Japanese skiving knife from Temu

[Mulesaw]

I got myself an account at Temu because I needed some tips for stilettos heels, and it was the only place I could find some with an assortment.
There is a lot of leather tools and stuff being offered at Temu, and I was curious to some of them. I have often considered making a Japanese type skiving knife, and suddenly one jumped up as a suggestion. The price was very reasonable, and I decided to give it a chance. 

After the waiting time of about two weeks time (after all the stuff comes from China) I got the package with the skiving knife. 
The first thing I have learnt about Temu is that it is incredibly important that you look at the measurements given on the page regarding the products. The page is a master in making things look bigger than than they are. So pay very close attention to the measurements given  and try to compare it with stuff you already have to make sure you aren't getting something that you would consider a child's size.

The skiving knife was a decent size, maybe a bit on the small side compared to if I would have made one myself. The handle was fitted decently on the blade and all in all the overall shape and feel was OK.

What was not OK was the edge.. The thing was able to cut something, but not able to skive very well. The problem here was that the edge of the blade was ground in a 45 degree angle! If I have to prepare a wood chisel for coarse work like mortising for timber framing, I normally use 35 degrees, but 45 degrees is just plain weird in my opinion. 
I took the skiving knife to the shop and put something like a 20 degree edge on it using the grinding wheel. (I just eyeballed it, so I don't know the exact angle). Followed by some water stones and buffing and then back to testing. This made a whole lot of difference. Now the edge cut as it should. 

I like the style of the Japanese skiving knife for some jobs, the round knife for others, but when both are sharp they will work. 

I haven't tested the knife over a long time, so I can't say if the steel is good, average or bad, but I suppose it is average. and most knives that I know of will benefit tremendously from stropping before using , so I guess that if I do this the knife will work as intended. 

If all has to be summed up, the shape and quality feels OK compared to the price, but the knife is unusable out of the box, so you have to use a bit of time on sharpening it before it will work.

Skiving knife straight out of the box.

45 degree cutting angle.

Trying to visualize the cutting angle with a piece of paper. This edge won't cut easily!

[TomE]

Small world!  I bought the same knife from Amazon and have been pleased with it.  I did reprofile the blade with a more shallow taper.  Harry Rogers also approves of this cheap knife. 

 

[fredk]

I bought one off ebay and it was razor sharp out of the box. It cost me £3.50, and I expected to have to sharpen it but it was not at all needed

You takes your chances

[Mulesaw]

@TomE 
It could be that I just got a bad one :-) Admittedly the 45 degree taper was sharper that I had expected, but it worked a heckuvalot better once the angle got more shallow  
The shape and size is fine, and the finish is better than I expected.

Brgds Jonas

[Mulesaw]

38 minutes ago, fredk said:

I bought one off ebay and it was razor sharp out of the box. It cost me £3.50, and I expected to have to sharpen it but it was not at all needed

You takes your chances

I think I paid around the same price, but razor sharp wasn't the first thought that popped into my mind when I tested it 

I missed on another chance I took on Temu: They had something that was advertised as a safety skiver. I thought that I had seen one somewhere before and took a chance. It turned out to be one of those hand held planes that can be used to remove hard skin from your heels. I had seen one in our bathroom that I once bought somewhere. And I suddenly remembered that I had tried to use that one as a safety skiver as well. And that doesn't work like that at all. But now I got an extra heel trimmer in case I should need one.

Brgds Jonas

[zuludog]

You see this knife all over The Net, on Amazon, in cheap leatherwork kits, and so on. I bought one a few years ago for £6 I think, and I also think that if you Search you can still get them for less than £10 inc P&P

I thought it was surprisingly well made for the money - the blade was stiff,  in line with the handle, and didn't wobble. I improved it by -

I didn't like the cheap tacky red paint on the handle, so I scraped it off and  slightly reshaped & sanded it so it was more comfortable; the grain is actually quite attractive, at least it is on the one that I have

I reduced the sharp corners of the cutting edge, which were quite pronounced, with a file & oil stone, so that it is more like the straight parallel sided blades that you see on most other Japanese Leather Knives

The cutting edge had a small secondary bevel; I ground this out to produce a single longer bevel, about 6mm long, using progressively finer oil stones  followed by a strop. This took a few sessions spread over a week, but now the edge is very sharp. I made a simple sheath or slip cover for it

I have a half round knife, aka head knife, from George Barnsley, and another JLK that I made from an old plane blade, and other knives, but this cheap one is very handy, and I use it on a lot of my work. They are cheap enough to try just out of curiosity, as long as you're willing to work on sharpening the edge - you might get to like it.

[Mulesaw]

@zuludog Interesting idea to make rounded corners. Most of those Japanese type skiving knives that I have seen, are straight across save for those that are made from the start with a curved profile of the cutting edge. 

I think that my 2nd bevel ended up on around 6 mm as well, I can't remember it, cause I just eyeballed it on the grinding machine before taking it to the water stones. But getting the blade angle down to a "normal" figure from the original  45 degrees was a winning move :-)

My original idea was to convert one of those scrapers to a Japanese skiving knife. and see how that would work.
I bought one a couple of years ago for restoring windows. The blade goes all the way through the handle and it is around 2 mm thick. In Denmark it is known as a "rigid scraper" It is used mostly as sort of a very wide crowbar when you have to break off old glass retaining strips from windows. The rosewood handle is decent on them though admittedly it could use a bit of sanding and oiling, but not much work would be needed on the handles. 

 

[SUP]

I got a similar one, I don't remember now whether from Temu or Amazon, and even the cutler could not get it sharp enough! I now use it for odd jobs around the house - e.g. scraping off thickened grease and wax. 

I got a different one from Amazon Vine, with an angled blade, and that is sharper than my Stanley knife's new blade. Right out of the box. Pleased with that and keep it well. stropped. Amazon Vine, so paid about the same.

Waiting for a proper skiving knife to come on Vine now. Their items are usually very good..

Edited September 10 by SUP