Barry King Swivel Knife Blade

[Hoffman]

Hello all,

I'm new to the site and have a question about my Barry King Swivel knife.

I just upgraded to the bk with 1/2" barrel and 3/8" angled blade from a tandy starter knife. I went to try it out on properly cased economy grade leather and it stuck. I had to press pretty hard to get a decent cut and it was difficult to maneuver and drug pretty hard. I could barely get the knife to cut halfway through the leather pressing pretty hard. I stropped it and everything. I ran my finger on the blade and it was smooth, clean and very dull. My tandy knife was sharp and would cut my finger if pressed at all while drawing it across. But my tandy knife would cut too deep and easily leave undercuts and was sticky. This bk knife leaves a nice v but is very hard to use.

Is this normal? I'm newer to the leather craft world and have been using that tandy knife for about a year. If I pressed hard enough it would go right through the leather.

This knife is indenting the leather and not actually cutting it until I press real hard. 

Should I contact the company? It might take quite a bit to sharpen it and I don't want to ruin the blade if that's what needs to be done.

You can see the difference in the photo below. BK on the left and Tandy on the right

 

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2017 by Hoffman

[MADMAX22]

So its a BK handle with a tandy blade? Tandy blades IMHO usually always require sharpening and repeated sharpening to use. The BK blade I got with my BK handle was nice polished and sharp out of the box. Occasional stropping is all it needs. 

I would give it a good stropping (depending on your compound) and see how it does. The side view shows the angle but nothing else really. I have several different blades with different angles but all are very sharp and polished. They all leave different shaped cuts in the leather. 

[Hoffman]

no, its a brand new bk with a bk blade. I'm just comparing it to my tandy knife. Iv'e already stropped it many times. the pic shows how the bk blade is much rounder. I think I was sent a dull blade. 

[MADMAX22]

Maybe, sure they will take care of ya. 

[Hoffman]

How sharp is the knife supposed to be? 

[MADMAX22]

9 hours ago, Hoffman said:

How sharp is the knife supposed to be? 

I will give ya my advice but there are others who do way more tooling for way longer than I have who hopefully will chime in. 

IMHO it needs to be very sharp and almost as importantly polished so there is no drag. Now this isnt the same sharp like what you would think of with a "normal" knife. There is no small secondary bevel on it. The rounded profile of the tip needs to just come to a very sharp point. This allows the knife to cut the leather with minimal force while the blade pushes the cut apart some (how much depends on the profile of the tip of the blade) and the polishing prevents it from dragging while it does this. That being said leather wetness and quality also play a huge role in how easily it cuts and tools as well. You can get some leather that is like cutting and tooling compressed cardboard. Not fun. 

I will try and take a couple of pics of mine tomorrow if I get time. 

[Hoffman]

ok cool thanks

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

Here's my experience with a BK swivel knife: I have just one and I probably won't order another. I was very unimpressed. For years I've been using a knife made by Jay Lynn Gore and it is a sweet knife.  It came sharp and smooth and takes little maintenance to keep it that way. The BK blade I never can get stropped smooth like the Gore blade, even though it was pretty sharp.  The Gore blade is a little wide for finer work, which is the reason I got the smaller BK. I will say however, that BK stamping tools are great!  I noticed an immediate difference over the old Craftools I had been using. 

[CaptQuirk]

You might want to try stropping it on a honing stone, then the leather strop. Rinse and repeat as necessary. Personally, I could never get the hang of a swivel knife, and prefer a sharp pointed pocket knife. Not quite as smooth as what others can do, but it is what I'm used to using on wood carvings.

[Hoffman]

5 hours ago, Big Sioux Saddlery said:

Here's my experience with a BK swivel knife: I have just one and I probably won't order another. I was very unimpressed. For years I've been using a knife made by Jay Lynn Gore and it is a sweet knife.  It came sharp and smooth and takes little maintenance to keep it that way. The BK blade I never can get stropped smooth like the Gore blade, even though it was pretty sharp.  The Gore blade is a little wide for finer work, which is the reason I got the smaller BK. I will say however, that BK stamping tools are great!  I noticed an immediate difference over the old Craftools I had been using. 

The blade I received is very smooth but indents the leather more than cutting it. It leaves a much more appealing cut but I have to change the way I use it. I tried it on moister leather last night and I think it did pretty well so that might just be what I have to do. It will make stamping a lot easier either way. I think I will give it a quick trip on the stone after a few days if I'm not satisfied. 

I considered shelling out for a LW butI have a long list of tools and a small budget so the BK gave me some wiggle room. Once I start selling I will probably upgrade. Right now anything is an upgrade from my tandy knife.