zuludog

I've also found this video - Making a carving knife from a jigsaw blade by Meighan Workshop

Various comments - I have made skiving knives and kiridashi type knives from old hacksaw blades & plane blades, and it's not easy Firstly, just about all modern hacksaw blades are bi-metal which means the body of the blade is made from soft-ish flexible steel, and only the teeth are hardened. This means you can't snap them, you must cut them with some sort of grinder, and also that the steel cannot be made very sharp - though I'm willing to be corrected on this Another issue is that these old hacksaw blades are much sought after by all sorts of hobbyists, knife makes, engineers & mechanics, so you really have to search & ask around for them But I did manage to find some High Speed Steel or all- hardened steel hacksaw blades by searching around in secondhand dealers and my father-in-law's shed. Here's what I managed to do - On a 12" x 1/2" blade I snapped it roughly to size & shape with pliers and a vice, then finished with a file & oilstone and also to smooth off the teeth. This was hard work, and took ages. On a 1" wide blade, which was also thicker I tried shaping & sharpening by hand, but it was impossible so I found someone with a bench grinder On a 1 1/2" wide blade I didn't even try anything by hand, I went straight to the bench grinder. Then finished with a stone & strop. These were all sharpened on one side, I haven't measured the angle but went for something shallow, say 15 degrees. Be careful or you could burn the steel. The exact angle for a leather cutting knife is not so critical, just shallow. Search YouTube for; kiridashi; leather skiving knife; and Japanese leather knife to see the sort of thing The 1/2" & 1" were made into a craft knife or kiridashi style, and wrapped with leather handles; the 1 1/2" into a chisel type skiving knife and fitted with a wooden handle If you want to do this by hand you'd need to buy steel stock, shape & sharpen it, then harden it. Unless you're already set up for knife & blade making, I wouldn't bother You could look round secondhand stores, flea markets and so on to see if you can find useful bits of old tools & blades, but that could take a while I have often thought that a wood carving knife with a suitable blade could make a small leather knife, and it's more or less ready to use. Search Google & YouTube for; 'chip carving knife', and YT for 'The Best Leather Cutting Knife' by Leathertoolz I have found the brass handled Tina knife, but also look at their model 211 - 15

The illustration isn't very clear, but it shows a knife with an angled cutting edge, rather like a kiridashi The same company has a 'French skiving knife' and a cheaper 'French style skiving knife' which is the sort of thing Dun should be aiming for with his plane blade Have a look at this video. She shows a few variations 'Skiving Knives and Skiving' by Lisa Sorrel

I've just realised something. Why are you skiving from the grain side? Yes, you can do this when there is a particular need, but most skiving is done on the flesh side It helps if you dampen the leather slightly, though this might not have much effect on the grain side of chrome tanned leather There's no need to go to the very high P numbers. Up to P 2,000 should be good enough. For Micromesh have a look at this video. Although it's about edge bevellers it shows the sharpness that can be achieved 'How to Sharpen a Bevel Edger' by LB Custom knives I don't understand; if you've tried lots of stones & methods, why can't you get a sharp edge? I wonder if you realise how fine you have to go? As Bikermutt07 mentioned, you should go up to P1500 or P2000 in several increments for normal use. Then after that you can, if you wish, go up to P 15000 with micromesh

By the looks of those edges your blade is not sharp enough My comments fall into two categories - THE BLADE I have also made a skiving knife from an old plane blade, and old industrial hacksaw blades It would help if you had given us the dimensions; or included something for scale; or shown the whole blade. the best width for a chisel type skiving knife is around 35mm; any wider than 40mm and it will be a bit too big & clumsy. It helps if you can fit some kind of handle Search Google for 'skiving knife', like Vergez Blanchard or Chartermade; these are expensive but they will show you the sort of thing to make ; also search for 'Japanese leather knife' , but you don't have to have the asymmetric blade. The bevel on your blade is too short & steep. It needs to be longer and shallower or more acute. Have a look at the above examples You mention 15 degrees on each side - NO! You must have the bevel on one side only You would need a coarse stone (and lots of patience!)to get the cutting edge right as I've described, followed by a fine stone & strop to maintain it. Ask around if there's someone with a bench grinder to do this, but be careful or you could burn the steel SHARPENING This follows on from the above. Those draw through sharpeners aren't very good (and that's the polite comment!). You will never get a decent long bevel with them The key to good leatherwork is to have razor sharp tools, and I'm afraid there is no choice but to learn how to sharpen properly. There are loads of videos on YouTube, but I think this is one of the best. Although it is about chisels the same techniques can be used for skiving knives 'Preparing and sharpening a woodworking chisel' by Paul Sellers There are three types of sharpening stones - Diamond - Probably the easiest to use, but as with anything, they get better as the price goes up Ceramic/water - So many to choose from, and a wide range of prices; can be a bit messy Oil - Probably the cheapest to buy new, but because they've been around a long time you can find them cheaply second hand Cheapest of all is wet & dry paper on a sheet of glass or ceramic tile All followed by a strop OTHER COMMENTS Search YT for skiving; sharpening knives; sharpening chisels; and watch as many as you have the stamina for My guess is you cut out your leather with a Craft knife of some kind, so why not do away with sharpening altogether, and go for all disposable blades? Consider Tandy Industrial Knife #3595-00; Tandy Safety Beveler #3001 - 00; Tandy Super Skiver #3025 - 00; there are other suppliers. Search Google for Rotary Cutter. I have used a cheap snap-blade knife to cut leather and skive straps - extend the blade and lay it on its side You could also search Google & YT for a kiridashi Japanese style craft knife, but that would also need to be kept sharp Finally, I know there are several members on here who do knife making, and have made their own leatherworking tools. Perhaps someone with the skills & facilities could modify and improve Dun's bade for him?. I'd do it myself, but it's a long way across The Pond!

