Japanese Leather Knives

[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