Accurately cutting "stretchy" leather.

[Shadders]

Hello,

After taking a rather long and unintended break away from leathercraft, I've returned to it, and completed a couple of basic wallets as my first couple of baby steps projects. I used Walpier museum buttero for the first and Badalassi carlo pueblo for the second. For the latter, I lined the note holder with napper lamb. I found the napper to be more challenging to cut correctly due to it's stretchines.

Now, I've purchased some goat from Tusting & Burnett. I find that the goat has similar qualities when it comes to cutting it accurately. The line is not straight, even though I'm cutting against a cork backed steel rule. I don't think my blade is a problem, it's stropped enough for a good polish and shaves arm hair easily. I think the ruler could be a problem, the cork side is not flush with the rule, stopping ~1mm from the steal edge. I also feel my technique could be better, maybe inconsistent pleasure and/or angle.

If there's anyone out there who'd like to share how they cut the more flexible hides, I'd love to learn from their experience please.

Best regards,

Shadders

[fredk]

Heavy weights to hold down and a very sharp rotary knife. I use a 60mm diameter blade rotary knife

[JDFred]

What Fred said.

[dikman]

Yep, I've found one of those rotary cutters much better on softer material because there's no drag like you get pulling a blade.