Newbie Question - Swivel Knife Cut Line Peeling?

[iLoveLeather]

Hello all, I'm a complete newbie in leatherworking living in Hong Kong. This is probably a very stupid question for most of you but why do we need to cut the leather with the swivel knife before the beveling and all the stamping? I've attached a close-up picture of some random practice I've done on a scrape piece of leather and I'm puzzled by the leather peeling at the cut line. Without the swivel knife cutting I don't see this problem. Am I doing something very wrong? Not casing the leather right? Not cutting to the right depth? Incorrect usage of the beveler? Or something else?

[iLoveLeather]

Sorry, the attachment didn't seem to work. Let me try again.

[McJeep]

By *peeling* I think you are meaning the fact that you can see the bottom of your swivel cut in a couple places - just need to get that beveller in closer to the cut. I usually start with a smooth beveller before my checkered beveller - the smooth one seems to run down into the cut better where my checkered one takes a grab. Once I've got the edge defined I can get the checkered one in nice and tight - hope this makes sense??

[Cyberthrasher]

McJeep sounds like he's got the main problem covered. You just really need to make sure you're holding that beveler against the back of your cut line. Don't be afraid to make multiple passes either. The other problem I've had at times is getting my cuts too deep to the point where it just ends up looking like that in the end, so watch your cut depth as well. Like everything it just takes a lot of practice.

As to "why", without the cut you're just compressing the leather which will allow it to return to its natural state down the road. If you cut the line first, you're physically altering the leather in a way that it could never return from, which will make your tooling last a lot longer. Also, cutting the line just makes it that much more defined which will really make your art work stand out.

[iLoveLeather]

Thanks guys! Now it all makes sense!

BTW...how do I change the country flag on the left? I'm not from the U.S.

[Cyberthrasher]

Thanks guys! Now it all makes sense!

BTW...how do I change the country flag on the left? I'm not from the U.S.

Maybe a time-zone setting or something? I see you location says Hong Kong, so that shouldn't be it.

[Chief31794]

Can't help with the flag, on the beveling the other posters are right on target. Place the forward edge of the beveler right in the cut and then use mallet or maul taps to compress the side you wish. Sometimes it helps to tilt the beveler slightly forward (toward you and away from the side of the line being beveled) so that you can actually feel the edge then you can come back and straighten the beveler up to get full compression when smoothing your beveled line. Hope this helps, the real key is practice.

Ken

Edited May 16, 2012 by Chief31794

[terrymac]

Another thing you may want to look at is the angle or tilt of your swivel knife. If you lean it one way or the other, you will get a "sliver" where the cut line is not straight up and down. When you do that, it is almost impossible to get a decent bevel as the top of the cut is extending out over your bevel area. Hope this makes some sense. It is just extremely important to hold your knife straight up and down. As far as the necessity of using a knife, it is the means of defining your subject. About the only place where you wouldn't use a knife is in tooling certain kind of landscapes or in tooling clouds for example. You use different kinds of bevelers.

Terry

[Tina]

Another tip,

if the beveling looks OK as you make it but "separates" in the drying period then the leather is to wet when you start the beveling. After damping the leather with water it has to get back looking like dry leather again befor you start cut/bevel...Otherwise you will get those broad crack you refer to.

[Half Goat]

this keeps happening to me, i have tried various methods and different leathers but it is still happening. I have tried when the leather has just dried, and i have waited an extra hour before tooling with the same effect nightmare! I am using a b60 beveller and when i tool the lines it all looks fine, but an hour later it cracks or peels. I guess i need to just wait longer to begin tooling?

[Cyberthrasher]

I guess i need to just wait longer to begin tooling?

If you're waiting an hour and getting the same results, then something else is going on. After a good casing, the leather should be ready for a little additional moisture at about an hour, so if your leather is still too wet after an hour, then it's either WAY too wet to begin with or something completely different is wrong.

I just refreshed my memory and looked back at the thread here. The photo above doesn't appear to be a casing issue. If yours is looking just like that one, then the issue appears to be more along the lines of the beveler not being placed in the cut line correctly. Have you posted recent pictures of your issue? Maybe we can see something different in yours that's just not coming through in words.