Need some help or advice with cutting inward curves (and using sandpaper).

[Spyros]

Ι will kinda go against the flow here, and I know many people won't agree with me, but don't buy more tools.  Trust your hand and your eye, and if you don't, keep practicing until you do.   It will give you confidence to do many things throughout this (and any) craft and it will often get you out of tight spots.  I firmly believe our hand-eye coordination is the most important tool and just like any other tool it also needs honing from time to time.

By all means try different things if it's easy and practical to do so but keep in mind that the perfect cutter might actually not exist.

Edited July 9, 2020 by Spyros

[zuludog]

37 minutes ago, Spyros said:

Ι will kinda go against the flow here, and I know many people won't agree with me, but don't buy more tools.  Trust your hand and your eye, and if you don't keep practicing until you do.   It will give you confidence to do many things throughout this (and any) craft and it will often get out of tight spots.  I firmly believe our hand-eye coordination is the most important tool and just like any other tool it also needs honing from time to time.

By all means try different things if it's easy and practical to do so but keep in mind that the perfect cutter might actually not exist.

Yes, I can go along with that as well

[johnv474]

Instead of a different tool, modify your leather.

If your leather is very dry, or less tanned, or dense, or if your blade is not sharp enough, it will be harder to cut.

You can get your leather damp with water, and that will soften it, but it takes too long to dry in my opinion. 

However, if you use hand sanitizer gel, which is alcohol-based, you can soften your leather temporarily.  Alcohol is used in lots of dyes, etc., so is used with leather already a lot.  The big advantage is that it dries much faster than water.

You will likely put a conditioner on your leather when done with your project, which offsets the drying effect of alcohol.

This is the fastest way to get better results that I'm aware of. 

[Amira]

First of all, thanks for all the advice and sorry for the lack of my replies to your feedback, the suggestions were really appreciated.

What I did was try talon-shaped scalpel blades, so they're sort of like the clicker knife shown in the first photo. They were a lot easier to cut with than the other shapes and tools that I used to cut with, as the leather gets easier to cut when you can cut the whole thing from the side through its entire thickness than cutting through the thickness starting from the top and going down (I'm sure that phrasing doesn't make a whole lot of sense). Might get a clicker knife when I feel like getting another knife to maintain (sharpen) properly. 

However I will heed Spyros' advice on practicing as well - as I am, after all, completely incompetent when it comes to crafts in general (mostly due to a lack of experience... or so I like to believe anyway), but cutting inward curves felt so much more difficult compared to other things that I felt I was probably doing something wrong.

Edited August 4, 2020 by Amira

[mike02130]

The clicker knife blades are replaceable.

[Rahere]

Also - anathema - consider bending your work over, removing the edge from proximity to the cut.