Hypothetical Question

[Chris623]

I do, Rahere.  I spent 17 years as a custom furniture builder and had, at one time, a pretty extensive array of woodworking tools and equipment.  I've pared down some of the tools I've pretty much stopped using, but still have a lot that I just "couldn't do without".    I've got a really nice planer.  But my only fear would be having the flexible leather jump up off the table and be destroyed by the cutters.  Maybe if I used a double-sided tape I'd be able to hold it down.  Do you have any experience with this?

[zuludog]

7 minutes ago, Chris623 said:

I do, Rahere.  I spent 17 years as a custom furniture builder and had, at one time, a pretty extensive array of woodworking tools and equipment.  I've pared down some of the tools I've pretty much stopped using, but still have a lot that I just "couldn't do without".    I've got a really nice planer.  But my only fear would be having the flexible leather jump up off the table and be destroyed by the cutters.  Maybe if I used a double-sided tape I'd be able to hold it down.  Do you have any experience with this?

Clamp down your piece of leather at an end or edge, and plane away from that fixed point - assuming you are using a traditional hand plane

As I mentioned, look at YT videos on making an inlay sheath, they show & explain things much better than just words

I would guess that things like snake or fish skin would be pretty thin anyway, and wouldn't add much to the total thickness

Edited September 23, 2020 by zuludog

[Frodo]

Mr Chris,  You are WAY over thinking this

Good luck,  your journey will be fun

 

[Chris623]

"Mr Chris" overthinks everything he does! 

[chrisash]

Many use a spoke-shave to thin leather down never used one except with wood, but I believe saddlers use them quite a lot for leather also French skiver see 

 

[Dwight]

8 minutes ago, Chris623 said:

"Mr Chris" overthinks everything he does! 

Chris . . . the easy way to do this . . . forget about the 7/8 oz leather you would have used.

Get some really good 3/4 that is closer to the 4 side.  You make two sheath blanks . . .  mirror cut from each other.  The piece with the hair side out . . . inlay your snake . . .  sew him in place . .  . . then contact cement both together and from that "one piece" continue making your sheath just as you usually would.

I regularly make 6 shooter holsters this way . . . and when done. . .the nice thing is they are really sturdy.

AND . . . you don't have to skive anything here . . . 

May God bless,

Dwight

[Chris623]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions, guys.  I'm soakin' them all up like a sponge.  Lots to learn and I'll never learn without asking..........because I'd rather learn from your mistakes than my own.

[Rahere]

His planer is finely settable, a rotating drum with a cutter on each side of the drum. He's got the idea, double-sided tape, although it may be better to damp the leather and wrap it over the ends, using clamp bars screwed into the end grain. It'll be drum taut that way when it dries.

[Chris623]

Mine has a helical cutting head.  It has three spiral rows of little half-inch square cutters, so it makes a really fine cut.............................and won't grab the material like a 3 straight-bladed cutter would.

[fredk]

My thoughts again.

Time is money. If doing just the very occasional inlay its ok to take the time to just skive a piece of leather down. If its going to be a regular offering, let the tannery do the work. Buy in thin leather. Have it on hand. Laminate the inlay within the thinner leather. The thinner leather is often a good bit cheaper than the thicker, even when using two pieces of the thinner to one of the thicker

All these Heath-Robinson set ups to skive a piece of leather can't beat a skiver built for the purpose. A 6 inch wide bench mount skiver costs as little as £100.($130)  At $15 per hour pay say,  it works out cheap. By the time you've mounted a piece of leather up safely, set up your planer you can have had several pieces of leather thru that bench skiver or have cut a year's worth from a thin leather 

Do you buy in 3/4 inch thick steel to reduce it to 1/8 inch for blades? (just sizes to illustrate the point), No, you buy in 1/8 inch.

So you'll buy in to use 2.4 to 3 mm for the sheaths. For inlay laminations you'll use 1.2 to 1.6 mm, buy that and have it on hand, Stored carefully the leather lasts a long time. I'm currently using some 3.5mm Water Buffalo hide I bought about 15 years ago. Its darkened slightly over the years but its still perfectly good

Edited to add

PS. In the picture above for the video imo that is the wrong use for a French Skiver. Its for edges and small areas. For larger areas the Super Skiver is the better tool

https://tandyleather.world/products/super-skiver?_pos=1&_sid=685be2ee6&_ss=r

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by fredk