Homemade skiving knife.

[Nowandagain]

When we moved to Israel, I took some of my leather tools but not all of them. Unfortunately you can’t buy a skiving knife here (not that I loved the Osborne skiving knife I had in the U.S.)

Big Stacks Small Workshop suggested using a razor blade scraper. Fine as it goes, but not much stability. And it doesn’t work well for straight 90 degree cuts. 

Viktor George had the answer. On one of his Tips videos, he shows some skiving knives he made from carbon steel putty knives that he bought second hand. 

I found some new high carbon steel knives at a hardware store that focuses on contractors. Now it was time to get to work! Using a set of cheap diamond-on-steel sharpening stones from Amazon, I sharpened one side only, starting with 400 grit, until I had a wire edge. 

Then onto 600 grit, then 1,000 and 1,200. After that, my trusty chef’s steel and the rough-side strop with green rouge. Total sharpening time: about 2 hours. 

The result was great! It skives, trims & makes vertical cuts. I’d post a picture but frankly it looks just like a putty knife with an edge on one side. 

 

Edited Tuesday at 10:08 AM by Nowandagain
Correcting autocorrect.

[Samalan]

Just shows to go ya looks ain't everything you can get some good results from repurposed tools.  

[chuck123wapati]

2 hours ago, Nowandagain said:

When we moved to Israel, I took some of my leather tools but not all of them. Unfortunately you can’t buy a skiving knife here (not that I loved the Osborne skiving knife I had in the U.S.)

Big Stacks Small Workshop suggested using a razor blade scraper. Fine as it goes, but not much stability. And it doesn’t work well for straight 90 degree cuts. 

Viktor George had the answer. On one of his Tips videos, he shows some skiving knives he made from carbon steel putty knives that he bought second hand. 

I found some new high carbon steel knives at a hardware store that focuses on contractors. Now it was time to get to work! Using a set of cheap diamond-on-steel sharpening stones from Amazon, I sharpened one side only, starting with 400 grit, until I had a wire edge. 

Then onto 600 grit, then 1,000 and 1,200. After that, my trusty chef’s steel and the rough-side strop with green rouge. Total sharpening time: about 2 hours. 

The result was great! It skives, trims & makes vertical cuts. I’d post a picture but frankly it looks just like a putty knife with an edge on one side. 

 

heres a pic of mine lol they work!!!

[PastorBob]

I bought a cheap one on Amazon for $10.  It works very well.  I need to put an edge back on it though.

[dikman]

14 hours ago, Nowandagain said:

I’d post a picture but frankly it looks just like a putty knife with an edge on one side. 

 

That line made me laugh! Good idea, some of those putty knives/scrapers are thinner than I could make a blade, I'll have to look into it.

[TomE]

23 hours ago, PastorBob said:

I bought a cheap one on Amazon for $10.  It works very well.  I need to put an edge back on it though.

I think I have the same Chinese skiving knife.  It's a winner for the price.  

Another skiving tool I use often is this small round knife from Abbey England.  The blade is 68mm = 2-5/8" wide.  It holds an edge and is handy for skiving and for cutting egg points/English points on strap ends.

[MarshalWill]

I've made all these from saw blades. I use the one on the right for skiving more than the rest although the two on the left work good, too, depending on the type of skiving I need to do. You can find good Japanese made knives of similar designs on ebay or Amazon that hold an edge well.

[dikman]

I can see where the one on the right could work well, the curving edge should allow for an easier/smoother slicing action. I might have to pinch the idea.

[MarshalWill]

5 hours ago, dikman said:

I can see where the one on the right could work well, the curving edge should allow for an easier/smoother slicing action. I might have to pinch the idea.

By all means. It works great. The saw blade center hole didn't do much for it, though, unless you want to hang it up on a hook.

[dikman]

I thought that hole was a necessary part of it.