as a hammer and used nails to pre-punch the holes before sewing. I used the pliers to hold the nail while hammering, and to help pull the needle through.

Yup, I got 75% of the holes done before my last small drill bit broke, so it wasn't as horrible as it could have been. I'm always amazed at how it takes nearly all my body weight to put a needle through that stuff.
Almost as bad as making the holes themselves is the overall thickness of the leather. I still can't find a stitching needle more than an inch long, to finish this project I had to weave the stitching through two separate layers, then snug it all up once everything was in place. The front layer is just glued on.
I'm pretty sure this is the last sheath I'll do by hand. Hopefully by the time I have the desire to do another I'll have a big press or something fancy like that to do the stitching.

Very nicely done! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Come on Renee - we're waiting for you to make JYD!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

interesting idea with the magnets. nice one.

A Louis Vuitton Sheath? Right up Renee's alley.

Considering the knives she is associated with, her purse should be made of Kevlar! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

well they make kevlar backpacks for kids now, i'm sure they make purses as well.