Learn how to make sheaths or covers for axes, saws, and fixed blade knives. There are videos on YouTube Make some key fobs as samples Get a load of business cards & flyers printed

Yes, I have polished my stitching chisels with small wands made by glueing progressively finer grades of abrasive paper to lollipop sticks A tip I got from Nigel Armitage is to hold down the leather with a small block of wood when you pull them out How are your edge bevellers? I made up a dedicated sharpening board by glueing some lengths of nylon cord and leather to a board, and also a small strip of leather for a strop. Search YouTube for 'sharpening an edge beveller'.

Vergez Blanchard have a good reputation for leatherworking tools. Go to http://www.fineleatherworking.com

I have never been to India, I have only seen it on TV programmes, but I get the impression that most Indian towns & cities have lots of small, informal, traditional (dare I say old - fashioned?) mechanics and engineering works. See if you can find a couple of worn out industrial sized hacksaw blades, about 25mm & 40mm wide. Make these into leather knives, like a skiving knife; Japanese Style leather knife; and a kiridashi. Either make them yourself or get one of these places to do it for you. Search YouTube for appropriate videos. You might even find someone who can make you a round knife for a reasonable price I have never bought anything from Goods Japan but I understand they are a reliable, international supplier, and from their website they have a decent range I was talking to a saddler a while ago, and he said that he'd started selling Indian made harnesses & bridles, and they're well made, so there must be some sort of leather industry there

Here's a suggestion, though obviously it is not quite what you are looking for it might be easier & cheaper to make if you are new to leatherwork Make most of the leash from nylon webbing, (say 1"/25mm wide), including the fold over for the clip, and make just the hand loop from leather. That way it will be easier to find, and afford, the sort of leather you need, but the hand loop will still be comfortable against your hand trap the nylon between the two ends of the leather; bevel the inner edges; skive the ends of the leather that entrap the webbing; use synthetic thread Or make the whole leash with nylon and line the inside of the loop with leather; say 1,5mm? Leather stretches, but thread doesn't. That's why top class belts & straps have a line of stitching down their edges. But hand sewing two lines of 72" stitching plus the foldovers would be a mammoth task, and so is usually sewn by machine I have a dog, and it would be a damn shame if the lead snapped and he ran away and got run over. Use the best leather you can find, and if you can't afford it, use synthetic .

Very good! I'm about to make a board similar to this, or that shown by lb custom knives and others on YouTube. I'll be using a bamboo kebab skewer; some densely braided nylon cord; a strip of leather; and some very fine grit Micro Mesh abrasive paper

I'm about to buy some fine wet & dry paper to sharpen my edge bevellers, covering the range about 1,000 to 8,000 grit; making a dedicated stropping board with a couple of rods and very narrow strips of leather glued to it Micro Mesh is in the region of £2 - 50 for a sheet 6" X 4" I can buy quality (Starke Matador) full size sheets for about 60p each Is the Micro Mesh really that much better?

Hello RobCO1, We're looking at two similar, but still different things here - Cutting and Edge Finishing CUTTING In theory, if your knives are razor sharp and you follow the outline or pattern you want, the cut edges of the leather will be clean, neat, smooth, and exactly how you want them to be, and mate up perfectly. Coarse sandpaper is only used to remove the occasional bump, slip, protrusion, misalignment, ragged edge or other mistake resulting from cutting out your pieces. If you get your cutting right, there's no need to sand. EDGE FINISHING Once two pieces of leather have been mated together by clamping or tack - glueing, and tidied up as described above, the resulting edge should be level, with no overlap between the pieces. Then the procedure I use is to sew, bevel; a light sand sometimes with a slightly finer grade of paper, say 100 or 120 grit; then burnishing with gum tragacanth, Edge Kote, and so on. Search YouTube for leather edge finishing, burnishing, and so on, there are lots of variations I have only used sandpaper dry and only occasionally; any dust is minimal and I can cope with it; I've never considered using it wet on leather. I've only used it by hand, I can definitely see that dry sanding with any sort of power tool would produce a lot of dust You can use power tool for burnishing, that's different to sanding, but I've heard that sanding with a Dremel can burn out the motor; to be sure you need something more powerful like an attachment on a bench grinder Cheap edge bevellers produce a flat or straight cut, essentially taking 45 degrees of the corner; that's why I usually follow up with sandpaper to produce a more rounded corner. No problem with that, as long as you're aware of it, but they do have their place More expensive edge bevellers have a concave underside which leads the tool onto the corners and produces a more rounded corner, hence less need for sanding. Search YouTube for videos on sheathmaking, which often show sanding, bevelling, and burnishing leather edges, as the edges on sheaths tend to be noticeable, so a lot of attention is paid to that. The videos by Jacklore and Ian Atkinson are in any case, first class tutorials on leatherwork. They use power sanders, but you can obtain similar results by hand, it just takes longer.

