Skiving Leather With A Bandsaw? Crazy, Or No?

[Relly]

I was looking online at the top end skiving machines - they use a knife on a belt.

I have seen a similar tool, the humble bandsaw!

So, the idea would be to glue a piece of leather flesh side down to a block of wood. Instead of cutting off the "excess", I could skive off the amount that I would like to use. With a fence, and the right blade, and the right speed ... I am not sure that this would not work. If it did work, I can make the bandsaw do double duty as a mold cutting tool and a skiver both.

This is my second post, yay!

[particle]

It seems like the teeth on a bandsaw blade would cause severe tear-out and/or very fuzzy flesh-side. Plus, you'd be gluing the flesh side to the backer board, and skiving away the grain side of the leather. Good idea though. I've wondered about cutting pieces out with a scroll saw - haven't tried it yet. I bet someone here has though.

[Art]

I have used a band saw to cut out pieces, especially sole leather. It works quite well actually. I think you are talking about splitting as opposed to skiving, and that would require a bit of re-engineering. I have used the knife edge band saw blades for cutting out patterns and it works well once you get the blade on, they are very sharp and come coiled up, I tend to look like I got the wrong end of our big tom when I am finished. Have the blade guide as short as you can.

Art

It seems like the teeth on a bandsaw blade would cause severe tear-out and/or very fuzzy flesh-side. Plus, you'd be gluing the flesh side to the backer board, and skiving away the grain side of the leather. Good idea though. I've wondered about cutting pieces out with a scroll saw - haven't tried it yet. I bet someone here has though.

[knuckles34]

Your going to want to set your blade speed high. use a thick blade with lots of teeth less blade flex that way. and work on your feed method. you will need to make pressure feet to hold your leather tight to the fence, both before and after the cut. I would recomend a piece of 1 cm marble or granite to apply to your fence. jumping on my cad program now to draw a pic.

[knuckles34]

Ok Relly heres that pic. This is a top view looking down at your jig. the stone face can be attached by a couple of clamps to your fence. away from your jig of course.

The jig itself can be cut out of one piece of tight grained particle board as it usualyl comes in various thicknesses and is pretty true and square. or several glued together.

you can use stone for the slides on your jig or even smooth tile like those little bathroom tiles they use fore mosaic.

just set your fence/with faceing at the distance of your skive, place a piece of leather against it.

Set your pressure jig against the leather and clamp it to your saw table.

set your speed to as fast as it will go. feed your leather slow till you find its pace with the saw. that should do.

one note though The blade feed plate for your saw, should have the smallest possible clearance. to avoid pinching and dragging your leather down

Now that I saw Art's post get a knife edge blade too.

Edited March 11, 2011 by knuckles34

[knuckles34]

Dangit !! now I'm gunna have to go out to the shop and do that. Got me thinking

[Relly]

Dangit !! now I'm gunna have to go out to the shop and do that. Got me thinking

Thank you!!

You know, a decent splitter costs $400 ... that same money buys a very good bandsaw, and the bandsaw will do more.

A knife edged blade, eh? And that jig will work. Okay, this project is practical and reasonable.

I was rethinking the project and thought about tacking my leather to a wood round, instead. I could rest the round on the fence and "kiss" the blade by rolling the round slightly into the blade, parallel to it ...That would let me control thickness, I'd see my work, and the danger of cutting off too much would be minimal. If I make a mistake, there's less chance of ruining the piece.

Bandsaw. Benchtop model ... any recommendations on which one, though? And those knife blades? I was completely ready to spend $200 on the crappy Tandy "pro" splitter, and I work at a Home Improvement retailer so I know what bandsaws cost. DeWalt, Delta? I get great deals on special order merchandise.

[knuckles34]

I dunno about bench tops, I have a floor model from grizzly tools. http://www.grizzly.com/products/The-Ultimate-14-Bandsaw/G0555 for the more economical check your local home improvement stores. problem is that sometimes ya get less than you pay for.

[Relly]

I dunno about bench tops, I have a floor model from grizzly tools. http://www.grizzly.c...4-Bandsaw/G0555 for the more economical check your local home improvement stores. problem is that sometimes ya get less than you pay for.

Very true. The only benchtop model in my store right now is a Skilsaw brand with horrible reviews!

I thought about this idea all day at work, and decided that my idea does work, but it is not for me.

Part of what I want from Leather is not the end product, it's the satisfaction of craftsmanship.

And doing things by hand, the hard way. Or the skilled way. I need more practice and techniques.

The bandsaw is efficient, but it is too much of a power tool. And the Osborne 84-ish splitters are production tools, too.

I'm not out to make money or mass produce anything. I want to work with my hands, as much as practical,

and speed's not an issue. I was too clever for myself. Forgot what I was about.

I have a bag of scraps, most of a good shoulder, and some new ideas.

Thank you for the advice!

[knuckles34]

Very true. The only benchtop model in my store right now is a Skilsaw brand with horrible reviews!

I thought about this idea all day at work, and decided that my idea does work, but it is not for me.

Part of what I want from Leather is not the end product, it's the satisfaction of craftsmanship.

And doing things by hand, the hard way. Or the skilled way. I need more practice and techniques.

The bandsaw is efficient, but it is too much of a power tool. And the Osborne 84-ish splitters are production tools, too.

I'm not out to make money or mass produce anything. I want to work with my hands, as much as practical,

and speed's not an issue. I was too clever for myself. Forgot what I was about.

I have a bag of scraps, most of a good shoulder, and some new ideas.

Thank you for the advice!

Seems like a good train of thought to me. I like the crafting challenge to. Nothing quite like a good sharp knife and alot of practice. I got into this craft for one reason and quickly figured out it calmed my mind and taught me patience.

[hivemind]

I've wondered about cutting pieces out with a scroll saw - haven't tried it yet. I bet someone here has though.

I cut a lot of 14-16oz stuff for armor on my bench mounted scroll saw, and all the sole bend I work with gets cut on it. I also use it to cut out small curvy things, like round eyeholes in masks. Works great. I'm using a cheap $50 Harbor Freight one.

[Don Ayres]

In carpentry we call it resawing, thats when you take lets say a 1" board stand it on edge and rip it down with a bandsaw to say 1/2" thickness, I have some thick leather and wil try this method at work tomorrow, I definitly think this will work.

[Neillo]

Interesting concept! I'm slowly amassing tools for a workshop and would love to be able to cut leather

that quickly, a friend of mine uses a jigsaw to cut all of his buffalo shoulder for armoring with good results.

Using a bandsaw with a reasonably fine blade, like 14tpi and up could get a reasonably clean cut. but to

make less work for myself; i'd probably get a 22tpi or similar blade just for leather.

Probably the biggest issue would be the bottom guide for the blade being too big and trying to pull the leather

through it, resulting in a cut that isn't 90 degrees, you could solve this by making a zero tolerance insert for

that specific blade.

If you felt lazy or didn't have the cash, you could always sharpen the spine of an existing blade into a knife

edge, but i'm not sure how well it'd work. I've thought of a few jigs to cut leather, but a bandsaw would be

the cheapest and most low maintenance solution of you already have a bandsaw, but you'd want to make

sure you have dust collection!

[capnmeow]

here if ur the desperate home made