Skiving 16-30 Strand Plaited Whips?

[8thsinner]

If I don't have a dedicated skiver, is it still worth trying to skive lace thats rounding off about 2.5mm wide? maybe even as small as 2mm.

The whip will only be 20mm dia at it's handle.

I'll have to build me a skiver first, I don't feel confident in being able to do it by hand.

I am thinking if I do, I will not be splitting anything and just going with the flow of the stretch most likely as I will probably break strands otherwise. It's gotta be too thin at that point right?

It's the left over Spring field leather lace I will be using here if anyone is more familiar with it.

If I am building a skiver, what angle would you recommend and which side, I was thinking just the backside at about 30 degrees.

[Aggiebraider]

Im confused about the angle youre asking about. Are you wanting to make a skiver or a beveler? As I understand it a skiver should cut straight and parallel to the piece of lace

[roo4u]

i think you mean a beveler. rawhide is beveled on the hair side and other leathers on the flesh side. i dont think i could do it by hand either. i dont bother to bevel most of my lace right now cuz i split it thin enough that it doesnt really do anything. when i do horse stuff then i bevel cuz i leave the roo thicker.

[8thsinner]

Yeah, cutting at an angle to me has always been called skiving not beveling, what you guys usually mean by skiving I mean only by splitting. Was late when I posted, usually I take it into consideration.

Oops

[Aggiebraider]

Ok thats what I thought you meant but I wanted to make sure before I answered. I would suggest ALWAYS beveling your lace, not matter what you are doing or the size of the lace. This is because you are basically asking a flat surface to lay smooth over most times round bases. To achieve this and allow all of the lace to be smooth on the top side, you need to make some room on the bottom side. This can also be achieved by beveling the top side, such as in rawhide, and is done so, because when rawhide dries completely, the sharp 90 degree edges of an unbeveled lace can be EXTREMELY sharp and unattractive. I think you will notice a big difference in your braiding if you can get a smooth consistent bevel that runs from the grain side completely over to the flesh side. Think of a trapezoid shape. I know for myself personally it made a huge difference and probably the biggest difference in making my braiding look better once I learned to properly bevel my lace.

Hope this helps,

CW

[roo4u]

well when i think of skiving it means using a skiver or skiving knife to thin a small area of leather so that when glued down it blends into the surface its attached to as smoothly and seamlessly as possible. splitting is usually done with a splitter and is the process of making the leather a uniform thickness. beveling is putting an angled edge on the leather or rawhide, or also the same thing in glass or carpentry.

[8thsinner]

Thanks aggie, thats what I need, proof that no matter what size the lace it should be done.

I was just hoping at this level it made little difference.

Now I really do have to put something together suitable for the job....

I have already tried three variations of Beveler...grr

[Aggiebraider]

One word of advice if you are trying to make your own beveler, make sure you use injector razor blades. They are a pain in the butt to find, but are EXTREMELY sharp and thin. You can get them from Weavers for an ok price, but one of the forum members told me about this place http://www.americancuttingedge.com/. They have a huge selection of blades at very good prices (injector blades are just $0.13 a piece). The only problem is that you have to buy at least $100 worth. I havent ordered any from them yet, just because I cant afford to put that much in just blades right now.

CW

[dirtclod]

Take a look here http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=25628&st=0&p=161414&hl=builderofstuff&fromsearch=1entry161414 and here http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=25604&st=0&p=161290&hl=builderofstuff&fromsearch=1entry161290

. He has some good ideals on spliting and beveling.

[bullwhips]

There are soo many correct ways to prepare the lace to make a whip (some are more correct than others). There are a lot of ways to think about it, for example I remember David Morgan sternly lectured me against paring both flesh sides because over time the strands will push up against each other like tectonic plates...however until that happens it will give you a smooth look to the whip. If you pare opposite corners you will get a bit more texture to the look of the whip. If you dont' pare it will have a lot of texture...but if the strand is thin enough you won't really notice it.

A fun experiment is to alternate paring top left/ bottom right and top right and bottom left across your set. You'll get a whip that is very smooth one way you look at it and have a lot of texture another way.

When you have thinner strands and you pare them you are risking losing some of the strength of the strand. Think of the old sideshow stunt of ripping a phone book in half, you have to bevel the phone book and get a small tear and ride that tear through all the pages...however if you hold the end flush you won't be able to rip it in half. So with thinner strands you'll get a more durable product without paring. If I recall Chris Barr doesn't pare his strands, and if you've ever seen his 72 plait stockwhip you won't doubt how smooth a whip can look without pared strands.

Another memory I have is asking Joe Strain which is the best way to pare lace, his answer was priceless, "it'll still braid no matter how to you pare it" and that's the best answer! Paring will mostly change the look of the whip, not the function. A well made whip with unpared strands will perform better than a horribly made one with pared strands and vice versa.

In my opinion a competent plaiter can make a good product with any way of paring or not paring, and in my opinion main result of how your pare or don't pare is cosmetic.

I've had a lot of fun trying out different ways of paring lace to see the results...I think any aspiring whip maker would find it interesting as well,and I highly recommend experimenting.