First Time With A Swivel Knife... Yeesh.

[Deraj828]

Well, I bought my first swivel knife a while ago, stropped the dickens out of it a while later, and finally got around to using it a couple days ago. It was a very educational experience. I played around a bit first, then screwed it into one of Tandy's swivel knife holding border tool jigs. I learned a lot of ways real quick how to not effectively use that jig. I also learned that my hand coordination is still nowhere near where I hoped it would be.

I guess the most pressing question I have is why the sides of every cut are such a mess. I can blame everything else on myself, but I wouldn't know how to tear up the edges like that even if I wanted to. My best guesses are that it's because 1: I did a simple casing job, satisfactory for stamping, but not so much for cutting, or 2: because three years ago I bought the cheapest cut of leather I could find, and it's been sitting in the chaotic climate of my apartment (that wasn't sarcasm) ever since.

I very much suspect this is a familiar sight to most of you. Is one of my reasons right, or is it something else? How is it to be overcome? Or have I just set my knife expectations too high, and this only seems new because I haven't looked closely at other people's cuts?

[shooter55]

I'm not an expert on tooling (as many here are), but I believe the leather quality may have something to do with the issue. It also looks like the knife is "dragging" and pulling the leather instead of cutting clean, which can be caused by trying to cut too deep. If your knife is truly sharp, it really takes minimal effort to cut a good line. You shouldn't have to exert a lot of pressure. The knife need to be perpendicular to the leather when doing this also. That will "bend" one side of the cut if you don't. The casing could be too wet, which can also make for a sloppy cut.

I'm sure someone here will identify what you are doing that is causing your problem.

Don't be discouraged as we all had to start the same way you are. The biggest difference, is you have the benefit of truly talented artisans helping you here. (myself not included).

Have fun....

[Chief31794]

I believe Shooter is pretty much on the money. I would say the issues are; 1) Improperly cased leather, 2) Dull Knife combined with cutting too deep, 3) I'm not sure how you're holding the knife but it should be perpendicular to the surface and tilted forward so that you're cutting with the "corner". Since you mentioned a cutting jig it may be that the blade is sitting flat and the side of the blade is being dragged through the leather. Bob Park (Hidepounder) has an excellent explanation on casing leather posted and pinned on the top of this forum, knife sharpening is a mixture of skill and art with the beam tipped toward art, some folks can do it expertly, some can't. Stropping is extremely important, however, if you're stropping a dull knife you will wind up with a polished dull knife. Others may have different opinions and it's hard to trouble shoot something without seeing it happen live and examining the piece.

Hope this helps,

Chief

Edited February 6, 2014 by Chief31794

[electrathon]

It looks to me like your leather is too wet and likely a dull knife. A strop will not sharpen a knife, it keeps a knife sharp.

[Early2rise]

Cheap leather will nearly always wrinkle around the cuts, even with a sharp knife. If I could find a way to keep it from happening, I'd be a very happy camper.

Oh, and cheap doesn't necessarily refer to price! There are some very expensive, cheap leathers out there.

[WyomingSlick]

" stropped the dickens out of it a while later"

That alone suggests that you may have dulled the blade to start with. Did you try the blade before stropping it? Some blades are not really sharp enough when they come out of the factory and may require a tune-up before use. As Electrathon stated above, stropping is not really to sharpen the blade. And done improperly, will actually dull the blade. If you were stropping on a piece of leather impregnated with jelwers rouge, and using too much pressure, it is very likely that you rounded over the cutting edge, thus dulling the knife for cutting purposes. Stropping is more of a polishing process used to keep the blade clean and reduce drag. Leather contains oils and resins which are a bit "sticky" and will build up on your blade thus inhibiting a smooth passage through the leather. Actually, that is the main purpose of wetting the leather (casing) prior to carving. The water weakens the connective matter which creates the bond between the leather particles, and makes it much easier for the blade to separate them, that is, to cut them apart. This weakening, caused by moisture, is the very same reason that a piece of wet leather is much easier to fold and mold than a piece of dry leather. Of course this is the same reason that we tool with damp leather

So, back to stropping. A polished smooth blade that is sharp will not only cut through leather better,.....it is less liable to pick up stcky residue from the leather. When it does develop some drag from build up, a few careful strops will remove the gunk. I reccomend that for stropping, a quality business card impregnated with stropping compound, and laid on a hard smooth surface works fine. Lawyers and other professionals are a good source for high quality linen paper cards. LOL If you have money to spare, a brand new dollar bill works real well. When you strop, always strop with the sharp edge trailing. Maintain the angle of the blade the same as the sharpening angle, You do not need a lot of pressure because you are not sharpening the blade....you are only cleaning and polishing it. A few strokes on each side should be sufficient.

I would not be too concerned with the small wrinkles. After all, that is why you should be using a modeling tool as the final step in your tooling process...to smooth out any irregularities like those. It is much more important that you have a free moving sharp blade to cut in the design with because that is the foundation for everything that comes after. It is very difficult to bevel a crooked line.....straight.

[Randy Cornelius]

Leather Wranglers has a good video on thier web site on how to sharpen a swivel knife that can explain it better than any. I would have to agree that the blade was not sharpe, leather had something to do with it and that the knife was dragging in the leather.

RC

[Deraj828]

Looks like it's time to spring for a sharpener, then! For simplicity's and finance's sakes, I'd hoped I could put that off for a while. The knife was quite useless when I first tried it, so much so that I held off touching it for a week or two afterwards, just so I could give it the benefit of the doubt. Stropping helped a ton, but frankly I don't know what these knives are supposed to feel like, so I guess it's still not ideal.

For the record, I stropped using a compound that came with a woodcarving tool (Flexcut Carving Jack, the compound is a pretty solid, yellow bar) on the off-chance any of you carve enough wood to know anything about the appropriateness of using Flexcut stropping compound on a Tandy swivel knife. I've only recently come to learn that there are apparently all sorts of compounds for all sorts of purposes.

[Tannin]

Flexcut compound should be good. Suggestion: For a cheap, effective "sharpener", you can use some 600 grit wet-and-dry paper glued to smooth, flat piece of wood/glass/formica. Ben Orford explains a method in this youtube video that has worked very well for me with a variety of edge tools:

I have quite a collection of sharpening stones, gizmos & wheels. The above works as well as anything & better than most - cheap & cheerful . Beyond that - later - a cheap, new, combination oil stone from a name brand like Draper or Faithful (don't get the very cheapest no-name ones - they are usually too coarse and/or too soft - I have several of these, only really suitable for big garden tools); in the UK they cost about £4-£8 plus a Faithfull wooden box for the stone about another £5-£6 is a good investment. Used them with a light oil. Edited December 22, 2014 by Tannin