Skiving Tool Question

[stu925]

I don't know if this has been asked before but figured I'd ask the experts here. Up until now I've been doing the small amount of skiving that I do with a Safety Beveler from Tandy. It works but I get a really uneven surface especially on a larger piece. So after kicking this around a bit in my brain I came up with an idea that I thought was pretty clever but have no idea if it will actually work. I was thinking that an old block plane, in my case a Stanley 110, with a razor sharp iron might make a pretty good skiving tool. It would certainly help get a more even surface if it works. Then I started to think about it some more and thought that a spoke shave might work pretty well also, especially on straps. I have a small spoke shave that the adjustment on the iron is a pain in the butt on so I don't use it for wood but I might be able to use it on leather as the iron in it is razor sharp. So what do you guys think, will it work? Does anyone have any experience with this? Have you guys tried it yourselves? I know I could buy better skiving tools but at this point it would be pretty hard for me to justify the cost since I don't do that much of it. Maybe I've lost my mind but I think I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens on some scrap leather.

Stu

[billybopp]

I sometimes use a plane for skiving belts. It works great.

Bill

[King's X]

Japanese leather crafters use block planes for their skiving.

[stu925]

Thank you both for the replies. I gave it try last night and am happy to report it works great. I left the iron kind of high in the plane so it was a bit messy but once I got the iron adjusted right it worked perfectly. The surface is so much more even it almost looks like it came off the cow that way. I took a piece of 9oz down to about 3-4oz using my old Stanley 110. The spoke shave didn't work out so well as it's just so hard to get the iron adjusted. I think the plane would give a better surface than the spoke shave anyway due to the larger sole on the plane. Now I need to pick up another block plane for my wood working.

Stu