Skiving tip to get an even surface

[DoubleKCustomLeathercraft]

Just wanted to share a tip with anyone out there having issues with skiving by hand. We all know the potato peeler safety skife is useful, and a lot of us dad using it. It takes a bit of practice to perfect. I fell I've mastered the art of the skife knife since I work with one thickness, and thin down straps for example. 25-30" of skiving can be stressful trying to get out even. Which is where I have a tip to share.

I was in my shop planing a couple boards down to even thickness for a welcome sign I made. It got me thinking, why can't I use my hand plane on leather? Nobody says you can, but there's nothing saying you can't either. So I took my small plane, I refer to it as a finger plane but it's a bit larger than those. Changed the edge geometry a bit and starting playing around with some scrap leather to see what happens. Spent some time figuring out how far to set the blade depth. Fine tuned over a few projects, kept extremely sharp (as all blades should be) Well, this little plane has changed the skife game, for me anyway. Here's a pic of the plane and what it does with leather. You can see how fine of a cut it makes, just barely skimming the high points on the buckle side of this belt blank (more on that to come on that) Anyway, it works and it's a cheap alternative to help reduce some skife anxiety. You can pick these up for like $10. 

[Ddat]

I've tried using a block plane and low angle block plane for similar tasks with poor results. I should try using my violin plane. Glad to see it's working for you.

[AEBL]

I would imagine that the plane would have to be very very sharp, I know that the angle on my woodworking tools is a bit more obtuse than my leatherworking tools. My chisels are sharp, but the skiving knife is terrifying ...

[Ddat]

3 hours ago, AEBL said:

I would imagine that the plane would have to be very very sharp, I know that the angle on my woodworking tools is a bit more obtuse than my leatherworking tools. My chisels are sharp, but the skiving knife is terrifying ...

A more acute grinding angle makes sense. 

[Northmount]

There are other posts about using planes for skiving if you want to search for them.

I'd be interested in the angle of the frog and the angle the blade is sharpened to.

I've also seen little planes using a razor blade described in various posts.

I've played with these without much success.

[DoubleKCustomLeathercraft]

3 hours ago, Northmount said:

There are other posts about using planes for skiving if you want to search for them.

I'd be interested in the angle of the frog and the angle the blade is sharpened to.

 

I've never researched anything in skiving, just kinda jumped into it and learned from my horribly costly mistakes.

 

I have no clue what the angle of the frog is on this. It's just a cheap home depot plane that I bought and mainly used for end grain when I was building my shop. I did completely change the edge geometry though. Even ground it all flat and even (these cheap planes need some extra tlc to get them cutting good) It just takes a bit of trial and error to figure it out. 

The plane chisel does have to stick out further than if you are planing some lumber. Also it's a sweet spot that you must find by trial and error. Too far, and it chatters as you run it down a strap. And at the end if always catches and I need to go back with my skife to clean that up. 

[DoubleKCustomLeathercraft]

6 hours ago, AEBL said:

I would imagine that the plane would have to be very very sharp, I know that the angle on my woodworking tools is a bit more obtuse than my leatherworking tools. My chisels are sharp, but the skiving knife is terrifying ...

My edged tools are all superbly sharpened to a mirror finish. That's why I had to get stitches in my knuckle (chisel went to the bone) . A sharp blade cuts clean and easy, a not so sharp blade tears the flesh. Even my little wedge banger axe is razor sharp, for a little while anyway. 

3 hours ago, Ddat said:

A more acute grinding angle makes sense. 

This is the key to getting it to cut clean. And every plane is going to be different. So it's a matter of trial and error