My Handmade Leatherworking Knives

[lel]

After seeing and excellent post from rawcustom about his skiving knife I decided to show the knives I recently made.

I have "Super Skiver" and "Safety Beveler" from Tandy but no mater what I did I could not master any of them. It usually took a lot of time and effort to get the result I wanted. My other hobby is a knifemaking so I decided to make my own skiving knife. I also wanted to try a small round knife instead of "Angled Utility Knife" (also from Tandy) that I've been using to cut leather. I could not call it a head knife, more like a half of a head knife.

Leather Wranglers knives were my inspiration for this project, so you might see familiar shapes.

I looked at my small steel inventory and decided to use a 2" wide 1/16" thick piece of ATS-34 that I had. I don't have a furnace so I had to send blades for professional heat treatment. They are about 58-59 HRC.

For handles I used stabilized wood: maple with 416 stainless steel bolster for skiving knife and spalted maple for another.

One of the images shows sheaths that I made for them. As you can see I made handles thick and rounded just because I like the way they sit in my hand.

[tomt]

those are some really good looking knifes and the best thing about it that you made them your self

[slipangle]

Those are very nice. Beautiful.

[Oldtoolsniper]

Very nice indeed.

[Tugadude]

Love the handles! The one on the round knife looks a couple of millenia old. Never heard of spalted maple but I like. The bolsters look great, too. Just cool stuff you have there.

[MonicaJacobson]

I love the one with spalted maple. So nice.

[Itch]

You are very talented indeed ...

[Ta2ooz]

They are great, how are they to use, they look like they would be as smooth as butter.

[shadowryder]

COOL!!!!!!!

[Pkay]

I have also found that what is offered is not necessarily the best. These look worth selling !!

[lel]

Thank you, guys, for you kind words. The knives perform very well, even better then I expected. Now I prefer push cuts when cutting leather and they are easier to do than dragging a utility knife. If I started all over I would grind a round knife much thinner like I did with a skiving knife, which has no secondary bevel.

Spalted maple is a wood that was affected by fungi. It introduces discoloration and dark lines, also makes wood very light and soft almost like a dried sponge. It required stabilization, and guys at WSSI did a great job at it. They also suggested to add a yellow (gold) die during stabilization process to slightly enhance the colors.

[Calico Jack]

These are beautiful! congratulations. They are sure to outlast anything you would buy over the counter.

[Basically Bob]

Amazing work!

[Rohn]

Very beautiful knives. You did a great job on them.

[Bowdiddly]

Great work. Great knives.

[Dave Richardson]

Nice work.

Dave