Any Ideas For A Cutting Board

[penguineer]

I think the glass from a scanner or photocopier isnlikely to be very thin. Not much of a problem unless you have to move it occasionally.

Find a shoplifters supply place - preferably one with secondhand fittings(cheaper). Glass shop shelves are available in a wide range of sizes, bevelled(not sharp) edges and thick enough to deal with a bit of rough handling.

Cheers!

[dikman]

"Shoplifters"?

[penguineer]

"Shoplifters"?

Damn you, autocorrect!!!

Shopfitters suppliers - unless you're using a tablet......

Cheers!

(I guess any shop could be a shoplifters supplier.....)

[dirtclod]

I use side window from a pickup. Got it junkyard.

[George3]

Walmart kitchen Dept. White poly food safe cutting board, inexpensive and I've been cutting and pounding and punching on it 7 days a week for over a year, I buy a new one for the kitchen and use the old one for the leather shop, now I have two, the old and the new (used) they are about 16x20 " offhand I'd say they are about 15 bucks or less ...

I might have run it through the wood shop planer once to resurface!

Unionlevelleather.com

[TigerPal]

I use an old plastic office chair pad, over the carpet in my hobby room. Works fairly well, since I don't have room for a separate cutting table.

[zuludog]

For a cutting mat get the usual green things. They're not very expensive so get the biggest you can manage. I was once chatting to a retired cobbler, who said that 'them green mats' are as good as anything he'd ever used

Yes, you need a hard shiny surface for skiving. I use the glass oven door from an old cooker - free. Lay it on a piece of damp cloth to stop it sliding around. Even if the glass is dirty it will usually clean up well

Keep your eyes & ears open, or ask at a scrapyard or kitchen fitters for some of the old stuff they've removed. You'll probably need a phillips screwdriver or a couple of Allen keys to take it off the hinges

As mentioned, you can also use the glass for laying down wet & dry paper as part of your sharpening regime

Edited October 11, 2015 by zuludog

[Red Cent]

There is something out there that works beautifully. A horse stall mat. I am lucky to have two 4' X 8" tables in my shop. I use one for the leather to be laid out and the other to cut and glue and all the other stuff.

As a side note, I made a roller for a roll of paper from Lowes. This mounted under the table at the end where the mat is positioned. If I dye or glue, I pull the roll paper out as needed. Afterwards I slice the used piece from the roll.

The horse mat is 4' X 6'. And mine is 1" thick. Tractor Supply or other like stores carry them. They carry different sizes and thickness. For those who have a small space, they can be easily be cut for size and store the rest. When cutting light or heavy leather, the knife will not penetrate all the way through. I use utility and carpet knives and have been cutting in the same area for over a year.

I believe this was recommended by Chuck Burrows on Cas City.

If you have the space, you can throw a whole side on the mat and go to work.

[keplerts]

Is there a lot of knife drag when using it on the stall mat? If I try to cut on my poundo board I get a lot of knife drag. Also, are the stall mats smooth or ribbed?

[Hawk Scarbrough]

Glass, excellent. I was thinking I need a "litho block" (whatever & wherever that it is!) or a polished marble slab/thick tile. I have a sheet of tempered (i.e. strong) glass off an old HiFi cabinet that I used for my "scary sharp" sharpening system a few years back that I could try - although I gather tempered glass is generally not as flat as regular glass because of the tempering process.

BTW if you try the "scary sharp" system, don't do what I did: I used spray-on "relocatable" adhesive dry (as suggested somewhere) which worked great at first but I let it set for a long time & it was near impossible to remove the wet & dry paper when it cames time to change it (I still haven't managed to scrape it off ) Some suggestions from fans of the system - professional woodworkers - suggested: either just taping the ends (seems less than ideal to me, not flat & not secure), using water to hold it in place (only works sometimes) or using special self-adhesive wet&dry paper. Probably simplest just to remove the wet& dry paper before the relocatable adhesive dries though!

Re. punching surfaces, I came across a book that describes using a lead block, which can be melted & reformed periodically.

Try acetone...seems to work on most adhesives I have seen, including labels on wine bottles. If you think that is easy, it ain't