Best Swivel Knife Blades?

[BarrelPony]

Hi there everyone. I am just getting into leather work, and really want to start tooling. I bought a pretty cheap swivel knife with a set of stamps, and have found it extremely difficult to cut with. I have to push on it very hard to get a cut, and it gets stuck and drags. It also doesn't leave a very wide V cut as it should. I have sharpened it very well but to no avail. I think the blade is just cheap. So my question is, what is a good blade for floral carvings? I was looking at the Barry King ones because I heard they were good. I don't know much about the different kinds though, and what thickness should I be looking for? Also, not sure what will work with my knife, the blade I currently have is held in with a set screw. Not sure if the size of the piece that goes into the barrel can be different or anything. Thanks so much in advance! I'm excited to get into tooling, and have a lot of projects I want to start, but it's hard when I can't get my swivel knife to cut.

[brmax]

I can only say some of Barry King blades have a 1/4" mounting dia. versus some with 7/32" as I'm understanding blades a bit more.

Floyd

[Tim Schroeder]

Cutting the pattern determines how the finished tooling will look. So a sharp swivel knife is important. Barry's blades are very good and hard to beat for the price. He will make you one to fit any swivel knife. I personally use Paul's blades at Leatherwrangler. A bit more expensive but worth every penny. I have one he ground down to .042  thickness for cutting the main pattern and one he ground down to .027 for decorative cuts. It seems I can cut 3 to 4 times as much between stropping. Hope this helps. Good Luck Tim

[shtoink]

I think that it's worth asking if you have gotten your leather prepared for being carved, too. I didn't see it mentioned if you had cased your leather or if you were using veg-tan leather.

 

Going only on what was originally said, if the swivel knife blade was sharpened, it should still cut reasonably well as long as the leather was cased. I saw some good advice, but I also wanted to rule out any simple mistakes that happen as a beginner. You did say that you just got started with leather, so that gives way to the possibility of not knowing how to prepare the leather for carving, which would  be a very good reason for the leather to be difficult to cut.

 

Getting a sharp cutting edge on your blade is a good start. Those basic kits have blades with worst condition and all sorts of rough machining/grinding marks on the bevels. The leather still needs to be gotten wet and then let normalize, which is referred to as casing. Getting the leather wet allows the leather to behave in an easier and more predictable way, but it to sit until the water content is at just the right amount for carving. Too wet and it gives a mushy look to your tooling, to dry and it fights you at every step.

Quoted from another post on here.

On 1/18/2007 at 9:52 PM, Johanna said:

Casing Leather - Applying water to vegetable tanned leather to prepare it for carving or molding is called "casing". There are several ways to accomplish this, but the best results are achieved using a spray bottle. This allows an even application of the water without water spotting. Spray the flesh side of the leather evenly and heavily, after you see it penetrate the leather, turn it over and spray the grain side.

After several minutes, the leather will look as though it is beginning to dry. It may be, but the water is also penetrating deeply into the fibers. When the leather is nearly its original color, it should be ready to carve.

The leather may look dry, but dry leather will feel warm the touch. Properly cased leather should look dry but feel cool to the touch.

Because this leather, is made to absorb water, it requires finishing to seal it after the project is complete.This is accomplished by the application of a finish or sealer.

A more detailed guide can be found here.

 

I apologize if you had already gone through these steps, I just wanted to make sure that all the easy stuff was eliminated before trying to troubleshoot something specific.

Edited March 27, 2016 by shtoink

[BarrelPony]

Hello everyone and thanks for your replies. How does this Hollow Ground one look? I am also pretty confused about getting one that will for sure fit my knife. It's not a size fits all, correct?

In reply to shtoink, yes, thank you for making sure I know how to properly prepare the leather. I am aware that is an important step. I dampen the leather thoroughly, and when it starts to dry around the edges I begin. 

[shtoink]

3 hours ago, BarrelPony said:

How does this Hollow Ground one look?

If I were to guess, I'd say that the shank is a 7/32" like that standard Tandy size. It says that it's a 1/4" filigree and the shank is a smaller diameter than that. The Barry King specific one show the shank as the same as the blade width.

 

If you don't mind, could you elaborate on how you sharpened your blade? You say that it still drags and gets stuck, but those aren't things that should happen if it gets a sharp cutting edge and cleanly polished bevels.

 

Also, if your focus is on working with delicate cuts and floral stuff, the filigree style blade sounds like what you need.

[Ken Kent]

I had the same problem even a sharp blade will drag I  use  a small piece of veg. tan with either white polishing compound or green & even red jewelers rouge rubbed in to make a strop polish your sharpened edge on this strop,you will be amazed.You will have to strop every time your blade starts to drag. Another trick that will help is turn your knife blade so the long side is parallel to the long side of the stone push & pull the length of the stone alternating sides to keep the bevel even,what this does is keep the scratches from the stone running in the same direction as the cut. When you push the blade up & down the stone the stone marks are 90 degrees to the cut.The polish system works best for me I very seldom have to use the stone or diamond hone I sometimes use.Hope this helps.

Regards Ken

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sceaden]

I started with a super cheap import and it still performed fairly well. If I understand things correctly the biggest difference between a good blade and a cheap one is how long it holds an edge and whether it comes sharp.

The basic Tandy filigree blade has worked very well for me with regular stropping. 

 

[Ken Kent]

whatever works I use a Henley.....Barry King.....Tandy.The better the steel the longer the edge lasts

Ken