Useable/practical/budget skiver

[katit]

Need advice/input. I need to skive 1/2 edge of automotive leather before sewing parts. I know about bell skivers like Fortuna, but can't afford one at moment.

Is there other budget solutions which work?

[Matt S]

What's the budget? A Chinese bell skiver's £1000, which means you'd get one in the States for about $1000. You'd probably get most of that back selling it on afterwards.

There are little skiving machines like the Scharf-fix that take razor blades. I imported one of the Chinese copies, used it for a few months, figurated it wasn't suitable for my needs, then sold it for about what I paid for it. I wanted to step-skive medium-stiff 2+mm chrome tan for turned edges but being designed for bookbinding I think the frame wasn't stiff enough for what I wanted to do. Upholstery leather would probably be better but it'd still be awkward doing large panels.

Hand skiving would be slow and awkward, but it's an option. I've got a lap skiver, a bell skiver and a crank splitter but I will daily reach for a skirt shave or skiving knife if it's a one-off. Granted I don't often skive by hand anything so spongy as upholstery leather, nor as long as a car seat panel, but it's an option that works if you keep your edge sharp.

Me? I'd take it to someone who had a bell skiver and pay them some beer to do the skiving. Hint to anyone around the north west of London: I have a bell skiver and like beer. I'm not sure where STL is but I'm sure somebody on this forum has a bell skiver and is within a reasonable drive of you.

[katit]

STL is St Louis, MO USA

I’d love to use someone’s local help in exchange for beer. I think what I need can be done in 15 minutes with bell skiver

[katit]

14 hours ago, Matt S said:

There are little skiving machines like the Scharf-fix that take razor blades. I imported one of the Chinese copies, used it for a few months, figurated it wasn't suitable for my needs, then sold it for about what I paid for it. I wanted to step-skive medium-stiff 2+mm chrome tan for turned edges but being designed for bookbinding I think the frame wasn't stiff enough for what I wanted to do. Upholstery leather would probably be better but it'd still be awkward doing large panels.

Hmm. Checked those, they are pretty affordable. I'm just not sure how it will work. In my mind hard leather should be easier. Upholstery leather is ~1.2-1.6 and it's softer. I wonder if it's going to jam/bulk under blade while pulling. It feels like upholstery leather more "gummy" and thus it's like cutting rubber vs cardboard. Bell skiver constantly moves blade across which should do better job.

Anybody tried those "razor blade" skivers on upholstery leather?

[Matt S]

8 minutes ago, katit said:

Hmm. Checked those, they are pretty affordable. I'm just not sure how it will work. In my mind hard leather should be easier. Upholstery leather is ~1.2-1.6 and it's softer. I wonder if it's going to jam/bulk under blade while pulling. It feels like upholstery leather more "gummy" and thus it's like cutting rubber vs cardboard. Bell skiver constantly moves blade across which should do better job.

Anybody tried those "razor blade" skivers on upholstery leather?

There were two major issues that I identified: keeping the feed and pull angles consistent and the frame flexing. The angle issue is just like that on a pull lap skiver -- a matter of geometry that can be solved with concentration and care. However I found that the frame was flexing very slightly under the strain of what I was trying to do, which made the blade depth and angle bounce around. Whether these issues were inherent in the design or due to the fact I was using a Chinese knock-off I can't say. I suspect that it would flex far less with upholstery leather but don't recall ever trying it.

Don't get me wrong, when it worked it was amazing -- a £80 pocket sized machine that takes razor blades costing pennies doing a job that I thought I needed a £1000 machine to do. However it was just running too much leather and I was having to work so slowly that I bought a bell skiver when a good deal came up. Never looked back.

[bermudahwin]

My reply here covers some of your queries.

[Matt S]

8 minutes ago, katit said:

Hmm. Checked those, they are pretty affordable. I'm just not sure how it will work. In my mind hard leather should be easier. Upholstery leather is ~1.2-1.6 and it's softer. I wonder if it's going to jam/bulk under blade while pulling. It feels like upholstery leather more "gummy" and thus it's like cutting rubber vs cardboard. Bell skiver constantly moves blade across which should do better job.

Anybody tried those "razor blade" skivers on upholstery leather?

There were two major issues that I identified: keeping the feed and pull angles consistent and the frame flexing. The angle issue is just like that on a pull lap skiver -- a matter of geometry that can be solved with concentration and care. However I found that the frame was flexing very slightly under the strain of what I was trying to do, which made the blade depth and angle bounce around. Whether these issues were inherent in the design or due to the fact I was using a Chinese knock-off I can't say. I suspect that it would flex far less with upholstery leather but don't recall ever trying it.

Don't get me wrong, when it worked it was amazing -- a £80 pocket sized machine that takes razor blades costing pennies doing a job that I thought I needed a £1000 machine to do. However it was just running too much leather and I was having to work so slowly that I bought a bell skiver when a good deal came up. Never looked back.

[katit]

2 minutes ago, Matt S said:

Don't get me wrong, when it worked it was amazing -- a £80 pocket sized machine that takes razor blades costing pennies doing a job that I thought I needed a £1000 machine to do. However it was just running too much leather and I was having to work so slowly that I bought a bell skiver when a good deal came up. Never looked back.

Did you mean "ruining" leather? Nor "running"? And what exactly happened? Cut through surface?

$1000 is little too much. I can afford if I was doing a lot of it, but it's just one time project for now and even if I go slow it's OK. I also don't have much space and don't want to move heavy machines if possible.

Ok, I got main idea: If you practice and go slow - it will work. I think thats all I need.

Taking pieces to somebody is a good idea, but there is couple problems. I don't know anybody. Time/beer will cost as much as this machine. I am pretty sure I won't get it from first time. Will forget a piece or maybe screw up later sewing needing redo, etc.

[Matt S]

1 hour ago, katit said:

Did you mean "ruining" leather? Nor "running"? And what exactly happened? Cut through surface?

Sorry that was the autocorrwrong on my phone playing up. Yes I meant "ruining" rather than "running" and yes the usual failure mode was the blade plunging too deep and cutting through the surface of the leather. Changing blades often reduced the failure rate but not enough for my liking. Again it's probably that I was putting far stiffer and heavier leather through it than was ever intended.

[katit]

Got that razor knife skiver from eBay but didn't even try it when opportunity came up. Odds for that happening were close to 0, but now I got nice project on my hands..

Cheap one get's returned back to the seller.

http://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/84699-what-is-this-machine-168w101/