Tutorial (How you skive overlapping card T-pockets)

[Danne]

First I have to say i'm no expert, I am a self-taught hobbyist. Not that it matters in this tutorial, the purpose is to get a nice result, and this is a nice result. (In my opinion) There is of course more than one way to skin a cat (of course not literally in this context) but if we are talking literally there is more than one way to skive a cow (in my example I use a vegetable tanned cow skin. So this is how I do it and it works for me.

What do you need, except your card pocket you plan to skive?

1. A sharp knife, it doesn't have to be something expensive, you can get a good result with a skiving knife for a couple of usd/euro. But if you can afford it, I would recommend a knife with decent steel. A really cheap knife will have a bad edge retention and you will have to sharpen it constantly. I use a Kyoshin Elle. https://www.goodsjapan.com/kyoshin-elle-japanese-leathercraft-utility-skiver-beveller-leather-knife-angled/a-20860

2. Should you skive with the bevel down or the flat side down? I'm right handed and use the knife I just linked. And I prefer to skive with the bevel down, then I get a "fulcrum point" to angle my knife on.

3. Push or saw? I prefer to saw through the edge in multiple passes.

 

So let's start.

1. Scribe a line where you want to skive. (I filled my line with a pen so you can see better)

 

2. Make a first light skive (sawing motion) from right (the corner) to left. And keep doing a couple of skives until you skived the edge. Let's say your leather is 1mm thick and now it's around half of the thickness (0.5mm) and you want it thinner, you can wait with this until you skived the "pocket ear" (because it will be easier to see with a clean edge)

 

3. Do the same on the "pocket ear" to stop the leather from sliding away you can use your left hand to hold it down with a glue spreader at a low angle (I'm right handed so I skived with my right hand)

 

4. If you need to skive more to get your edge thinner, you can do it know.

 

And the finished result.

 

Edited July 3, 2020 by Danne

[Retswerb]

This is great @Danne, your pics and description are nice and clear. Thanks for the resource!