getting some tearing when I skive

[Regis]

I'm getting some tearing when I skive low weight leather (3 oz in this case). I'm pretty sure my knife is sharp enough as it only tears toward the outer edge (of 7/16 wide). Skiving on the flesh side do I let the leather dry on outer surface like I would for normal carving/stamping. Is it the same? Is tearing, perhaps, a symptom of too wet?

Thanks,

Regis

[cjbleather]

Regis, I am far from being an expert on skiving. However, what little I do know is that it is not necessary to case leather to skive. To me, this would especially be true for 3 oz leather. In fact, I would guess that, if you have to case it, then your knife is not sharp. For me, when I finally got my head knife sharp, I suddenly found that skiving was much easier then it was with a dull blade that I thought for sure was sharp. How did I find out that my blades were not sharp? I bought a knife from Bill Buckman that came sharp out of the box. This is not true of many round or head knives. Now, I work my other knives to get to this point of sharpness. Carl

[Johanna]

Regis, you shouldn't try to cut wet leather because you'll either get unexpected stretch, or the knife will jump and you will bleed on the leather. Only skive dry leather, and always push the blade away from you.

Johanna

[wolvenstien]

I learned on my own on this one... DO NOT SKIVE WET... it will stretch... If you are only skiving the edge, here is a tool I use and love when skiving...: http://www.leatherfactory.com/products.asp?number=3001-00

I have used the super skiver: http://www.leatherfactory.com/products.asp?number=3025-00

and I do not like the super skiver... I think it is because of the pulling... but with the Safety Beveler, you pull it too but differently... I use it to skive the whole thing is it is a small enough job. The replacement razor blades arent much either....

Mike

[Regis]

Well, dry works just fine. Knife is sharp enough and works great with leather dry. Don't know where I "mis-learned" to case before skiving. This is one of the really great things about this forum. If you get off on a wrong tangent, there are folks here to help get back on track.

I have one of the Super skiver and I don't like it at all either. Haven't tried the other one.

Thanks all,

Regis

[Johanna]

The safety beveler link that Wolvie posted is a better skiver than the Super Skiver, IMO. It is easier to control, blades are ordinary razor blades and not expensive of difficult to replace, and if you are needing to skive areas larger than the safety beveler can be expected to handle, you may want to consider buying hides of different weights to eliminate the need for skiving large areas. If you are just skiving folds, be gentle. Any skiving will weaken that point. For example, I skive a bit where I fold a belt for a buckle, but not too much in case they decide to hang a 10 lb. Texas special from it later on.

Johanna

[wolvenstien]

True,

Also... if you are making bags and end up using a thicker hide than the clasp will allow (the clasp wont fit through the hide... and wyou are going to tool the leather.... skive it where the clasp will go through the leather before you tool it... I did a nice larger bag for my bike, and I tooled it nice with the tri weave stamp... then when it was time to add the clasp I found that it would not fir through the hole that the hide was too thick for the clasp, so I had to skive it some in that area... well... it didnt occure to me that the area would be very think in the deep parts of the stamping, and when I tried to skive around the hole I punched for the clasp and found real quick that the leather in the deep parts of the tooling was very thin... and I was left with a piece I could not use for the bag I was making... I had to start all over... sucked... but lesson learned...

[Regis]

Just got the Safety Skiver in and tried it. Wow! Wow! I was skiving very carefully with knife and worked ok (especially after learning to skive dry).

I had thrown a few dollars away on Super Skiver and it was so bad that I gave up that there was anything better than a sharp knife. But, then I gave the Safety Skive a try and it really does a great job.

It takes me about 45 min to an hour to skive a CC holder with a knife. Looks like maybe 5 minutes with the Safety Skiver.

Thanks for this great tip.

Regis

Edited March 13, 2007 by Regis

[CitizenKate]

Note to the others who might be reading this thread... the safety skiver is a good skiving tool for right-handers, but not so much for lefties. I ended up chucking mine and I've been using a scalpel since.

Kate

[wolvenstien]

Very good point Kate. And something I did notice but didnt dwell on since I am a righty... but shoudl have since my wife, and both her parents and her sister are all leftys....

I will have to look at mine later when I get back into my shop and see how hard it would be to modify it for a lefty...

Mike

[ClayB]

When I was learning to build saddles someone suggested that I cut the handle off a safety skiver and solder it on the other side, cuz I am a lefty too I just learned to use it right (wrong) handed instead. Another thing I learned is that when the blade gets dull, change it or take it out and strop it, instead of trying to keep going. They work lots better with a sharp blade.

[Regis]

I'm left handed so I must have missed something in the training manual[lol]. If you skive pushing, then safety skiver is in right hand. If you pull, then skiver is in your left hand. It is not like using an open knife blade. Although I'm not very experienced, it's pretty easy to use either hand because working with both hands on solid surface. But, like other tools, if it doesn't feel just right to us, we're in search of something that does the job and does feel right. After all, I started this thread about how wet to get leather for proper skiving. Just skiving dry was a tremendous improvement for me.

Regis

Edited March 14, 2007 by Regis

[BruceGibson]

Being a lefty, I'm feelin' right at home!

[Art]

I skive dry, but I am missing something here (wow ain't that a revelation). When I skive I am tapering an edge to just the grain for folding over or any of a number of reasons. I put the leather on the cutting surface grain down and put a piece of glass on top of the leather with the edge of the leather revealed. I then use a head knife or a special Bill Buchman knife with an angle and one ear lopped off (this saves knuckles from that missing ear) to run down the edge laying against the glass. The further back I have the glass, the more gradual the skive. I also do this with french edgers (Ron's) in the bigger sizes. You can also do this with a surgical scalpel with the big bellied blade (not #10 more like a #20 that uses a different handle than the #10 although the #10 might work too). I also use the cheap curved skiver fron Tandy with the injector blades for small stuff, it works really well if sharp so change blade often. The expensive skiver from Tandy is too bulky but might be ok for belt ends or something.

Guess there is more than one way to skin a ferret.

Art

[bruce johnson]

Another use for the piece of safety glass we should all have laying around in our shop. Some of the boot guys who do a lot more skiving than I ever thought of passed this little tip on. Apply rubber cement to a piece of safety glass. Let tack up a bit and put the leather to be skived grain side down on the glass. Skive away (using a second piece of glass as a guide like Art suggested or what ever technique/tool you prefer). It prevents stretch and the piece moving around. The rubber cement will roll or rub right off the the grain side of most leathers. These boot guys can do this adding pieces for build-up inlays and overlays, and turn the glass over, look through it, and make sure everything is lined up.

Bruce Johnson

[CitizenKate]

Heheh! Well, when I used it, I pulled, but I couldn't control it nearly as easily pulling a safety skiver as I could pushing the scalpel. Might just depend on the technique your hand prefers.

Kate

I'm left handed so I must have missed something in the training manual[lol]. If you skive pushing, then safety skiver is in right hand. If you pull, then skiver is in your left hand. It is not like using an open knife blade. Although I'm not very experienced, it's pretty easy to use either hand because working with both hands on solid surface. But, like other tools, if it doesn't feel just right to us, we're in search of something that does the job and does feel right.