Best skiving practices?

[Hardrada]

Any helpful tips on how to achieve as consisting a skive as possible? I've used both a skife and a French beveler, but the thickness is all over the place and the French thing pulls the leather and deforms it like a piece of rubber.

I've yet to buy a half-moon knife, but I was thinking of buying one of these in the meanwhile: C.S. Osborne leather knife or one of these instead. Would those make the process less messy and inconsistent?

[battlemunky]

Skiving requires ridiculously sharp blades. Also, if you are skiving veg tan, it may help to slightly dampen the leather. It takes practice. Use your scraps until you can get some consistency. I'd say aside from painting and carving, it is the most artsy skill we have to develop. A head knife (half moon knife) will require a descent amount of practice in order to skive well too, so know that if you pick one up that it isn't your silver bullet for all your skiving needs.

Strop your skife blade and I bet you'll see a difference. I don't get a lot out of my French beveler except maybe around a snap hole that is a bit too thick or something. I also have one of those Japanese knives that I have done some skiving with but it like the head knife requires a good amount of skill to wield. I happen to think the skife is a bit easier and less risky.

Good luck and post pics. Pics always help.

[zuludog]

For skiving you should work on a hard glossy surface such as a polished stone slab (which can be a bit expensive) or a sheet of glass like a glass shelf from an old fridge. I use the glass oven door from an old cooker

Skiving knives need to have an edge that is absolutely as sharp and as polished as possible. There is a section about sharpening on this forum, and loads of  YT videos about sharpening stones, making & using strops, and how to sharpen

Unless you get the very expensive top range knives, most makers only give you an averagely sharpened knife as that keeps the cost down, and you are expected to do the final work yourself

Either of the knives you mention will do the job. I would choose the Japanese style as that is easier to sharpen and you can also use it for cutting.

You could also consider an English style leather paring knife - Search Google & YT

Yes, veg tan is a bit easier if you dampen it slightly

Round, head, half round knives are OK but good ones are expensive, and you need practice & experience to use them

Search YT for skiving leather and any of the other things mentioned that look useful

[Matt S]

Lisa Sorrel is the queen of leather inlay/onlay and therefore hand skiving. Look her up, she has a vlog on Youtube and a beautifully illustrated book. I learned a lot about skiving from her youtube videos.

[Mattsbagger]

31 minutes ago, Matt S said:

Lisa Sorrel is the queen of leather inlay/onlay and therefore hand skiving. Look her up, she has a vlog on Youtube and a beautifully illustrated book. I learned a lot about skiving from her youtube videos.

I believe she also sells a reasonably priced skiving knife.

[Aven]

2 hours ago, Mattsbagger said:

I believe she also sells a reasonably priced skiving knife.

She does and I love mine.

As everyone is saying, sharpness is the key and that includes sharpening the French beveler.  I made a strop that will just fit inside to strop the top side and use my other one for the bottom of the beveler.

[Hardrada]

Thanks for all the replies, mates.

Are these the Sorrel skiving knives: Skiving knives ? There's another kind on her site too: flexible skiving knives.

I'll try uploading pictures of my current messes shortly.

[Hardrada]

Alright, took some photos of the problem:

 

This is how the leather gets all bent out of shape:

 

Very inconsistent thickness:

 

I thought of thinning this wallet, as I was using four layers of 3 oz. leather and the thickness was making punching stitching holes a chore (they'd come misaligned on the bottom). I also thought that maybe the wallet would look nicer with thinner edges—now I'm not so sure. The one on the left is a test I made with scrap leather—which was also a PITA to skive and got all bent out of shape (I had to trim it again using the patters after skiving: it was that bad).

[Aven]

It doesn't matter what skiver you use, there is a bit of a learning curve.

The knives I was talking about are the first ones you linked.  I have both sizes, but find myself grabbing the smaller one more often than not.  That's not to say that the larger one should be avoided, not that at all.  I don't have large hands and I have arthritis in my hands, so for me the smaller one is just more comfortable to hold.

Check out Lisa Sorrell's Youtube video on skiving.  It really is worth watching.

[battlemunky]

Yeah, skiving is probably my least favorite thing to do in the craft. Its not easy and you could wreck what you are working on. Skiving is always so stressful.