Edgekeep Hand Made Leather Axe Sheath with Belt Loop | Vegetable Tanned Hide | Vegvisir Stamp and Solid Brass Snap Fittings | Viking Axe Gift | RK-1682

The Edgekeep is a leather sheath for an axe head, cut and wet formed from vegetable tanned hide, closed with a strap and a solid brass snap, riveted at the corners in brass and saddle stitched around the edge. A Vegvisir is stamped into the face. It ships with a separate leather belt loop fitted with two brass snaps, so the sheath can hang on a belt or come off it in a second.

An axe mask is one of those pieces of kit that people only appreciate after they have done without one. A bare axe head in a bag will find the bag, and it will find whatever is next to it. The medieval and later solution was exactly this, a formed leather cover strapped over the bit, and the reason it is leather rather than cloth is that leather is the only common material that resists a slicing edge while still folding around a shape. Ours is made and finished in the Czech Republic. Filed under the scabbards and sheaths, and the axe handles and hafts are the other half of that shelf.

Specifications

How a wet formed sheath is made

The shape you are looking at was not cut out flat and folded. Vegetable tanned leather has a property no other leather has. Soak it in water until it goes floppy, press it over a form and let it dry slowly, and it sets hard in exactly that shape and stays there. That is wet forming, and it is how every good knife and axe sheath is built.

The consequence is that the sheath holds its mouth open when the axe is out, so you can drop the head back in one handed instead of prying at a collapsed slot. It also means the leather sits away from the edge rather than pressing on it. A bag style sheath that clamps down on a bit will dull the edge over months of taking it in and out. A formed one has a cavity the head sits inside.

Everything that takes load is riveted as well as stitched. The corners where the strap pulls and where the mouth wants to spread carry solid brass rivets, and the seam itself is saddle stitched by hand with two needles and one thread. A saddle stitch is worth the time because each stitch is locked independently. Cut one and the rest hold, whereas a machine lock stitch will unzip from the break.

The leather and the brass

Vegetable tanning is the old process. Hides are steeped in pits of tannin drawn from bark and wood over weeks, rather than being turned round in a few hours with chromium salts. The result is a firmer, denser leather that takes a stamp cleanly, wet forms properly and develops a patina rather than just wearing out. Chrome tanned leather is softer and cheaper and will not hold a formed shape, which is why sheaths are not made from it.

It also matters for the steel. Chrome tanned leather carries residual salts that will corrode a blade left against it, whereas properly finished vegetable tanned leather is far kinder to carbon steel. It is still leather, so it still holds moisture, and no sheath of any kind should be used for long term storage of a damp head.

The snaps and rivets are solid brass rather than plated steel. Plating wears through at the exact point that gets handled most, and the steel underneath then rusts and stains the leather around it. Brass simply tones down to a warmer colour. Edges are bevelled and burnished by hand rather than left raw, which is what keeps them from furring up after a season on a belt.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel, the leather or the wood. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it, so your runes take the place of the Vegvisir on the face of the sheath. Full details are on the engraving page.

Fit and sizing

This is the section to read before you order. The sheath is formed to suit bearded and hand axe heads of the sort we carry, and it is not a universal cover. Measure your axe head from the top corner of the bit to the bottom corner, and measure the depth from the edge back to the eye, and send us those two numbers in the order notes. We will tell you straight whether it fits or make one to your measurements.

The belt loop takes a belt up to about one and three quarter inches wide, which covers work belts and most reenactment belts. It snaps on and off the sheath, so you can carry the axe on the belt when you want it and take the whole thing off without unthreading the belt. If you would rather have the loop fixed rather than snapped, say so and we will rivet it.

Hang it on the hip slightly behind the point of the hip bone rather than on the front, so the axe head does not catch when you sit down or bend. Snap the closure strap every time. A sheath with an unsnapped strap is a sheath that drops an axe head onto a boot.

Care

Keep it dry and do not store a wet axe head in it. If it does get soaked, let it dry slowly at room temperature away from a radiator, fire or hot car, because heat drying will shrink and harden vegetable tanned leather permanently and can crack the formed curve.

Feed it once or twice a year with a leather balm or a light dressing, worked in with fingers and buffed off. Do not soak it in neatsfoot oil, because too much oil softens the fibre and a soft sheath stops holding its shape and stops protecting the edge. Wipe the brass with a dry cloth and leave it to tone naturally. If the burnished edges start to fuzz, a rub with a little beeswax and a cloth lays them down again.

Made in the Czech Republic

The work behind this piece happens in a Czech Republic workshop that has kept to the old methods. Steel is forged and heat treated by hand, the grind is taken down by eye rather than by machine, and the handle, fittings and sheath are cut and finished one at a time. Because of that, every piece carries small marks of the hand that made it.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import direct, check each piece when it reaches us, and ship from our Chicago, Illinois warehouse. Engraving is added here in the United States after arrival, so the piece you receive is finished to your order.

A note on handmade variation

This is hand made rather than machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Vegetable tanned leather takes dye differently across a hide and even across one panel, so your sheath may be lighter, redder or more mottled than the one shown, and it will darken with handling. The stamp is struck by hand and will sit a fraction differently. The dimensions, the fittings, the stitching and the build are the same every time. The character is not. There is a longer piece on safety and storage, and another on the knife care guide.

Frequently asked questions

Is an axe included

No. This is the sheath and the belt loop only. It is made to fit an axe you already own or one of ours.

Will it fit my axe

Measure the bit from corner to corner and the depth from edge to eye, then send us both numbers in the order notes and we will tell you honestly, or make it to size.

Will the leather dull my edge

It is wet formed so the head sits in a cavity rather than being clamped against the leather. Keep the head dry and clean before it goes in.

Can the belt loop be left off

Yes. It snaps on and off. You can use the sheath as a plain cover for storage and transport without it.

Is the brass solid or plated

Solid brass. Plated fittings wear through where they get handled and the steel underneath then rusts into the leather.

Can I have runes stamped instead of the compass

Yes. Use the rune converter on this page and your line replaces the Vegvisir on the face.

What is in the box

• Edgekeep wet formed vegetable tanned leather axe sheath
• Detachable leather belt loop with twin brass snaps
• Solid brass closure snap and corner rivets
• Vegvisir stamped face and hand burnished edges
• Care card for vegetable tanned leather
• Lifetime warranty against defects in stitching, fittings and build
• Made and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See more in scabbards and sheaths, viking axes, accessories and engraved and personalised, or read the guides.

If this one is not it

Also in this group is the Knotwelt sheath. Sitting beside it in the catalogue is the Staveguard sheath. Another in the same line is the Grimhold sheath.

For a different piece from the same family, look at the Braidhorn beard ring. Pick the steel, the length and the fittings yourself on the design your own page.