Hand skiving help

[wrz0170]

Hi everyone.   As practice, I was trying to hand skive 1.2-1.4mm leather in preparation for my project which calls for skiving about 1.0mm.    I was using a Tandy Super Skiver and well, it sucked.  No matter how delicate of a touch that I tried, my cuts were vastly uneven and it pretty much ripped and tore up the edges.  Absolutely no uniformity in the cuts.    I’m sure some operator fault is there.   Skiving is a skill until itself especially with thinner leather.  

I have to ask; is there a better knife/tool to learn on like a very sharp, straight or slanted skiving knife or even a round knife?  I don’t mind putting the time in to practice but if it’s a better knife choice thing, I would rather practice with that    

Any insights,  tips or suggestions would be appreciated!   Thanks!

William

[bikermutt07]

With practice you can do more than 90% of your cutting with a good round knife.

Buy Al Stohlman's Leather Tools book. It is a wealth of knowledge. It will teach you just about everything you need to know about using and sharpening your tools.

Skiving is hard and I haven't done very much of it. But, my most successful attempts have been with the round knife.

I have had very little luck with the Tandy skiver and super skiver.

[wrz0170]

9 minutes ago, bikermutt07 said:

With practice you can do more than 90% of your cutting with a good round knife.

Buy Al Stohlman's Leather Tools book. It is a wealth of knowledge. It will teach you just about everything you need to know about using and sharpening your tools.

Skiving is hard and I haven't done very much of it. But, my most successful attempts have been with the round knife.

I have had very little luck with the Tandy skiver and super skiver.

Funny you say that. I put my name on the waiting list for one of Terry’s round knives.   Still waiting for confirmation from him but it sounds like it will be at least 6 month wait.  He said he was about 700 knives behind.   That said, I am toying with the idea of a Weaver round knife for the interim.   The Weaver round knife appears to be well reviewed and I can learn to sharpen it.  If Terry chooses to hold off on adding names, which I completely understand, I will look at better options?

[480volt]

Bruce Johnson has a Rose, a Gomph, a couple Osborne Newarks and an unmarked on his site, currently. Always been happy dealing with him

[ScoobyNewbie]

I was looking on a site called japangoods.com. They had leather planers. Those looked interesting. I’m not sure how well they would do on thin stuff, but the theory sounds... interesting.

[bikermutt07]

@wrz0170, yeah Terry is a victim of his own success. I don't have any idea what he can crank out in a month. I do know he won't ship anything less than perfect. 

[Northmount]

Lisa Sorrell does a lot of skiving when making her custom boots.  She has skiving knives for sale here https://sorrellnotionsandfindings.com/?s=skiving&post_type=product

She also has a couple videos on her youtube channel

Tom

 

[wrz0170]

Thanks for all the great suggestions.  Not quite sure what I will be moving forward with yet, but it will not with be the super skiver or it’s cousin.

[zuludog]

This is how I did skiving when I started

In Britain, and I assume in USA, you can get very cheap snap blade knives from discount/bargain stores, as low as a display card of 4 knives for £1, say $1-50. They're not exactly top class, but to be fair, the blades are very sharp & thin

Lay the leather on a flat hard surface; extend the blade, and lay it across the leather at a very slight angle, depending on the thickness to be removed. It helps if the leather is dampened slightly. Extend the blade more or less fully; then  push-pull or 'saw' across the leather, at the same time pushing forwards

Later I made a few skiving knives from old hacksaw blades - a simple 'chisel front' knife or an asymmetric Japanese style leather knife  from 40mm hacksaw blade; and a kiridashi style knife from 25mm hacksaw blade

I use them all, but I've got used to the Japanese style knife now, and use it more & more. You can get them reasonably cheaply; or pay more if you wish. Search YouTube for 'Japanese Leather Knife'

Whatever knife you get you will have to learn about sharpening

 

[gigi]

Few more ideas on this topic: