Sealing rawhide?

[Holmesmade]

I'm working on a rawhide (dog chew) sheath for a large knife I traded into a while back and I'm wondering about methods used to seal it up after I get done stitching everything together. It will be a veg tanned core with rawhide cover and coyote hide decoration. I'll most likely use a bit of buckskin around the mouth with artificial sinew to stitch it all together.

I've read up what I can find about it and pretty much only found varnishing as an answer.

Instead of having to go buy more stuff for just one project, I'm wondering if anyone has tried wax or a wax and oil mix to seal rawhide?

I have a bit of bee's wax, several pounds of un-dyed paraffin, some Lexol and a good bit of BLO around here. I am short on rawhide, though, so I don't have a lot of scrap for experiments. Really don't want to bugger this thing up or have it self destruct in a year or two, either.

Any suggestions or experiences with using something other than varnish will be greatly appreciated!

[Todd Bradshaw]

Rawhide is hard, stiff and resistant to stretching and abrasion. Assuming that you want it to stay that way, varnish is the way to go. Oil will soften it and is contrary to the reasons to use it in the first place. Varnish will also greatly help prevent it from picking up humidity and/or rain water, which also aren't good for it. Bite the bullet and buy a small can of varnish.