Head Knife Vs. Skiving Knife

[Wicked Welts]

Hahaha, I love the Ketchup!

Thanks to all for the vid, info and advice. I waffled a bit but I'm taking your advice and I'm not going to steal a planer blade, it just doesn't seem right when somebody could put them to proper use. I'll be talking to my MIL to see if she wants to move them along, hopefully I'll get one of the wooden chests, that's something I would definitely put to good use.

Monica, I apologize for all the pics I put up, had I know there was a time limit on editing a post I wouldn't have done that.

Edited April 13, 2015 by Wicked Welts

[Bob Blea]

OK, my two cents worth...

I have a Leather Wranglers round knife. It's a little different design from the standard round knife and it has a pull cut ability which makes it very easy to cut precise corners. It is a fantastic knife and it does just about everything I need it to do, including skiving in most cases. However, when I'm making my notebooks I make a pen keeper out of a 2.5 inch by .5 inch strip of pigskin and I skive the edges before rolling them over and gluing them down. Because of the size it was really hard to skive with a round knife. After seeing this demonstrated by Paul Zalesak at Leather Wranglers, I was sold on their Tranto skiver. It also works well as a trim knife, but it works great for me for skiving small parts or areas.

My round knife is a necessity for my work, the skiver is more of a luxury but it definitely solved a problem.

Bob

[Wicked Welts]

Thanks for showing that one Bob! In a 'Jack of All Trades' sort of way, I think that Tranto is right up my alley.

Without trying any of the options out there, I think I'd be more comfortable with this shape and size compared to the typical round knife designs and for my current budget, buying one sharp that does several things well (for me - not everybody) is a huge plus.

WAIT - How did this happen?? I was the first responder here and started things off with an ultra low budget cheese ball idea and now I'm budgeting for a $250 knife? WOW! This place is DANGEROUS!

Edited April 13, 2015 by Wicked Welts

[MonicaJacobson]

@WW - don't worry about the pictures. I would never have thought of removing them in the first place.

@Bob - serious drooling. I hadn't seriously looked over the Leather Wrangler knives, but they're beautiful. I love the decorative pins and the design of the blade. You said "most cases" - does the round knife work well enough skiving a 12x12 piece of leather?

[Bob Blea]

Monica, I think any piece large enough for you to have space for your other hand to hold the leather in place while your primary hand skives will work great with a round knife. For my pen keepers it was just really hard to get a finger to hold it securely with the larger blade. But for regular thicknesses of leather on anything as big as your describing I think you would find a round knife to work great. Personally I would buy a round knife first because it is more of a multi-tasker.

And I do really like both my LW knives. They are made from the same steel as the swivel knives and they hold their edge just as well as them too. My knives require very little maintenance.

[rmr]

I just recently received the skiving knife from Knipknives. It feels great in the hand- and so far from what I can tell - it skives much easier and more uniform( for me) than my round /head knives - also from Terry at knipknives

[rawcustom]

Monica, I make skiving knives as well as many others and I can tell you that I like my skiving knife in equal parts to my head knife. You can skive easily with a well sharpened head knife, but there are tasks my skiving knife can perform more easily than my head knife. One of my most common skiving tasks is tapering belt loops on knife sheaths, and I find the straight edge of my skiver is easier to use than the rounded head knife. I also use mine for cutting bevels on sheath welts or acting as an edger and the sharp point can double for a trim knife on reaching tight corners, although I have my own trim knife as well.

There is a lot of conjecture on different steels and uses. High speed tool steels should not be demonized as some make excellent knife blades. Steel performance will be based off of how the steel is made (homogenous dispersion of alloys and impurities), what the steel is made of (wear resistant alloys, or corrosion resistant alloys) and lastly how the steel is heat treated. As a knifemaker I use and test many different alloys for many different applications, and each have a place and more is personal taste. Better steels from good makers will cost more, because the steel costs more, it's much more difficult to work, and most of us pay a professional service to heat treat and hardness test the blade to ensure it meets our required specifications. Simple steel AKA "High Carbon" is cheap, abundant, easy to heat treat, and easier to work.

A big myth is finding steel that will "sharpen easy" and also "hold an edge". The exact properties that will allow a knife to hold it's edge (wear resistance) will resist sharpening efforts since this is just a directed wear effect. There is some truth on the finished grind angle coming into play, that would change the amount of steel required to be removed to sharpen, i.e. thin edges will have less steel and therefore sharpen faster than a thick chisel edge.

The main thing with leather tools is maintenance. Since your tools work best sharp, you should be in the habit of stropping everything before, during and even after use. The more you stay on top, the less problems you will have with trying to sharpen a severely dull knife later. The best knife steels I have found for leather are the high alloyed steels, some classified as high speed steel. The wear resistant alloys keep them sharper much longer, their higher hardness allows them to become sharper than that possible of simple steels, and the ones made correctly can do all of this without being edge chippy or brittle.

I love sharp edges that stay sharp, so I'm not a fan of the high carbon simple steels in my leather work. I have played with them a lot, but they just require a lot more breaks for stropping, or stoning to keep that surgical edge.

[amuckart]

The skiving knives sold by Lisa Sorrell who is an advertiser on this site are excellent. They come insanely sharp, hold a great edge and are easy to sharpen. They're US$78 for both sizes.

http://sorrellnotionsandfindings.customboots.net/product/skiving-knife/

[MonicaJacobson]

Wow, thank you all for the extremely informative responses and recommending your favorite tools. I've got a list $1000 long right now. It's really nice looking, too. I'm going to watch a bunch of videos of these knives in action and try to decide which to get first. I don't say which to get, because obviously it'll have to be more than one. You can't fight fate.

[YinTx]

Monica,

See your post #20, regarding your "dexter" Russell Green River knife: I found one in the pile of tools I had bought, covered in beeswax like it had been used to cut the block. I had discounted it as a useful item considering its current state. Got the nerve to clean it up a few weeks ago, sharpened it on an Arkansas stone, and stropped it with some medium then fine rouge. It has become sharper than any razor blade I have used, much stronger and easier to work around corners, and handles thick layers of hard leather with ease, very little force required. I think these are only $10 - $15 knifes, and it quickly has become one of my most appreciated tools. If you are having difficulties with the one you have, give it the "scary sharp" treatment and try it one more time. I have even been able to skive very cleanly with it, although I feel the long edge is not the best for this type of work. I myself would like to get a regular "skiving" knife, but I can't justify it since I have successfully been using my round or "head" knife to do this job since I learned what "sharp" really meant.

YinTx