Cutting Lining

[dirtclod]

Both of the knives that Springfield sells are Osborne's their good knives, i have a couple that i use regular. Not the best but their not 2 to 300.00 each either. I would ask if their 4 inch wide knives, 5 inch wide knives get you a little far from your work for me. You sharpen them on a regular or diamond stone then strop or buff on wheel with compound.

[St8LineGunsmith]

out of all my head knives, round knives and skiving knives my most used knife is a folding lock back razor knife I got from Harbor freight the blades are thin and very precise and the blades can be stroped to be sharper than the factory edge and if you do finally dull a blade beyond its usefulness just slide a new blade in to replace the old one. then I do as dwight mentioned I burnish the edges with an electric belt sander and or drum sander. this process often requires additional edge beveling to remove the excess edge build up from sanding.

[Andrew Chee]

I finally (several years ago) said to the devil with knives, rotary cutters, head knives, axes, saws, . . . or anything else you can trim leather with to make it look right.

I bought a 1 inch electric belt sander, . . . it uses a 1 x 30 inch belt, . . . makes more racket than teenagers tapdancing on a metal roof, . . . but the edges come out clean, . . . straight, . . . level, . . . and ready for beveling and burnishing.

It is especially useful if there is more than one layer, . . . belt, holster, pouch, sheath, etc.

I wore out the first one, . . . bought another one, . . . now I have a rotary, reciprocating drum sander that also works magic, wonders, miracles, . . . woo-hoo, . . . who needs knives?

May God bless,

Dwight

Hi Dwight, what grit do you use for your final sanding of edges?

I've found that the sander works great for leveling the edges. If I have no curves in the piece I still prefer to cut the straight lines because you do get a cleaner edge. But with curves and corners you can't beat a sander to level the layers.

Andrew