Japanese Leather Knives

[zuludog]

I've been looking at Japanese Leather Knives on Google, they look interesting. They all seem to be asymmetric, with the tang set off to one side of the blade, usually the right when the bevel is facing towards you; is there any reason for that?

I have the blade from an old block plane, and I was thinking of turning it into a sort of Japanese style leather knife. Is there any reason why I should not make it symmetric?

[Art]

Depending on who made it, the plane blade should make a good skiving type knife.  When grinding (we call it profiling) do not get the steel hotter than you can hold it (if you see any color other than straw, you have went too far, and grinding the color out will not make it hard again).  If you do, you will draw the hardness back too far and you will have to heat treat it.  Put the bevel (if you are using a single bevel) on the side that goes toward the leather (on a skiving knife).

Art.

[zuludog]

The plane was made by Draper, and is not the best available. The body was pressed steel with plastic fittings; cheap & nasty, and difficult to adjust

However the blade is fairly good, and is quite sharp with a decent bevel; and that's after it's been kicking around in a toolbox for ages. I don't need to do any powered grinding, but I will sharpen it on stones and a strop. I'll also make the angle of the bevel a bit sharper/flatter; I can do that by hand on the stones

I have already earmarked some beech wood for a handle

I just wondered why the blade is often asymmetric - have a look at Japanese leather knives on YouTube

[Art]

Design, especially older designs, is a form follows function kind of thing; additionally economy of materials and/or manufacturing energy, and of course in today's world, labor can play a part.  Sometimes, with the passage of time, we tend to forget why we did something a particular way.

Art

[billybopp]

I have a cheap (REALLY CHEAP) Chinese knife like you are describing, that I bought to play around with to see if I like it, and I do.  It's cheap metal, but part of the goal for it was to have something good to work on my sharpening skills with, and it does that well too.    The offset handle does seem to be helpful for me, at least.  It keeps your knuckles up a bit from the work when skiving at a steep angle, and also gives a bit more to hold onto when cutting leather.  If I were to spend the $ on a good version of this knife, tho, I'd probably look for multiples with bevels and offsets on opposites to suit any situation.

Bill

[brmax]

Would that generally be a right hand knife, that's my hold on it.

I will take a look at some on the tube

Thanks

Floyd

Edited April 10, 2016 by brmax

[brmax]

Well the knifes are interesting! after I seen one video.

It showed the person pulling the knife and I had considered pushing it so whatever works for ya  

The guy was explaining a bit of reason the bevel to be toward the inside while cutting for a better or straight line, and he was using the left hand so pull left push right.

In the video I seen a straight blade was described, so I am curious if they use an angle sometimes and the methods.

I can use a first and am in purchase mode for a knife of this basic style where ever its from, a small paring utility is handy.

Thanks for the lead

Floyd

 

 

[jimmy eng]

I think what brmax said is the key. Those knives are for pulling towards you when you cut, not pushing away like a round head. Having the tang on one side (the side closest to you as you cut) makes it easier to hold and control.

[zuludog]

Thanks for your replies; this is still on my 'to do' list, but now I know what to do

'leathertoolz' on YouTube has explained that the bevel should face the piece of leather that you want, and the flat side should face the waste or not needed leather

I am right handed, so I will make the knife with the tang offset so that it is closest to my wrist, and the bevel facing outwards, towards my left

[TheCyberwolfe]

The Japanese philosophy is to always be pulling the work toward you, so Japanese tools are always designed to cut on the draw, not the push. Usually takes woodworkers a few minutes to wrap their brains around Japanese saws.

[Boriqua]

On 5/12/2016 at 1:28 PM, zuludog said:

Thanks for your replies; this is still on my 'to do' list, but now I know what to do

'leathertoolz' on YouTube has explained that the bevel should face the piece of leather that you want, and the flat side should face the waste or not needed leather

I am right handed, so I will make the knife with the tang offset so that it is closest to my wrist, and the bevel facing outwards, towards my left

Oh man I went and checked out Leathertoolz vid and it just made my life a little more pleasant. I bought what was labelled as a right hand and a left hand Kiridashi. I planned on using the lefty for skiving which it does wonderfully and the right for cutting patterns. If you are using it for wood working and pushing then they are perfect and labelled correctly. But I was drawing with them and intuitively had the flat portion on my work side. I mean .. want a right angle use the right angle side .. right? But I kept undercutting and it was making me nuts.

Leathertoolz is a lefty so I had to mentally change up a little but once I worked out what he was dishing I went and tried it. Cut out 5 holsters today... all beautiful and square!! Bevel side in to your work actually makes for a square edge. Especially since if you are a righty you are likely leaning the knife out right so you can watch your cut line from the left. It worked perfectly. All I needed was the Lefty model and I would have been fine. Sure I will find a use for the righty for something?

Edited May 25, 2016 by Boriqua