Skiving Chrome Options

[John D]

I am working on some uppers for shoes and have chrome tan leather that I want to use but it is somewhere around 3 to 4 oz thickness. I want to skive this down to 1 to 1.5 oz thickness.

A bell knife skiver looks to be pretty doggone pricey (around $1400 with shipping at best) and I tend to prefer manual devices. I found the Schärf skiver for benches, but it seems to only support knife widths of ~2". I also found an article saying a Chase style skiver/splitter works well for chrome tanned leather.

Are there other options? I would love a 6" to 10" skiver blade that I can use on chrome tanned leather, but not seeing any options readily available. (Band skivers I suppose would work but I cannot imagine how expensive they are.) To put some context on my ask, I am a fledgling shoe maker and looking to invest in manually powered tools (wherever possible) as I am more likely to be able to fix/fabricate on my own.

Thanks for the time and attention, and hoping this question is not too stoopid.

John

[TwinOaks]

From the description, it sounds like you need a splitter not a skiver. Skivers typically only thin down the edge, where a splitter can handle (almost) the full width of the blade.

[John D]

Guess that was a newbie mistake on my part. I have heard and seen and participated in conversations where folks just look lost until you use skiver to mean splitter.

You are 100% correct. I could use recommendations/clarifications on splitters that work for Chrome. I found reference to Chase style as highly recommended but those seem to be about like unicorns. Rumored but never actually seen. (I am on West Coast where some things just never quite make it here.)

Thanks again

From the description, it sounds like you need a splitter not a skiver. Skivers typically only thin down the edge, where a splitter can handle (almost) the full width of the blade.