Spyros

Geez I have no idea how you guys achieve this level of detail and 3-D effect, well done!

Well, they have to actually heat treat that rough edge, same as you would with a file, otherwise it won't last very long. I'm actually impressed they can make them so cheaply, I mean I could make one but it would take me a couple of hours and I would want a lot more than $10 for that alone. The benefits of mass production

Oh yeah absolutely

Hehe I can relate, I make bags for my daughters all the time and when it comes to picking colours, OMG talk about fussy

I use one of those things because it's just faster than messing with sandpaper, and I'm lazy. It was like $10, works fine, sometimes it clogs up and you need to give it a clean with one of those brass wire brushes (brass because you want it to be softer than the tool you're cleaning so you don't ruin it)

At some point we must do a thread about the things we all actually use *instead of* what the shops are recommending we should be using If you boil it down I'm pretty sure in the end someone can do leatherworking with just a kitchen knife and a fork

I just mix NFO directly into the dye, I have 3 little jars with 3 fiebings colours (show brown, saddle tan and black) mixed with NFO permanently on my shelf, and I apply the dye/NFO mix from the skin side. The proper way of doing it is the way you described, my way is the quick and dirty, the downside being that my mix will often penetrate the leather throughout and the dye will show on the flesh side (which I usually don't mind and that's why I do it like that)

NO makes the leather a couple of shades darker and it penetrates really well so it's great for moisturising dry leather. If you don't want to achieve either of those two things, don't apply NO

of course, you also deserve a saving for doing your research and knowing where to buy the same thing cheaper

to be honest I don't mind Ryan doing this... he is some people's favourite leatherworker, these people want to buy tools that he uses and endorses, they'd like to support him and order from him and deal with him if something is wrong instead of ordering directly from China, and they're happy to pay a premium for all the above. Everybody's happy, all is good.

These all look like Kemovan's tools with a different logo and a higher price https://kemovancraft.com/products/leather-scratch-awl-flat-diamond-awl-for-leathercraft

That's pretty much the best photos I can take... it is indeed a piece of wood but the "grease" you see is just some brown 240 grit sandpaper glued on the wood. And under the sandpaper there is a hole in the wood that holds a few small magnets, that's all. Honestly don't bother with it, one of those $10 magnetic phone holders that mount on the air vents in the car will do just a good job of holding the thread down.

anything from Kemovan or Kevin Lee is top notch. They are Chinese by the way, in China.

Get a knife without a secondary bevel. I'm sorry, this is honestly the best advice I can give you, hand to heart. Secondary bevels are a pain in the butt and (IMHO) unnecessary in skiving knives.

Man, I was actually just looking at the photos again and I was wondering if that knife actually has a secondary bevel. I have two of them and they don't, why on earth would anyone put a secondary bevel on a knife for leather? Secondary bevels are typically used in *some* wood chisels and planes because the very tip doesn't have a hope of lasting very long against something as hard as wood. But leather??? Maybe those table top splitters need one, at most, because they sometimes get dozens of belts put through them every day, directly vertical against the blade, and the sharpening wouldn't last very long without it. If I had a skiving knife with a secondary bevel I'd just grind it away personally. I don't see the point of having one other than making your life miserable when sharpening it. You need a well-tuned jig, no way you can sharpen two separate bevels freehand.

What grit is your stone? From the photo your knife's edge looks ok-ish, just needs a few passes on a lower grit to get rid of those scratches on the edge. And then a few passes on some leather strop to polish it. Everybody moves the knife on the stone in a different direction/pattern, don't worry about that, just pick any movement that you feel best helps you to keep the angle consistent. A Jap skiving knife is pretty much the easiest thing to sharpen because it has this giant bevel that you can lay flat on the stone, no secondary bevels, no curves, no complexities. But I can see you have removed a bit more material towards the middle/right somehow. Are you sure this blade is flat? Have you flattened it from the other side?

you sure you don't have a third arm somewhere? LOL

Unless you find a really good hinge with tight tolerances, even better is to put a brass or steel rod through base of the opening jaw and let it pivot on it.

With the opening of the jaw, I would say the same thing: the bigger you make the opening, the higher the chances that when it closes it will not land exactly straight and flat against the other jaw. Like Fred said, no need for very wide openings anyway.

Thats beautiful What I meant is, if you make a jaw that is even slightly askew because of wood movement or because of looseness the hinge or whatever reason, and leaves even a 1-2 mm gap at one end of the jaw, chances are you're never gonna use that end. Because it's just not going to hold your piece as firmly at that end and it will start moving around as you're stitching it. And the bigger the jaw, the bigger the chances of that happening, even if you're really good at woodworking (which you clearly are)

I think the only limitation as to the width of the jaw is really your skills. It's very hard to make a big jaw that is perfectly aligned and applies exactly the same pressure at both ends, especially a couple of years later, unless you're some master woodworker and your materials are completely stable.

Yeah I've noticed that on your videos! However, I need my right hand on the wheel to control exactly where the needle first enters the leather

Yeah true, they don't slip out (I think I might've put too many magnets in there), but after the first few stitches I have the habit of stopping a sec and snipping them off anyway. Because if I go around the piece and I finish a stitch where I started, and I have a couple of giant threads hanging loose right there, I'm scared they might get sucked into the bobbin and all hell breaks loose. I'm definitely adding another magnet to hang my snips like MtlBiker Thanks gents

Thanks Mr JollyDodgerCanvas One thing that annoys me with those machines is that I have to hold the ends of the threads with my hand to start a stitch. Problem is that when I start a stitch is when I want my hands free more than any other time. So I decided to just hold the threads with a magnet. I had some aspirin-sized magnets in the shed. I bored a piece of wood with a drill and popped them in there, and then epoxy glued a piece of coarse sandpaper on top to keep the magnets in. Of course I could've just used a bigger magnet off ebay or something, but that's what I had on hand. Either way it works great: I wonder why I haven't seen other people doing this, is there a reason that I shouldn't either?

You said to me "Buy a professional/industrial grade wood lathe or any other professional/industrial grade machine of any sort and see what you get for service, training or instructions." And I said my friend the cabinet maker did, and got a lot of service, training and instructions. And monitoring, and 24/7 support. The lathe I made is only good for wooden handles and pens, which is what I made it for. It's primitive, a toy. I'd never pay any kind of serious money for a machine without proper support.