Newbie to skiving

[Hidemechanic]

As usual if I wait long enough everyone will say about everything I am thinking.

I use a skife knife(sold by most everyone) that uses the single edge razor blade that used to be used for the old injector razors.You may go through a dozon blades or just a few but it will be more than one for bigger projects.

I do have other skiving blades as well as my round knifes but I don't do all my skiving with only one blade.

Different things determine how leather will skive.Thin, thick, inbetween, soft temper, firm temper, where it is cut from the hide, and how well it is tanned,veg tan, chrome tan, skirting hides, tooling hides, latago dry or waxy, harness, bridle, chap, on and on. Like Tom said you have to get the feel of how your leather wants to skive.

As also mentioned, besides a seriously sharp blade there needs to be the proper amount of moisture in the leather to skive properly in most caces.

Not wet wet, but 'on the dry' as we say.Similar to tooling.

For skiving long tapers over large areas I have been known to use a duller blade with the skife knife so as to take off vary little(looks like saw dust) while smoothing things out. I also will change directions, not just start at the thickest edge to the thinest.

Invarably I will get spots where the knife gouged a bit deep and changing directiion helps clean it up. Remember this mostly appies to heavier leather.

Just don't get hung up on thinking (especially being new at it) that you should be able to do the job in as few strokes as possible. Sometimes that may apply but when you have a lot of material to remove on a piece that could be easily ruined by one misplaced stroke, you want to do what works.

Maybe us saddle makers are spoiled because we do a lot of skiving on ground seats which gives us a lot to practice with out feeling like we are wasting leather.

But that's the key as usual, practice practice practice. Try different things, even sanders or grinding wheels, and other types of bladed implaments.

Best wishes, GH

[kseidel]

Sounds good, but I've been trying to skive the spine area in a notebook. I'd have to have a "scoop 'n skive"

By the way, your website is awesome and your work exqusite!

Hilly,

Thanks for the compliment on the website. We are in the process of a complete update( past four months!) so check back occasionally to see new features that will be loaded soon. (I hope)

What is happening with your skiving... I think your skiver is cutting too deep and "chattering" leaving a washboard like surface. You can adjust the skiver by bending. You probably have already tried bending allong the length of the blade, but you need to bend it widthways changing the pitch of the blade. A small pair of vise grip pliers works well to bend this area: regular pliers wont hold tight enough to bend the blade side only and not twist the whole cutting end. I use three different skivers for most of my skiving like ground seats, skirt plugs, horn wraps, and "album spines" like you are wanting to do. One is bent to cut shallow. one medium depth and one deep. French edgers are great as are gouges and channelers to define your corners and folds, but the skivers work very well for the larger flat areas.

A buffing wheel is also very helpful for making the skiver blade smooth and keep it sharp. I can use one blade for several weeks usually.

Another tip for skiving is to wet the area to be skived on the back side. Not too wet, but a little moisture with a sprayer or sponge will make the cut smoother and easier.

Keith

[badLoveLeather]

Yea, yer gonna burn through some skins.

I make wallets. They need to be as thin as possible because we all know that sum of the parts make the whole. Often at my local leather supplier I find GREAT skins to make wallets out of BUT the are too thick. I've skived out 5-6 oz skins to 2-3 oz or less just to get what I need. I usually skive out an area about 12"x7" Here are some photos of my tool. Its a cheap tool called a Skife and is available though anyone that carries CS Osbourne tools. The blades are disposable and this technique for me takes practice and its a lot like shaving. Although i don;t shave (which i complain about all the time but my friends tell me I'm lucky!) I get the blades about .25 per blade and I use new blades always. Sharper the better. IT TAKES PRACTICE!!!!! Don;t give yerself a hard time. There have been a many wallet blank that i was almost done with and I sent the blade right through the skin. This doesn't make me happy.

[seveneves]

I suppose this is one of those areas of leatherwork which takes lots and lots of practice to get right. Long, feather edges, 45 degree edges, album and binder spines, etc. Do any of you have any tips to help a newbie get started with minimal leather being tossed in the bin? Can I make a jig to do the 45 degree agles such as used in box corners? I already have plenty of scrap to practice on

I've been trying to learn to skive, but not having the results I'm wanting. Sometimes I end up cutting through the leather, or sometimes (such as in the spine area of a notebook) I just can't do it evenly. I have the skiver that Tandy sells with the razor blade refills, I have an skiving knife that reminds me of a putty knife, and I have a small angled knife which reminds me of a paring knife.

My blades are quite sharp (I think), so I don't belive this is an issue.

There's the one silver skiver that tandy sells that's really hard to use. I prefer the safety beveler. It's a lot easier and doesn't cut into the leather.

[OdinUK]

Im having the same problem/learning curve. I did a sketch based on some advice I got on the post about Frech skives. I showed it to my boss and he made me this simple jig for holding the leather while its cut at 45 degrees. Useful for making boxes.

The top piece has slotted holes so can be adjusted for different thicknesses of leather.