http://leathercoursesbritain.com I've just found this website. This company runs various leatherworking courses, and their website has some useful advice, in the blog and videos

Search YouTube for 'sharpening an edge beveller', there are several videos. Watch the French one; even if you can't speak French the video is plain enough

There are loads of videos on YouTube about leatherwork. Watch as many as you have the stamina for to see how they do their cutting 'Making a Leather Knife Sheath' by Jacklore uses a Stanley knife 'Making a Leather Knife Sheath' by Ian Atkinson uses (admittedly briefly) a Stanley knife, a clicker knife, and a round knife Cutting inside curves is difficult, which is why one of them uses a strap end cutter, but that's not necessary, and is quite expensive A round knife is the traditional leather knife, but they're also expensive, and need practice & experience to use well Sharpen your replaceable blades, practice, learn how to use it, and take your time. If you're still not happy think about a clicker knife, Tandy sell them as Industrial knife #3595-00. Or look at videos of a kiridashi

Sandpaper - about 80 grit, that's fairly coarse But before that you can trim the edge just by running the knife almost flat along the eddge

Hello Deb, and welcome! You will find loads of advice and information here, and the answer to just about any leather related question I hadn't heard of SCA but I found it via Google. If you don't know already you might find this website interesting. It includes a guide & links to lots of re-enactment societies http://www.historic-uk.com

I've found the Husky knife via Google, it looks like a replaceable blade craft knife. In Britain we often call these Stanley knives after the best known brand. I think you call them box cutters in USA I notice it is a folding knife, which would make it bigger and probably clumsier. I suggest you get a fixed blade model such as the Stanley 199 or 199A, though there are other makes The blades are sharp, but can be improved by sharpening them yourself, because you will polish them, and reduce the shoulder of the bevel; in fact the more you sharpen them the better they seem to get You will need a fine stone; oil, diamond or water/ceramic, whatever you fancy, and a strop. Make your own from oddments of wood & leather, this will be just about the easiest piece of leatherwork you will do. Get some jeweller's rouge or proper honing/stropping compound; it's not that expensive, and a bar will last for ages. There is loads of advice about sharpening & stropping on this forum and on YouTube. In fact the key to good leatherwork is to have razor sharp knives, whether fixed or replaceable blades You could also consider other knives, like a clicker knife or a Japanese style kiridashi - search Google and YouTube. There are other types, it's a bit of trial and error really to find what suits you Whatever you get, you will need two knives - one just for leather, and a general one for opening parcels, sharpening pencils and so on; it's purpose is to make sure you use the first knife exclusively for cutting leather Mark out the pattern with a scratch awl, followed by a light cut with the knife. Concentrate on getting the shape correct, not on a seriously deep cut. Once the shape or outline has been set you can then make deeper cuts, and the blade should follow the pattern you have made. You may need to tidy up the edges with sandpaper I assume you are using a proper cutting mat I started out using a Stanley knife and resharpened the blades as they became blunt. Over the past few months I've been using a Japanese style leather knife for straight cuts & gentle curves, and a kiridashi for tighter curves

I mostly make sheaths which have relatively sort runs of stitching. If I see that a problem or mistake is starting to occur I unsew/unpick/ tease out the stitching with my round awl or a dart head. Straighten or pull out that thread with your fingers or through beeswax and you can carry on sewing without a join I sew leather by hand, but I also sew tents, rucsacs, and outdoor clothing by machine. Whether sewing leather or fabric, if I need to cut through stitching I use either a stitch ripper or a number 3 Swan Morton scalpel handle with a number 10 or 10A blade

This supplier has Fil au Chinois and other European brands of linen thread. http://www.kurzke.co.uk Besides full reels she has sample packs of 5 and 10 m . This supplier has Campells Satin Laid Linen Thread http://www.marchand-medieval.com

Thanks. I've read your message, and you're right, the supplier's website is all in Chinese so I'll look out for Etsy Perhaps you could post on this forum when it is available, I'm sure other members would be interested It would be interesting to compare it with Fil au Chinois

It looks good, I prefer linen thread to synthetic, even the much recommended Tiger thread But - please can you tell us how to get it, I can't find it on Google. Do you have a supplier in Britain? And prices?

I've never used a Poundo board, but I understand they are made from thick, resilient rubber You could try using a hot knife, like a cheap vegetable knife heated in a gas flame. But let's see what other members think of that

Options - Get some good quality stitch nippers Use a scalpel or craft knife with disposable blades Get a wood carving knife with a suitably shaped blade. You will need to sharpen this now and again