Is it skive, par/pare or split?

[shinobi]

I have a heavy weight belt blank of buffalo (1/4" thick 2 3/4 " wide) that I would like to thin down to about 3/16" to make a old west cartridge belt. I think it's just too heavy as it is. Anybody able to adise me on how to do it simply?

[bruce johnson]

Simply. A splitter would be the best. You'll probably get some advice to use a round knife or skiver. If you haven't done that before with these, it isn't simple to get good results. Probably the simplest, and a method I still use on some things is a benchtop belt sander with a coarse grit belt. Keep it moving a bit, but I have almost zero scorching with the beltsander. I think the coarse grit is eating the leather off faster than it is polishing and heating up. Works well in my hands, this is also how I skive folds in belts and straps. Is that cheating?

[shinobi]

Thanks! I never thought of that and I have a benchtop belt sander my dad had made years ago! Do you just eyeball it or do you mark it some how?

[bruce johnson]

I have a leather thickness gauge I use. It is one of the dial gauges that TLF sells for about $30 or so. I hang it mostly by my splitters, but also use it when reducing thickness with the beltsander or bell knife skiver. Pretty handy tool to have for me.

About the only time I mark for the sander is when I use the sander to "gouge" folds for checkbooks, pad holders, and that sort of thing. I mark out the margins of the gouge area on the flesh side and go to grinding. I use french edgers for thicker leather when I really need to thin a gouge, but the beltsander makes a smoother transition than the stairstep a french edger leaves. Then you skive that down. You can grind off 3 thin ones with the belt sander in that same amount of time.