This dagger sheath is for a blunt Regenyei HEMA dagger intended for armored combat. The point of the dagger has a rolled safety tip that is almost 1/2 inch thick. In order to accommodate that, I had to make the mouth large, but this meant that the thin blade would flop around and easily fall out if left as-is.
To fix this dilemma, I designed the wooden core to be “sideless” for a large portion along the edges, and is only fully enclosed near the point and at the mouth. The wooden slats along the flats are thin and flexible. When the wet formed leather dried around the core, it shrunk to give some squeeze to the slats. This gives the sheath enough tension to hold the dagger in place, even when upside down (which happens all too often in armored combat) but still has enough give to draw it easily.
The owner requested that the sheath have a fox and an apple on it, and I based the fox off of several medieval bestiary illustrations.
Historical Handcrafts 