Improving our swivel knife skills

[Patrice]

As the title said, i would like to improve my skills with the swivel knife!

I have the Leatherwork Manual, Tech-tips, Stohlman step-by-step, Stohlman Portfolio volume 1, Carving figure and Pictorial carving and Inverted carving.

I learn valuable lessons, but still need to improve my skill while cutting with the :censored: swivel knife.

I try to do the exercices cut as teached in the Leatherwork Manual, i do not make my joining cuts fully touchs, but, my curves and cuts done with the swivel knife really sucks.

It seem sometimes that instead of making good progress, my skill are regressing.

So, when you first learn how to cut with the S knife, what kind of exercices did you do? And how often did you practice each day? I really like to work with leather, but, it look like i'm not progressing much right now :ranting:

Edited February 20, 2007 by Patrice

[Johanna]

I know from watching people that when they try to force their hand and knife into unnatural uncomfortable positions, they mess up the knife cuts. Turn the work, not your body, they say. A sharp blade is essential, too, because the drag of a dull blade produces a ragged cut.

The above Doodle Page was written by Ben Moody, Greg's dad. I hope folks who have mastered the swivel knife chime in with more help.

Johanna

[ClayB]

As the title said, i would like to improve my skills with the swivel knife!

I have the Leatherwork Manual, Tech-tips, Stohlman step-by-step, Stohlman Portfolio volume 1, Carving figure and Pictorial carving and Inverted carving.

I learn valuable lessons, but still need to improve my skill while cutting with the :censored: swivel knife.

I try to do the exercices cut as teached in the Leatherwork Manual, i do not make my joining cuts fully touchs, but, my curves and cuts done with the swivel knife really sucks.

It seem sometimes that instead of making good progress, my skill are regressing.

So, when you first learn how to cut with the S knife, what kind of exercices did you do? And how often did you practice each day? I really like to work with leather, but, it look like i'm not progressing much right now :ranting:

One of the best sources for learning to use your swivel knife that I have seen is Paul Burnett's Realistic Leather Carving home study course. Paul started this back in the 80's I think and only got to lesson 3 before he quit, but the 3 lessons he did were like a college course in leather carving. The first 15 page lesson was on how to use a swivel knife, varying depths of your cuts, doing curves, cutting parallel lines, etc. After the basics, he goes into cutting floral and figures in depth. You can still get these lessons from Paul's ebay store at

http://stores.ebay.com/Painting-Cow

The set of lessons cost $30 but I think it is money well spent.

If you ever get to a show where Al Gould is giving his swivel knife class, take it. You will be amazed! Al teaches not to turn your work, but to learn to cut in both directions, either pulling your swivel knife like most of us have been taught, but also pushing the knife away from you instead of continually turning your work. It is really difficult at first, but it is something you might try to learn once you get comfortable with your knife. The man that taught me to build saddles always pushes his swivel knife. It's just the way he learned to do it because there wasn't anyone around to tell him what he was doing was "wrong". He carves really well pushing the knife, and to top it off, he is missing his thumb on the hard he carves with too. Just one more of those cases where there really is no right or wrong, just what works for you.

There are several things I pratice cutting with my swivel knife. You can start just cutting straight lines, side by side and vary the depth from deep to light. Cut curves in both directions. Circles, start with a large one and keep making smaller ones inside them until you cant get any smaller. Letters and numbers are really good practice to make both straight and curved lines. Cut the alphabet on scrap leather and see how small you can get as your skills improve.

Edited February 20, 2007 by ClayB

[Regis]

Patrice,

I too am learning and, like you, I would do better and then worse like you said. Other than continuing to practice, the one item that has made a noticable improvement is an angle blade. I can keep the S-knife more upright as I cut. That seems to make it easier to "swivel" for me. There is no magic and I'm not real good yet but, it feels and looks smoother as I continue to practice.

Best of luck to you.

Regis

[Patrice]

Johanna, Clay and Regis, thank's!

Before cutting the leather with the S-knife, i stroped it on a bussines card cover with rouge.

I'm using a angle ceramic blade and find it to be more easy to cut in leather than a standard metal blade. I'm thinking about buying a 1/4" angle filigree ceramic blade. Any comment about this kind of blade?

I case my leather with Pro-Carv mixture and each time, i'm amazed how the leather cut and stamps well. This mixture really help me!

After i finished my two order, i'll return in class and practice with the S-knife. :book:

[Dan Hammons]

At first the idea of pushing my kinife seemed like one of those " Ya Right" sort of things but it's not that hard to do and when you are cutting the tight turns of an oak or maple leaf you will be surprised how much better they look done in one smooth motion. There are some nice well built knifes out there that you can buy and I have a Barry King but I don't change the blade whenever I want to use a diff. blade. As far as cutting goes I would tell you that the blade is far more important than the the knife. Like they say "IF YOU CAN'T DRIVE A NAIL WITH A $5 HAMMER AN $80 HAMMER AIN'T GONNA HELP !" Dan

[Hoyden]

Sounds a little off, but it made a huge difference in how I handled my swivel knife and how my cuts look, but I took a similar exercize like Johanna posted and practiced the movements with a calligraphy pen with a nib - not one of the marker types.

I held the pen similar the knife (except that I didn't have my finger over the top bit) and practiced making the strokes on stiff paper. The excercize helped to train my hands to do it correctly with the swivel knife.

[sheowahya]

So, when you first learn how to cut with the S knife, what kind of exercices did you do?

I'm still learning myself, but I found doing filigree images to be very helpful.

I found this picture in one of the online groups that I belong to and it gave me ideas.

I started with these images, but have branched out to looking for and designing my own.

Marilyn