How thin to skive?

[MtlBiker]

I'm getting myself a Techsew SK-4 skiver!  Because they are "busy" it won't be ready for pickup for a week or longer.  SIGH  Anyway, in anticipation I want to cut out leather pieces for some bags I want to make.  As a total newbie to skiving, how thin can/should you skive leather before it's too thin?  Let's say I have 4oz chrome tan leather and I want the seam areas to be a lot less bulky... Do I skive it down to half the thickness?  More?  At what point is it too much?

Do you (can you) also skive 2-3 oz leather?  I want to make some women's wallets using leather that I'd made some before with interfaced cotton and some with vinyl.  The vinyl ones are alright but still thicker at the seams than I like.  Should I use my 4oz leather and skive it down or should I start with my thinner leather?  Maybe skive that down too? 

At what point of thinness does the leather start to loose strength at the seams?

Thanks for any advice.

(Here's a photo of the last wallet I'd made with fake leather.)

 

[tsunkasapa]

When I mate up two edges to sew together, I take them down by half. If there is a third piece in there, I take them just a bit further and take the 3rd piece down to about 1/3. It really depends on your leather as to what is 'too far'.

[MtlBiker]

19 minutes ago, tsunkasapa said:

When I mate up two edges to sew together, I take them down by half. If there is a third piece in there, I take them just a bit further and take the 3rd piece down to about 1/3. It really depends on your leather as to what is 'too far'.

Thank you.  And what's the thinnest leather you would do that with?  Would you do it with 2oz?  For the purse I've shown, the flap is sewn right sides together and then turned right side out through the base of the flap and then top stitched.  Take the leather down to a half?

I'm tempted to try this with my 2 +/- oz leather instead of the 4oz I have.  If that is skived down to half, would it be so thin as to loose strength in the seam areas?

 

[DrmCa]

It has to remain functional after the esthetics is taken care of by skiving. If it tears easily, it's too thin.

[zuludog]

This might be useful When, Why, and How to Skive Leather by Hand - YouTube 

[MtlBiker]

59 minutes ago, zuludog said:

This might be useful When, Why, and How to Skive Leather by Hand - YouTube 

Thanks for that link... I'll take a look.  So far I have not had any success with hand skiving, which is why I ordered a bell skiver machine.  And I was hoping to get some guidance about how much I should skive and whether or not to skive an already fairly thin 2oz chrome tan.

 

[zuludog]

Unfortunately you can go on and on ..... Search YT for skiving leather, there are loads of videos ..... there are three basic styles of hand skiving knife -- the Japanese leather knife aka Japanese skiving knife ... the English style paring knife, which has an angled cutting edge .... and the French style, which is a sort of hand held chisel, sometimes with a rounded cutting edge; Search YT and suppliers websites and you'll come across them all. Yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice. 

But for wallet edges you could .... also consider a French Edger ..... welcome to the fun! Needless to say, they all need to be absolutely razor sharp

I don't use chrome tanned leather much, but I think it's more difficult to skive than veg tan ... and skiving 2oz leather would surely be very difficult and feather it down to nothing

If you want to skive such thin leather, Search YT for 'skiving leather for bookbinding' as well 

Edited January 28, 2022 by zuludog

[MtlBiker]

17 minutes ago, zuludog said:

Unfortunately you can go on and on ..... Search YT for skiving leather, there are loads of videos ..... there are three basic styles of hand skiving knife -- the Japanese leather knife aka Japanese skiving knife ... the English style paring knife, which has an angled cutting edge .... and the French style, which is a sort of hand held chisel, sometimes with a rounded cutting edge; Search YT and suppliers websites and you'll come across them all. Yer pays yer money and yer takes yer choice. 

But for wallet edges you could .... also consider a French Edger ..... welcome to the fun! Needless to say, they all need to be absolutely razor sharp

I don't use chrome tanned leather much, but I think it's more difficult to skive than veg tan ... and skiving 2oz leather would surely be very difficult and feather it down to nothing

If you want to skive such thin leather, Search YT for 'skiving leather for bookbinding' as well 

I just watched the video you linked to... it's REALLY helpful!  Thank you again.

I've (a couple of days ago) ordered some Japanese skiving knifes in 3 sizes.  And from the video I can see that a French Edger would also be very useful.  Too bad I didn't know about it before I ordered from Japan.  My knife order will supposedly arrive on Monday.  It's already in North America.

You're the second person to tell me that it's difficult to skive chrome tan by hand.  But I was under the impression that using a bell skiver would work well with chrome tan and since that is what I'd probably use most of, that's the reason I ordered the machine.

I've got a lot to learn and many skills to develop.

Cheers!

 

[tsunkasapa]

For 2oz and less, I don't consider it 'there'. I don't take 'lining" leather into consideration when constructing a project. It's just 'there', but doesn't really add anything to the thickness.

[MtlBiker]

11 hours ago, tsunkasapa said:

For 2oz and less, I don't consider it 'there'. I don't take 'lining" leather into consideration when constructing a project. It's just 'there', but doesn't really add anything to the thickness.

I'm sorry, but I really don't understand what you said/meant.

Are you saying that 2 oz chrome tan is "lining" leather?  Are you saying you don't skive 2 oz?  What do you mean by not considering it "there"?  Where?