Protect your blade in a wooden sheath

Step 5: Start carving

Now the blanks had patterns on them, and I started carving them out. I measured the tip on my X-acto knife and saw that the grind extended 1/8" up the point, and my knife is 5/64" thick at the hilt and decided to cut 1/16" deep along the back side of the blade at the hilt end and tapered the cut toward the tip where the blade is very thin. Be careful to keep the knife vertical (not like you see in the picture (ha-ha)), keep the knife on the line (the grain will try to pull you off course if you are not careful) and don't go too deep! After this line was cut on both pieces I began to carefully carve them out trying very hard to carve to the cut line and leave the line at the sharp edge alone. After the first go with the chisels, I sanded the pieces and kept test fitting them. The hilt ends were the hardest, they are not flat cuts because of the shape of my blade. Keep at it until you are satisfied that the pieces fit well together with clamps and the blade slides in and out with some good amount of resistance; you want the sheath to fit snugly if you don't want to lose your knife! Later the sheath will be worked on and off the blade to hone it in. There is a fine line here, so do as you see fit.