Try either older gun or hardware shops around you or a specialty knife shop; I have found both to carry a lot of stock something like a Gander Mountain never has. And I’m talking new and not just new-old-stock. I needed a new case/sheath for my Buck 110 and crapped out at the Big Box Shops but this little hole-in-the-wall place just north of me had every kind and material you could imagine.
That or break down and go the online route.
Another alternative would be an old, non-chain hardware store. You know, like the one downtown that has dusty stuff in the windows, a chainsaw sign with missing letters, three old dogs and four old men as permanent fixtures, no lumber department and smells like zinc.
They’ll have it.
Sadly, just about all the old-time dusty hardware store around me have gone out of business. Too bad – they were the places to get odd sized screws and those telescoping brass and aluminum tubes.
As noted, I obtained two sheaths at the Kittery Trading Post in Main, and ordered three over the internet (one of which I’ve received), so three of my hatchets are now covered.
I’ve checked other stores since I last posted, and am still coming up with nothing. It’s getting as bad as finding bookstores (another two used bookstores nearby have gone out of business).
Oh do I miss old fashion hardware stores. The one place around me that struggles to stay in business doesn’t maintain their stock of the off bits and pieces, just bubble wrapped stuff now. And for that kind of thing ordering on-line is just a gamble, if you can’t pick it up and look at it you’ll never know if it’s the right fit for what you need.
Sorry about the trouble with the sheath, I sympathize, no idea what happened to my BSA hatchet that I rightfully liberated from my older brother. The sheath was missing from when we were kids. Good luck even finding that quality of chopper these days.
I bought a sheath at Lowe’s last summer. I had to buy the axe it was on, but they had them.
She sells axe sheaths by the seashore.
You are a Scout. Quit griping and make one, FFS. You have the old one as a pattern.
That’ll be a corner off your Totin’ Chip, loser.
In the Axe Sheath district?
Making the sheath out of already cut leather is not a problem. But I ain’t buying a bunch of leather and all the leather punches and leatherworking tools just for a damned sheath.
Yeah, some axes come with sheaths. But again, I’m not buying an axe I don’t need just to get a sheath. As I say above, even if I use the sheath from the new axe on my old axe, that still leaves with an unsheathed axe.
I tried a couple of more stores over the past few days. No success. The best they could do was sell me an axe in a sheath. Not all of their axes had sheaths, and they had no axe-less sheaths.
This is worse than the hot dog and hot dog bun problem.
I hesitate to quarrel with a person with an ax, but I think another way of looking at the facts in your OP is something like “Damn! No stores in town sell an ax sheath. Oh wait - let me try the Internet! Hey, what’d ya know. Found one. This modern world is pretty okay.”
PS: my go-to improvised sheath woulda been a few layers of cardboard folded and taped/stapled into shape. Probably wouldn’t’ve bothered with ordering one.
Damned Amazon. Taking away brick-and-mortar stores’ motivation for carrying items they’d only sell one or two of an entire year.
Welcome to the long tail. It’s the Internet or it’s nuthin’.
BTW, I don’t know why you’re so averse to making your own axe sheath. You’ve already proven you’ll need to replace later any sheath you buy now, so it’s not like leatherworking tools will be a “one shot, never see it again” thing. It’s guaranteed re-use, and the sheath you get is guaranteed to fit well and wear well (assuming you’re faintly competent with leatherwork).
TBH, I’m sensing a lot of curmudgeonliness here.
This has actually been really interesting - I had no idea people carried axes around (one assumes in a camping/fishing/hunting context); I’ve spent plenty of time in the outdoors here in Australia and have never noticed anyone carrying one or heard anyone talking about doing it/needing an axe sheath - but to be fair, most of my outdoor adventures involve a 4WD.
But yeah, it does sound like something you’d go straight to the internet for nowadays, rather than visiting every Camping/Outdoor/Surplus store in town on the offchance they’ve got one.
I am relieved. I thought maybe Axe had started making condoms. Would they taste as pungent as they would inevitably smell? Good to know they are no longer being sold.