Advice on a skiving tool please

[zuludog]

That looks good. What make is it, please? And price?

As you use it, you'll work out how to get the best results from it. And also as you use it and resharpen it you can get the edge just how you want it

Soon after I started doing leatherwork I made a decision, which was that I would not get a  round knife, for two reasons

1) I don't do enough leatherwork to become sufficiently skilled with one

2) Even a Tandy head knife is expensive, and I've heard they're not very good. A good one, one that's worth having, is even more expensive

I use a Stanley knife with resharpened blades; a home made kiridashi; a home made Japanese style leather knife; and a 3 1/2" carbon steel vegetable knife that I no longer use in the kitchen

For a working surface when skiving, I use the glass oven door off an old cooker

You will need a second knife which can be more or less anything you want - a Stanley knife; a penknife, a cheap snap - blade knife, and so on. Use it for opening parcels, cutting string, sharpening pencils etc. It's purpose is to make sure that you use the first knife exclusively for cutting leather

Edited August 4, 2017 by zuludog

[garypl]

1 hour ago, Leahlovesleather said:

Don't know what happened there.  I don't have a head knife as I have only been interested in leatherwork for a few months. , They look a bot serious for me at this early stage and from what i have learnt, you should invest in a good one.

This is the knife I bought: hopefully it loaded.

 

Looks similar to mine - if it's the same type steel it will take and hold a good edge

1 hour ago, Mark842 said:

I have an assortment of old ones..mostly osbornes. Just get yourself a good stone and practice sharpening it. Once you get a good edge it's easy to keep with regular maintenance.

Yes, I keep stropping it and it seems pretty sharp, but steel appears to be stainless and is very thin.  I will keep working with it and maybe invest in a better quality knife.

[Leahlovesleather]

I got the knife from. https://www.carbatec.com.au/marking-and-measuring/marking-knives/kiridashi-marking-knife

The packaging is basic, everything is in Japanese but there is the name TopMan on it.  It has a 21mm blade.

[Hunhunt]

There is a very good Lisa Sorrel video on the use of these skewed type skiving knives. I have one that I got from her that I really like. Has to be kept absolutely razor sharp to work efficiently. It works far better than the Tandy's skiving tool (super skiver).

[Leahlovesleather]

Hunhunt, that is good to hear.  The blade wasn't "scary sharp" so I have sharpened it a bit,  but had to work too much over the weekend to spend any time on it.  It is better, but will buy a good oil or wet stone in the next couple of days and really get stuck into it.

 

[Hunhunt]

Get it really razor sharp and then keep it sharp by frequent stropping. I have leather stropping wheels on my Tormek sharpener but you can do the same thing by mounting a piece of vegtan scrap leather to a flat surface. I rarely have to resharpen with the grinding wheel since I use the stropping wheel frequently. It is amazing how fast leather can take the razor edge off a cutting tool.

[Rockoboy]

I have some old hand plane blades that I am hoping to repurpose as skiving knives. If they work well on timber, I am hoping they will work REALLY well on leather! Does anybody have an opinion on this idea?

[billybopp]

I don't know about plane blades, but I had an old set of wood chisels that I re-purposed by re-profiling the blade, and they are the best end-skivers I have - I'm able to get the scary sharp and they work great.  The only complaint is that the handles are a bit heavy - I may eventually just cut them off and keep just the blade part.  

I suspect that a plane blade might work just as well - but I would suggest doing some work to change the angle from a plane's standard 25degrees to something considerably shallower - It may take some elbow-grease, but will probably be well worthwhile.  

Bill

[silverback]

Brian, give me a yell and I will put you on to a bloke for that sharpening. does a very good job

 

[Hunhunt]

I've never tried plane irons but I have used wood skew chisels. The main problem with woodworking chisels is that the handles limit how low an angle you can use in making the skiving cut. I generally use a very low angle. Another thought would be to try using a power hacksaw blade if you know a machinist who is replacing an old blade. The steel should be very good and the price would be right.