Check out this little knife slip prototype I made!

Cool little project, this knife slip fits a Schrade Imperial Trapper, either Medium or Large size.

I’ve noticed I like to make prototypes of things with cheaper materials first to practice on and get familiar with the process and areas I’d need improvement on or would need to pay better attention to. Whether I mess up or not, I try to continue the process to the final steps and sometimes, if it turns out ok, I’ll try to make it nice and keep it even though it’s just a prototype. Does anybody else do this?

I made this knife slip out of an empty paper-towel roll, blue masking tape, waxed hemp rope, a very small amount of wood glue and super glue. I deem it “finished” at this point, but I was wondering if I should give it a coat or two of clear coat to make it shine a bit. I doubt it shows on camera, but when you hold it close, the texturing of the masking tape is almost crocodile-like.

I’d say the biggest skill I’d need to improve on and just pay better attention to is the stitching. On one side, I have no idea what I did when starting the saddle-stitch to make it look so funky, but I got the feel of it down the line. And on the other side it’s similar and you can see I totally skipped over a stitch in like 2-3 places. All in all, it was a fun, quick little project that boosted my confidence in making more of these slips for real in the near future.