Skivers (advice on types?)

[Teradee]

Hi Everyone!

Im really interested in skivers…mostly because I struggle doing it well but using knives and hand skivers.

do you recommend the manual machines and hand cranks?  I know the modern electric ones (eg bell skivers) are awesome but do you recommend considering cost and the types of things being made, etc?

or, do you recommend just practicing with a well sharpened knife?

thanks for any advice…will be much appreciated!

Jason

 

[Burkhardt]

You have to first justify do you/or are going to make enough of what ever you make needing one to equal the cost. Of coarse in this addiction/hobby it never does. Depending on size/width of what you're going to skive can you do it with a splitter doing  the ends/edges. Or there is the tried and true safety skivers which are cheap and the blades are cheap that in cases just dampen to make it easier.

 

[zuludog]

For skiving typically narrow or small areas & edges I skive by hand using either a Japanese Leather Knife, which cuts by pushing, or an English style paring knife, which cuts by pulling

I'm sure a skiving machine would do a good job, but I have neither the space nor the money for one, so for slightly larger areas I use a David Razor Plane  - find it on the Net, or there are similar makes

I use this to skive the fold over on belts, and sometimes the pieces for knife sheaths, which are fairly small & narrow, though obviously it would struggle to skive something like a shoulder

You could also try a French Edger, though I haven't used one myself

Corter Leather, Leathertoolz, and others have YT videos showing that they can achieve excellent results with a Japanese Leather Knife. Vergez Blanchard and others make a skiving knife that is rather like a broad, hand held chisel; just play around with suppliers & videos.

Both my JLK & skiving/paring knife are home made, from an old plane blade and a piece of 25mm industrial hacksaw blade. I established the cutting edge & bevel with a bench grinder & oil stones, but now to keep them sharp mostly I use a strop, and occasionally wet & dry paper on a sheet of glass with a splash of water, working from grit 1,000 to 5,000 in increments.

Edited December 4, 2022 by zuludog

[nrk]

skiving machine provides uniformity and speed.
 

it all depends on your tasks and load

[DwightT]

I am far from any kind of expert at skiving,  but currently I just use a round knife when I'm skiving. I only get a small amount on any given pass, but it gets the job done.

    /dwight

[Danne]

On 12/4/2022 at 3:04 AM, Teradee said:

Hi Everyone!

Im really interested in skivers…mostly because I struggle doing it well but using knives and hand skivers.

do you recommend the manual machines and hand cranks?  I know the modern electric ones (eg bell skivers) are awesome but do you recommend considering cost and the types of things being made, etc?

or, do you recommend just practicing with a well sharpened knife?

thanks for any advice…will be much appreciated!

Jason

 

A couple of questions.

Is your knife REALLY sharp?

how do you skive, if you push, try more of a sawing motion. 

Do you skive with the bevel up or down? I have both of these from Kyoshin Elle. https://www.amblardleatheratelier.com/products/skiving-knife?variant=28925287891021 I'm right handed but I use the left handed version so I skive with the bevel down. It give me a "fulcrum point" So let's say I want to skive a piece of 1mm leather. 3mm from the edge and down to a feather edge. I can sneak up on it, if I use the other knife, I tend to "overshoot" and angle the knife too much. And to answer why I have two knives. I also had problem with skiving, and it was both because I thought my knife was sharp but it wasn't sharp enough, and the left handed version did suit me better. But I also use the right handed knife, it's perfect to trim lining leather along an edge, like "stabbing" my way around along the edge. 

Edited December 17, 2022 by Danne