Spoon knife sheaths

Beginners to spoon carving often wonder what the best way is to protect the blade of a spoon knife (or protect yourself from the blade). There are loads of different ways that I've seen people use to tackle this problem ranging from the incredibly simple (I've seen people use an empty 35mm film case) to the wonderfully elaborate (check out Sean Hellman's lovely carved boxes on his blog).
I'll give you a quick run down of some solutions and particularly the ones I use. The best way is, of course, subjective and depends on circumstances.

This is one of the simplest and least elegant methods I've seen, but it works really well. It just involves a small section of foam insulation and some tape. This is the way that Robin Wood's knives were sold at Spoonfest, and one of my knives stayed like this for a while.

My first spoon knife was a Mora double edged (before I knew better). I used to keep the blade wrapped up in a bit of chamois leather. Then I bought my first decent knife from Ben Orford. I love the way that he wraps his blades in a simple strip of leather and I have wrapped the majority of mine in the same fashion ever since. It's very simple to do, but if you can't work it out, then hopefully this little video will help.

This method works well for me as I store my knives in a tool roll. If I were keeping them in a bag or tool box, then I wouldn't be satisfied with this as the wrap can come loose.

This is a slightly more sophisticated version of the leather wrap. I got this idea out of Wille Sundqvist's book: 'Swedish Carving Techniques'. It's basically a little leather envelope with a leather wrap to hold it on.

I've seen some very nice ones similar to this with a press stud to fasten it. As I mentioned, these wraps are great in conjunction with a tool wrap, but not all of of my knives fit in my roll, so I have to store them differently in my tool box.

This little pouch came with a Svante Djarv knife that I bought second hand. It works great and can be made on a sewing machine with the right needle.

The handles on my Robin Wood knives are too long for my tool roll and so I have made some little wooden boxes for them. The recesses for the blades can be burnt out or drilled and carved. Just don't use your knife to burn it out.