Hardrada

Too many to count. Happens more often with thicker thread, obviously. It's not difficult to fix, so no big deal.

Add to your immediate watch list: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQK8R0oYT8o

Romeo & Julieta tubes come with a lining of cedar veneer.

Try goodsjapan.com

Actually, they do: https://www.dmtsharp.com/sharpeners/bench-stones/diamond-whetstone-bench-stone/6-in-diamond-whetstonetm-sharpener-coarse-with-hardwood-box.html Click on the "Grit Chart" image.

Actually, Japanese knives have a micro-bevel, which must be ground at ~20°. But, yes, the back side of the knife must be totally flat.

What does the edge look like? Now, this is just an idle thought of mine—who knows if I'm wrong. But I see that the polka dots in that DMT stone, which are plastic, form a kind of track where the diamond suface is cut and then resumed, cut and then resumed; whereas on the sides of such "track" there are unbroken lines of continuous diamond surface. My take is that this might be creating an uneven sharpening of the edge. My belief is reinforced since you mentioned that you don't have issues with your whetstone, so I think that a continuous abrasive surface, such as the kind you have on a whetstone or a diatoma diamond plate abrades the edge through and through, unlike this patchy DMT plate. I'm positive that, according to the manufacturer's literature, such polka-dotted surface should have no effect on the edge, but maybe that's because they sell these plates to sharpen knives that are swept at an angle across the plate, rather than from top to bottom—maybe this oblique sweeping reduces the effect of the breaks in the surface—I can't tell, but maybe that's why you get better results when you zig-zag the blade across the stone versus when you run it parallel.

Are you keeping the angle consistent?

Pretty cool. Thanks for posting.

Totally doable. That's how I do my leatherwork. The only "power" machine I've purchased is an electric creaser—sure, you can crease by hand with a spirit lamp, but the electric creaser gives you consistent temperature. If you're a woodworker already, I can picture you doing something like this (all they use is hand tools):

There is way, yes. Should take lots of careful measuring and stitching and gluing, but it's definitely doable.

What's the temper of your leather? You could skive the end of the part that's s'posed to fold so that it bends under the bulk of the thicker one. You could also groove on the flesh side ~1/16" behind the stitch line to facilitate folding it in place. Or both. These work only with medium to firm temper, though.

FWIW, the first needles I had were from Tandy's Deluxe Stitching Set. I don't recommend buying the set, though—about half of the contents I never used, but the needles and the groover were very handy—I still use them, even though I eventually got a pack of JJ needles which, very disappointingly, were found to be made in China. The awl I ended up using for applying edge paint. I don't stitch with an awl: I use chisels to pre-make the holes—way easier that way. You can get decent chisels from Tandy, before you upgrade to KS Blade ones.

Ditto.

Really. Silly me: after growing up with metric, for the last couple of years I've been actively converting to Imperial and analog.

Let us know how that Tandy gauge performs!

I was beaten to it! That's what I use as mental reference. In metric: 1 oz = 0.4 mm. I too measure with digital calipers because the plastic/wooden gauges are more like a ballpark reference than anything—no precision. And when you're skiving you don't want "more or less"—you want/need precision! Specially since some projects, such as watch bands, need to be pared down to exact thickness. RML has Calati gauges: https://www.rmleathersupply.com/products/calati-25mm-premium-thickness-gauge-made-in-italy?_pos=1&_sid=6a602fece&_ss=r Alas, they too report thickness in mm only, but since they're marked for tenths, it's a cinch to convert to ounces.

I have the original that far east knock-off is a copy of: the Schärffix. And even that one won't work for chrome tan, because of its soft temper. Don't waste your money there. Either skive by hand with a Japanese skiving knife or a half-moon knife, or save up for a bell skiver.

Catina?

You won't have that outside of a bell skiver, which is gonna be $$$. Any other manual-operated tool won't give you the results you want. I'm telling you because I've been there. I've skived soft-temper leather with all kinds of tools—skife like yours, Japanese knives, half-moon knife, and Schärffix—and only the Japanese knife and the half-moon knife were successful in not pulling the leather and deforming it. I was hoping that the Schärffix paring machine would be just the thing, but no, it wasn't because you still need to apply mechanical pulling force and that will pull soft-temper and medium-temper leather out of shape. It's actually high end AND affordable, however impossible that might seem. I know because I have two of them and they're among my most used tools. Well sharpened, they're unbeatable.

This: https://www.goodsjapan.com/craft-sha-36mm-japanese-traditional-lethercraft-skiver-utility-leather-knife/a-19138 They also have a left-hand version.

Right. All I used were quick grip, non-marring clamps. Till last week or so I didn't even know such things as vacuum pumps (well, other than the ones for freezing food) existed. I first came across them whilst watching woodworking videos wherein they were being used for gluing large pieces. Never did I think they could be used for leather work.

Thanks for posting that! Most useful video of AD 2022! (So far... )