Skiving & halfmoon knife

[Gonnate]

Hi.

I'm aware I only ever post here to ask questions, not yet offering anything, but I'm always really impressed by the generous help I get. (And you wouldn't want any advice from me yet - far too much to learn still!)

I saw in some book that the halfmoon knife is the one to use for skiving... right or wrong I don't know. I found a lovely old one in an antique shop last year. And while I've used it, it's not a good experience yet!

It's not an easy thing to know which grip to use, nor where to put the other hand so it holds the leather down but is still safely behind the very sharp edge in case of slips...I'd be truly grateful if anyone cares to post help on best way to hold it, hold other hand, any techniques... the lot :-)

... or have I got the wrong end of the stick & shouldn't be using this blade at all?

Thanks as ever.

[TrooperChuck]

Skiving with the round knife is definately an acquired skill. The three best pieces of advice I can offer are...

1. The knife must be SHARP, SHARP, SHARP! If you don't have a razor (and I mean RAZOR!) sharp edge you're wasting your time.

2. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! My first attempts looked like miniature relief maps of the Rocky Mountains. In time, you'll get better and the skive will get smoother.

3. CAUTION, CAUTION, CAUTION! All fingers must stay behind that razor sharp blade. Last year I accidently brushed my round knife against my index finger. I never even felt the cut, but I did notice the dime-sized piece of skin that fell onto my bench and the blood that gushed out!

Find yourself a copy of Al Stohlman's book, "Leathercraft Tools, How to Use Them, How to Sharpen Them." You can order it from Tandy/Leather Factory. It will tell you all about using a round knife, and tons of other leather tools.

[Gonnate]

<2. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! My first attempts looked like miniature relief maps of the Rocky Mountains. In time, you'll get better and the skive will get smoother.>

Thanks for all the points... but no. 2 is very reassuring, because I was thinking at the time it looked like a geographical model!

If I was kind I'd have said a very choppy sea. Perhaps I was being too kind to me!

[D.A. Kabatoff]

A couple other things to keep in mind when skiving...

leather from different parts of the hide will be easier and more difficult to skive depending on the density of the grain. Leather with a loose grain, such as that from the belly, will be easier to skive than tight grain leather from near the spine. Your technique can change depending on the grains density as well. If you are skiving loose grain leather, you may be able to angle your knife and push it straight through to the edge of the leather with the center of the knife doing the cutting. You might also be able to start with a wide skive. If the leather is tight grained you will be better off starting with a narrower skive, removing the edge (maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch) and then make a few passes until your skive is the width you want it. You will also need to use one side of the blade and work in a sideways motion using more of the edge of the blade. To explain that better, imagine cutting a tomato with a knife; you could push your knife straight down through the tomato or you could draw the blade across the tomato. Drawing the knife will give you a cleaner cut on a tomato... The effect is similar on leather.

Generally, skiving is much easier on leather that has some moisture content. Depending on what you are making it helps to either soak the leather or case it. An example, when I'm fitting a gullet cover on a saddle I will soak my piece of leather and let it sit over night... in the morning I will skive it and then fit it to the tree. If I need to carve it, I let it case in some sheepskin for the rest of the day and by then it will be ready for carving. Depending on what you are making you need to plan ahead on how you will work the piece of leather.

hope that helps... as mentioned before, keep that knife razor sharp and your fingers out of the way.

Darc

[jbird]

Not trying to hijack this thread but what kind of surface are you guy using when cuting out with a round knife.

I have a piece or ply wood I am using at the moment.

As far as skiving goes get that book they are talking about it helps a lot also if you can find a good person who nows how to use one and watch them.

Josh

[tonyc1]

If I intend to do much skiving, I skive on glass.

Tony.

[jbird]

If I intend to do much skiving, I skive on glass.

Tony.

Yes but what about cuting out.

Josh

[Hennessy]

Yes but what about cuting out.

Josh

over my years in leather i've found a piece of shoe top lift material[some form of nylon]

20 x 30 a sheet from a shoe find store works good.soft for your sharp edges firm enough to cut on skirt chap wotever.plus it can be moved out of way when not needed or to some other spot you may want to work at,worked good, you have 2 sides also mine have lasted years pete

[D.A. Kabatoff]

I was fitting a cantle back today and took some photos of how I skive the bottom edges..

The first photo shows the leather about 3/4's cased... it's not soaking wet but it still has a few hours before it starts to return to it's original color. The leather is roughly 12oz skirting leather.

The second photo shows how sharp your knife should be; if you can't shave the hair off your arm, it's not as sharp as it should be.

I've used a pair of calipers to scribe the line I want to skive to, in this case it's about one and a quarter inches. You can see in the next photo that my knife is angled with two fingers on top of the blade to stabilize it. If I wasn't holding the camera, my other hand would normally be to the left and behind the direction of the knife.

In the fifth photo you can see that I'm not trying to skive the whole one and a quarter inches... I'll make a second pass and a third pass if the skive is a really deep one on thick leather. I use the left side of my blade as described in my first post and about one and a half inches of the blade draws through the leather starting from near the center of my blade and finishing near the point of the blade... this motion goes hand in hand with the direction of skiving from right to left.

In the sixth photo you can see I have completed my first pass and taken off one long piece about 2/3rds of the depth of the skive. On my first pass, if I had been using the center of my knife and pushing straight towards the edge of the leather, I would have wound up with the bunch of small bits of leather that are seen in the seventh photo. This is the technique I use on the second pass to clean up the skive and take it to the line I originally scribed.

The last photo shows the completed skive. If you have tight corners on the line that you are skiving (like the ones on the center tab of my cantle back), you may not be able to get a round knife into them. The two little corners of the center tab were skived around with a french edger and then blended into the length of the skive with a round knife.

Hope this helps some,

Darc

[hidepounder]

Darc,

Great little tutorial! I would like to know who's knives you are using...I didn't recognize them.

Bob

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Hi Bob,

those knives came from Ellis Barnes... not sure who was making them for him but they are the best knives I've seen. I actually had one of his older ones and thought I'd get a set of three from him before they were no longer available... the new ones were different than the old ones but I actually like them better.

Incidentally, last time I asked Ellis about the knives he said they are no longer being made but he still had a few on hand.

Darc

[Gonnate]

<

I was fitting a cantle back today and took some photos of how I skive the bottom edges..>

Now that's really useful - thanks! Even shows useful ways of holding the knife, and there are so many ways it could be done! Yours looks more comfortable than mine, I have to say - mine is indeed pretty old, but it does take a good edge.

Many thanks - and to all who have joined in this one - great stuff, as ever!