French Edge Skiver

[Crystal]

Hi All-

Had a little accident while using a French edge skiver last night and I think it was because the edge started to get dull and I used a wee bit too much pressure.

How do you sharpen the edges on these?

Might as well throw in the same question for groover blades (do you just buy new for them?) and edgers.

And, of course, if there are recomendations on any brands better than others, please let me know so I can add it to my "need to buy in the future" list.

Thanks!

Crystal

[tazzmann]

Hey Crystal, I would suggest getting the book "Leathercraft Tools" by Al Stohlman. It goes into how to sharpen, care and use of a lot of different leather tools. I sharpen mine with a flat jewler's file. Some people just buy new ones.

[Crystal]

Hey Crystal, I would suggest getting the book "Leathercraft Tools" by Al Stohlman. It goes into how to sharpen, care and use of a lot of different leather tools. I sharpen mine with a flat jewler's file. Some people just buy new ones.

Thanks, Tazzmann. I will order the book.

Crystal

[steveh]

You can sharpen the bottom by stopping it on leather strop loaded with jewelers rouge. pull it towards you and polish the edge, plus about inch or so back ,as a polished tool helps it glide thru the leather. to sharpen the the inside of the top portion, you can cut leather circles about inch in diameter from thick skirting leather like 1/4 thick, put a small hole in the center and put it on a dremel mandrel and load the disk with rouge and polish the inside. These french edgers are delicate tools , I would stay a way from a bench grinder as the can overheat and ruin the tool.Hope that helps.

[bruce johnson]

Crystal,

Another good sharpening book is How To Sharpen Leather Tools by Herb French. It costs about $10, and Sheridan Leather Outfitters have it. It goes into some of the specifics for leather tools, and especially working on older tools that might have a pitted or dinged up edge. Herb has some good advice for power or hand sharpening. Like Steve, I use the leather wheels. I also use cratex wheels on the dremel too for more aggressive metal removing.

The big key for all of this is preserving the correct angle for the tool. If you do much work from the top of the french edger like Stohlman shows, you can raise that angle up. I mostly work flat off the bottom for my FEs, and strop the top with the cloth wheels or the leather wheels if I need to get some hone marks out. I used to consider the lower end tools as almost disposibles. After a few times they never sharpened up right. Most of that was the design of the edgers and difficulty to visualize the top edge down in that slot. The sharpening angle also seemed to be quite a lot higher than what I am using now. The biggest problem was they never were quite sharp when new, so I am sure that I wasn't starting with as good an edge as I could do now either. The more open pattern edger like the round bottoms, vizzard pattern, or bisonettes are easier for me to keep a good edge on with the least effort. They work up as easy as a french edger for me.

The prices are higher, but like Tazz said, some people just find it easier to toss a cheaper one and replace it with the same. Throw away about 4 cheap ones, and ruin one project and figure the time and material cost in it before you wrecked it and started over. Makes a $55-80 edger pretty realistic if you use them enough. I finally started replacing the sizes I was using with the better ones as time and finances allowed.

As far as groover blades, try taking that bevel down further and see how much better they work. Stropping that inside edge with the leather wheel is the ticket too.

[Crystal]

You can sharpen the bottom by stopping it on leather strop loaded with jewelers rouge. pull it towards you and polish the edge, plus about inch or so back ,as a polished tool helps it glide thru the leather. to sharpen the the inside of the top portion, you can cut leather circles about inch in diameter from thick skirting leather like 1/4 thick, put a small hole in the center and put it on a dremel mandrel and load the disk with rouge and polish the inside. These french edgers are delicate tools , I would stay a way from a bench grinder as the can overheat and ruin the tool.Hope that helps.

Thank you, big help - I was thinking I could kind of treat it like a swivel knife blade, but didn't have a clue how to work on the topside.

[Crystal]

Crystal,

Another good sharpening book is How To Sharpen Leather Tools by Herb French. It costs about $10, and Sheridan Leather Outfitters have it. It goes into some of the specifics for leather tools, and especially working on older tools that might have a pitted or dinged up edge. Herb has some good advice for power or hand sharpening. Like Steve, I use the leather wheels. I also use cratex wheels on the dremel too for more aggressive metal removing.

The big key for all of this is preserving the correct angle for the tool. If you do much work from the top of the french edger like Stohlman shows, you can raise that angle up. I mostly work flat off the bottom for my FEs, and strop the top with the cloth wheels or the leather wheels if I need to get some hone marks out. I used to consider the lower end tools as almost disposibles. After a few times they never sharpened up right. Most of that was the design of the edgers and difficulty to visualize the top edge down in that slot. The sharpening angle also seemed to be quite a lot higher than what I am using now. The biggest problem was they never were quite sharp when new, so I am sure that I wasn't starting with as good an edge as I could do now either. The more open pattern edger like the round bottoms, vizzard pattern, or bisonettes are easier for me to keep a good edge on with the least effort. They work up as easy as a french edger for me.

The prices are higher, but like Tazz said, some people just find it easier to toss a cheaper one and replace it with the same. Throw away about 4 cheap ones, and ruin one project and figure the time and material cost in it before you wrecked it and started over. Makes a $55-80 edger pretty realistic if you use them enough. I finally started replacing the sizes I was using with the better ones as time and finances allowed.

As far as groover blades, try taking that bevel down further and see how much better they work. Stropping that inside edge with the leather wheel is the ticket too.

Thanks, Bruce. I will order that book, also. I've seen some used tools for sale but didn't want to end up with something that needed more TLC than I knew how to do, sounds like that book would help. I've just started with this and don't know what kind of projects I will end up liking and doing a decent job at, so I am just using the bargin basement variety of tools until I figure out what I will really need. Then I want to upgrade. Sharpening skills are probably best learned on throw-aways than on the good stuff. Sounds like the cardinal rule of you get what you pay for carries through for leather work, too. Thanks for the advice.

Crystal