MsDragonfly Report post Posted January 7, 2009 I make holsters. Can someone tell me what is the better skiving tool to use in which I can thin out the leather along the outer edges of the holster where my sew seam will be? I use 8-10 oz leather and I have found that with the edges being slighlty thinned for sewing as well as during the wet molding process it provides me with a cleaner, sharper, flatter edge. I have been having problems keeping all sides consistant in thickness. Any help would be much appreciated. ***Lisa Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jbird Report post Posted January 7, 2009 Howdy I have made a couple holsters and always used safety skivier or round knife, but that having been said I have used a belt sander and that works pretty good to that's all I know on the matter there other skivier but I have not used them much Josh Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ClayB Report post Posted January 7, 2009 The black safety skiver which several people here have called the "potato peeler" should work to do this. It works better for me if the leather is cased when you try skiving with it. It also helps if you take the blade out and carefully strop them. You can get a lot more use out of a blade if you strop it when it gets dull. And always be careful when you put a new blade in because the new blade will be so much sharper it's easy to cut deeper than you want too, especially if you change the blade in the middle of a project you are working on. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rawhide Report post Posted January 7, 2009 I've had good luck with a wide, well sharpened french edger. and the black saftey skiver from tandy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hidepounder Report post Posted January 7, 2009 MsDragonfly...I would recomend using a good French edger to perform that skive. Once you learn to use and sharpen it, a good French edger is invaluable. Draw a line where you want to begin the skive. Place one edge of the edger on the line and let the opposite edge rest on your skiving surface. You can now make a smooth even skive along the leather. For a shallower skive, use a wider French edger, or skive with a head knife, then go back and clean up the edge with the French edger. I skive a lot of edges with a head knife. It was a difficult tool for me to learn to use and sharpen, but now that I can, it is invaluable! Hope this helps! Bob Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MsDragonfly Report post Posted January 11, 2009 Thanks everyone for all the replies and the advise. It is much appreciated. ***Lisa Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
