I read this post with great interest as I am also looking at leather skivers.
For starters, I have an engineering background and an interest in sewing machines and how they operate. About five years ago, we were given a New Home (Janome) Memory Craft 6000 machine by my wife’s aunt. So, being the curious person that I am, I took several sewing machine lessons from a woman in our area and learned how to machine sew.
Fast forward to the fall of 2022, I purchased a used Seiko STH-8BLD-3 walking foot machine in immaculate condition from a private party located about an hour and 1/2 away. The machine already included a servo drive, and I then added a box style speed reducer from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines. All I can say is that it is a fabulous machine!
After learning to machine sew and now having an industrial machine, I have made numerous tote and messenger style bags from both regular canvas and waxed canvas, as well as Cordura. Looking ahead, I am very interested in going to the next level and making/sewing bags with leather. I have read many articles and posts on skiving of the seam allowance area to facilitate the fabrication of the bag and to minimize seam bulk. Obviously, when making bags, there is a great deal of skiving that needs to be done and it appears this will require a skiving machine to speed up the bag making process. But at about $1,500-$1,700 delivered to my residence, I am finding the price difficult to accept. I recently tried using a belt sander to “skive” and this turned out to be a dismal failure. So, I am hoping that you will share with me what you learned and what you are doing now for leather skiving.
As an FYI, the closest dealer to me that carries skiving machines is Hoffman Brothers in the Chicago area. They are offering the Ferdco GT801 skiver that includes two drive motors: one for the bell knife and one for the feed roll. Anyone have experience with this machine?
Thank you. I look forward to any and all commentary on this subject.
