Help Sourcing A Good Skiving Knife For Making Watch Bands

[DavidL]

I purchased a knife thats stainless, curved like a clicker knife and convex blade geometry. Found out later that its not quite suited for cutting with a ruler (edge isn't flat but convex) and was hard to sharpen a curved convex vs a v grind or chisel grind (needs special round sharpening stones).

I read some of the japanese white steels become beyond sharper than other steels and sharpen up quick. My next knife will be a kiridashi - one flat edge to ride against ruler, white steel and inexpensive. Similar to what european leather factories sometimes use, a shoe makers knife. Just a thought..

[rawcustom]

Japanese white steel and blue steel is not a rare or special metal. White steel is a high carbon, blue steel is a high carbon with a dash of tungsten. The name white and blue is derived from the color of the wrapping paper the manufacturer packages with.

Harder steels will become sharper than softer steels. Stainless steel only indicates an alloyed steel contaning at least 11-12% Chromium (depending on what sources you read). There are a ton of stainless steel alloys from run of the mill 440C to the modern super steels such as M390, Elmax and SV-30. How an alloy steel is made is just as or more important than the contents added. Powder metallurgy steel is vastly superior as it has a homogenous mixture of alloys within the iron matrix. Simple steels containing only Iron and carbon are your 'high carbon' steels, even though most stainless knife steels have a higher carbon content. High Carbon steel are lacking in the wear resistance alloys therefore are easier to sharpen, and consequently easier to dull.

All of the above regarding content and alloy is nothing without proper heat treatment. A poor or untreated supersteel would be a complete failure if compared to a properly heat treated simple steel. Alloy and content is potential, heat treatment is the realization of the potential. This is one reason why quality knives can cost more as they don't shortcut heat treatment, and test results, all taking more time and money.

The final issue with your blade's cutting performance is how the knife was made. A convex edge is touted by some as superior and stronger. While I can't disagree that it would be stronger since there is more mass as the edge I find it makes resharpening nearly impossible for the end user. A knifemaker can sharpen to a convex about as easy as you can sharpen a knife since guys who do this simply sharpen it against a slack portion of their belt grinder. The resulting flex gives you that convex 'appleseed' edge. I prefer a low flat grind with minimal sharpening bevel on a new knife. After enough sharpening you will arrive at the convex and either love it, or send it back and I regrind it back to a flat.

A lot of misconceptions with knife steels, but at least I didn't have to go down the pattern welded "damascus" route.

[DavidL]

good info into the world of knifes. like you said most important is for the knife to be heat treated correctly. I did a bit of research and some personal experience the type of grind how thick the edge and above the cutting edge is and many other factors come into play to get a good knife. From what I read the consensus is the thinner the edge the better cutting performance.

Also from what carter cutlery says (17th generation japanese blade smith) among the japanese blade smith community white steel #1 is the best cutting steel making the sharpest possible blade. Could be other steels that are similar, the white steel is proven good quality.

to me a chisel grind or hollow grind carbon steel would work well in theory. HSS steel and stainless I dont know for sure if it can get as sharp as good carbon steel or if its practical because of long sharpening times. Cutting upholstery leather/chrome the knife needs to be razor sharp or it will pull.

Edited December 19, 2014 by DavidL

[Geneva]

You don't need a knife splitter. You need a pull through splitter. I think a 6 inch blade would work just fine for you. It is very hard to control the depth of the cut with a knife that in turn will make your straps look like the ocean because of the variance in thickness. Just my 2 cents.

[kai1865]

I find that when working on small items like watch bands it helps to skive the leather before you cut out the final shape, this also helps to avoid "fuzzies."