What Knife You Use To Cut Leather?

[tossik]

Hi all,

Don't know if many remember, but I posted a couple of custom round knives that my brother created for sale last year and had great interest in them (despite few grumpy people).

I am in the process of designing a few knife styles for leather and wanted to see what people use most. What knife, what size, what would you want to see different, Do you guys skive a lot with a knife, or use a razor blade? Round knife or head knife?

Let me hear your opinions on your cutting tools.

Thanks!

[firestormhcg]

To be honest, my round/head knife and skiver sit on my tool rack and collect dust. I mainly use a rotary cutter for long straight cuts and wide curves, and I use an olfa snap off 9mm box cutter to cut all the rest.

[dirtclod]

Round and head knife. 4 inch or less a 5 inch knife gets you to far from work IMHO.

Edited March 25, 2015 by dirtclod

[zuludog]

I use a craft knife - 'Stanley knife' - but keep it exclusively for cutting leather. I've resharpened it several times so that it seems to be better than a new blade.

[cgleathercraft]

Usually use a razor knife. I spent 2 hours last weekend polishing my round knife to a mirror finish. It cuts way better now but haven't had a chance to actually cut out a project with it yet.

[humperdingle]

A large-handled "Stanley", carpet fitters' style knife. Blades are cheap, so are regularly changed.

[billybopp]

I have a variety of knives for different situations. My go to knife for cutting larger pieces of veg-tan is a nice heavy utility knife with high quality blades, which I strop to improve the edge even further than out of the box.

For finer detail cuts, I use an x-acto knife with either the z-line blades #11, or if the leather is a little thicker a curved scalpel type blade #10. The scalpel blades are less susceptible to bending and give a more perpendicular cut in thicker material.

For thinner and strechy leather, I use a Olfa large rotary cutter. ( I have both 45mm and 60mm rotary cutters, but mostly prefer the 60mm).

If I need a circle, I use an Olfa circle cutter.

For skiving belts and straps that are not too wide, I use a vintage Wilkro razor blade plane that I picked up on fleabay.

For skiving larger items, I use a tandy splitter or a safety skiver.

I also have a head knife, that I occasionally use for cutting and skiving, but it does not see a lot of use.

If I need a smaller piece of leather cut totally square, I use a rotary paper cutter such as this http://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-Classic-Rotary-Paper-Trimmer/dp/B000YAJHVE/

Heavy leather shears are often useful as well.

The shears, head knife and wilkro are the only ones that I actually bought specifically for leather work. I already had the others around the house for other various uses and projects.

Bill

[Fordpkup]

I use several knives. X-acto carpet knife, rotary. Mostly i use my case stock knife. Sometimes i use shears.

[Ferg]

I tried almost every style knife I could find. I do like the rotary for thin straight cuts.

Photos of one of the clicker knives I made with blade made by a professional knife maker on this forum.

This is of a straight blade, I have another with a curved blade. The handles are solid brass.

These knives cut any thickness of leather but do best in Veg Tanned. I strop before and during my cutting.

ferg

[Art]

I have bazillions of knives I have collected over the years, but for all but heavy leather, a clicker or detail knife is what I use the most. Surgical and post mortem scalpels are are second if not first. I use skiving knives (shoemaker type, just the blade wrapped with tape) and probably more often a scalpel. Look in the Weaver catalog for a blue handled clicker knife, under $20 or so. For scalpels, I like Swann-Morton (English company) handles and blades.

If you want something special, Terry Knipschield, in addition to traditional head knives, makes a beautiful curved detail knife that I use a lot in place of the clicker knife. It is more robust in the blade area. His skiving knife is also very very good. His knives all take a bleeding sharp edge and stay that way for a long time.

If you have to start somewhere, a knife by a good custom maker should be a choice fairly near the top of your list. If you get a good maker, you will use the knife forever and won't be on this constant quest for the perfect knife.

Art

[JamesR]

[

Modified mat cutter and mat cutting ruler.

[slipangle]

Round and head knives are beautiful tools. I have a few. And the craftsman-made ones I've seen are outstanding. But I suspect they have fallen out of usage by many folks because they were designed and used, mainly, back in the days before leather workers had access to our modern knives with replaceable blades, Olfa style snap blades, and such. A saddle maker in the early days could do about anything with a good round knife. He had little else to work with.

I don't use my old Osborne round knives very much. I'm not that experienced or good enough with them. And they kind of spook me, to tell the truth. I use Olfa style snap blade knives and scalpels. But I believe there will always be a market for nicely made round and head knives, as there is with most finely crafted, hand made tools.

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

I have probably a dozen round and head knives, but just one that I use most of the time. I keep a clicker knife or two close by but I cut and skive nearly everything with my round knife. I just can't get the hang of anything else. The secret of mastering the use of a round knife is it has to be scary sharp, beyond what I thought was sharp when starting out doing leatherwork, and be made of good steel. Poor steel drags even if it's sharp. Once I got a good one, I never looked back. I agree with Dirtclod on the size. Too big of a knife is awkward to handle.

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

Once again Sioux and I agree. I have all the other knives, but; aside from using an olfa rotary cutter for cutting long fringe on chaps, I almost exclusively use a round knife. The one of choice for me is one I got from Knipper. It is and stays sharp for long, long periods of time. I use it so much, that it never gets put back in the sheath. I guess the key is once you find what works for you, you'll stick with it.

Bob

[CWR]

I'm with Bob and Sioux. I even cut the fringe on chaps with mine. Like Bob my favorite knife came from Knipper. It and my sewing machine are the most indispensable tools in the shop.

CW

[Studio-N]

If I am cutting a strap, I prefer to use my plough guage (cut on a push). If I am following a pattern, I use my trim knife (cut on a pull).

If I am just reducing big chunks of leather into little chunks I use a rotory cutter. I have a small round knife that is nice to look at.