Hand Pattern Cutting Help

[Deanimator]

I am new to this site but have worked leather for a while. I am also a woodworker and have a scrollsaw, one day I was fooling around in my shop & tried cutting a leather pattern on my scrollsaw. Works beautifully

I seem to recall seeing somebody do something similar on "How it's Made". Of course I don't have and can't afford a scroll saw...

[BigRiverLeather]

I've been using #11 Xacto blades mostly, that is if I'm not using my shears. I bought a couple of head knifes, one from jcookblades.com which was superb, except after my first few cuts that went through leather like soft butter, it lost it's ultra fine edge and became difficult to work with. I have a lot of work to do on stropping. I ordered it in a 3" with one swept wing and one straight wing. Being my first knife, I had know Idea what I was doing . I told Jeff about my sharpening woes and mentioned I wished I had not ordered the swept wing on one side. He said send it back to him and he would make me another to my liking. This was 4 months later! So, I upgraded to a 4" and am waiting for that.

The same day I ordered that one for $230 (!) I also ordered one from Duey Peters for $65. 4 months later I still have not seen it. He told me it would be ready in two weeks. I've heard that same thing about 3 or 4 times since then. I was anxious to compare the two blades.

Last week I bought a Stohlman #70 4" from Tandy for $50. I knew right off the bat this thing was going to need an edge tuneup. I have some 800, 1,500 and 2,000 grit sandpaper I plan on working on a convex edge for it.

With the Xacto blade, I use a new blade for jsut about every holster, maybe 2. I am now getting used to the fact that on the curves the tip is likely to break off.

The Shears I got from Tandy, the best ones they had that run about $40, worth every penny.

[Reaper]

Starting out myself with leather, but have been doing layout and metal work off and on for year.

I use a Razor knife with a retractable blade, as mentioned before, used for drywall and construction in general. One thing I picked up over the years was when scoring out a pattern hold the knife with the pinky, ring and middle fingers. Then place the thumb upon ontop of what I am scoring/cutting so it is a comfortable distance from the point where the knife tip is place where I want to start my cut at. I check to make sure that I have a good range of motion and then lock my fingers stiff, pull the knife along the curve keeping it on the line ( using my hand and knife as a drafting compass ). If what I am cutting out is along the lines of an S curve, I will stop at or right before the point of the two curves intersecting so I can finish the cuts ensuring the meet.

[DoubleAdobe]

Starting out myself with leather, but have been doing layout and metal work off and on for year.

I use a Razor knife with a retractable blade, as mentioned before, used for drywall and construction in general. One thing I picked up over the years was when scoring out a pattern hold the knife with the pinky, ring and middle fingers. Then place the thumb upon ontop of what I am scoring/cutting so it is a comfortable distance from the point where the knife tip is place where I want to start my cut at. I check to make sure that I have a good range of motion and then lock my fingers stiff, pull the knife along the curve keeping it on the line ( using my hand and knife as a drafting compass ). If what I am cutting out is along the lines of an S curve, I will stop at or right before the point of the two curves intersecting so I can finish the cuts ensuring the meet.

I have tried to use a headknife on many occasions also, mainly just use it for longer straight cuts. An old saddlemaker that showed me a lot of different stuff used the sheepsfoot blade on an ordinary stockman pattern pocket knife. Carbon steel works better for me, get it sharp, and strop it often. It's about all I use from saddles to holsters and in between. Straight stuff, like belts I do use the headknife in a kind of rolling motion. Probably not conventional, but I've been doing it a long time and it's comfortable.

[olliesrevenge]

I'm really glad I read this thread. I have made a bunch of holsters so far, and for some reason I always felt like I should be using the $70 damascus head knife I bought from Tandy. This has been a real pain, mostly because I'm not the best blade sharpener, and so I have always dreaded the task of "cutting out".

On a recent holster I combined these two pieces of advice...

...transfer to leather with a ball stylus............initial cut with a swivel knife...

...with the standard old razor knife that drywall people use....take it to the old rosin strop and sharpen it first , . . . brand new razor blades are too dull for smoothly cutting leather.

... and holy smokes, life just got easier. I have tried using titanium blades in my drywall knife before but it never occurred to me to try to make razor blades sharper. A few passes on the rosin board made a huge difference though.

Thanks!