Used straight or round knife on a budget - brands?

[zuludog]

Thought I'd add this - I've made my own Japanese style knives; one from an old plane blade, and one from a piece of 40,, industrial hacksaw blade, the cost was very low

GENEH - looking at your other interests, I don't think you would find it too difficult to make one yourself. You will need to find someone who's good with a bench grinder, and go slowly, with quenching, to avoid burning such thin steel. Final sharpening by hand, and they get better as you use & resharpen them. Search YouTube for ideas. Handle can be any hard wood; I've used beech & hawthorn

[GeneH]

On 3/12/2019 at 3:34 AM, Alisdair said:

.... if I had to choose only one knife, ....

This is one of the responses I had hoped to receive as it's in line with how I get started: one tool that'll do the job well and expand from there as required.

 

[GeneH]

That's a couple votes for straight, single bevel, Japanese knives.  Zuludog I might have a small  plane blade around here to try out. That would give me an idea of how I would like that style of leather cutting. I watched a couple videos (since the last posts endorsing Japanese style blades) showing to hold it. I can easily thin and smooth the the bevel if it seems a little steep.  Edge retention might be so-so, but this is a low time investment to try.

[bikermutt07]

Let me comment again. Monday I received my 1" skiving knife from Lisa Sorrell. I got to say (after working up the edge) I bet a fella could do a lot worse than this 40 dollar knife. It's a scandi grind double bevel angled skiving knife, but I bet it would do in a pinch for an all around leather knife.

[GeneH]

7 minutes ago, bikermutt07 said:

.... I received my 1" skiving knife from Lisa Sorrell. ...after working up the edge) I bet a fella could do a lot worse than this 40 dollar knife....

I didn't see her knife listing before - seems she has 2 different sites. Now I see what she has here:

https://sorrellnotionsandfindings.com/product/skiving-knives/

And of course working up the edge should be expected on most knives just to suit our particular OCD bent for that perfect edge. :-)    It's my expectation to have to tweak a new tool. Nothing wrong with that is there. 

 

[bikermutt07]

Just now, GeneH said:

I didn't see her knife listing before - seems she has 2 different sites. Now I see what she has here:

https://sorrellnotionsandfindings.com/product/skiving-knives/

And of course working up the edge should be expected on most knives just to suit our particular OCD bent for that perfect edge. :-)    It's my expectation to have to tweak a new tool. Nothing wrong with that is there. 

 

I tell folks, unless the tool comes from a custom maker, expect to be expected to true it up. Nothing mass produced comes sharp enough for leather. At least that's my humble opinion.

[bermudahwin]

And Bikermutt until today I would have always, always agreed on that point. (can you sense a 'but' coming?)

I have always been oldschool UK pricking irons to mark the stitch and diamond awl to stich through (unmarked) rear leather. I was intrigued by the 'hole punch' stitching methods I had seen on here, so went for these, to try the method...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/232832314053

They arrived today, and sharp as hell out of the pack. Who knows what will happen tomorrow, but went through 6mm leather like butter.

I dont know if I am pleased ar disappointed, as I have never paid so little for any tool, I kinda wanted it to fail.

I will buy better when needed, rather than sharpen, but for now they work.

H

Edited March 13, 2019 by hwinbermuda

[bikermutt07]

@hwinbermuda, I'm guessing you got lucky on that one. 

Now I haven't actually sharpened any irons. They may be an exception to the rule, but awl blades, corner and end chisels, knives, edgers, just about anything I can think of has needed finishing.

[zuludog]

40 minutes ago, bikermutt07 said:

I tell folks, unless the tool comes from a custom maker, expect to be expected to true it up. Nothing mass produced comes sharp enough for leather. At least that's my humble opinion.

That's a fair comment. I started with a Stanley knife/craft knife/box cutter knife and still use it sometimes. It seemed to work better after I'd resharpened the blades with a fine oilstone and a strop; probably because that reduced the shoulder of the bevel and gave it a better polish

Whatever knife you get, you will need two - the first is for cutting leather. The second can be more or less anything you want. Use it for opening parcels, sharpening pencils, cutting string, and that sort of thing; its purpose is to make sure you use the first one exclusively for cutting leather

[GeneH]

These just popped up for me. Stated as DC53 steel, and according to a quick google education, superior to D2, (tougher, more chip resistant at higher hardness)....soooo... if the HT is good then I should be more than satisfied. For a while. At the price I can't justify the T&M to make one. BONUS if it's really good then we might be looking for belt knives. heh.

I wonder if there is any real difference between left and right orientation when using the knife, 'cause I'm a leftie. No matter, we'll see what happens. If it wasn't for the videos I would have been using it backwards anyway.