knives to cut leather?

wildmanh

wildmanh

Part time Leather Bender/Sheath maker
Joined
Jul 9, 2000
Messages
7,764
Hi guys, as soon as my health gets a bit better I'm getting back into leather working. And while I'm waiting was wondering what you guys use to cut your leather for sheath making and such. Years ago I used the 1" long blade on my leatherman Mini but I lost it last spring. The SOG Powerlock I replaced it with has a 3"+ blade which I find to long for me when cutting up the leather. So I was wondering what you guys used.

I have a couple Exacto knives I used years ago that I recently found. Might need to either sharpen or replace the blades. Am thinking a small slipjoint would work good too. Back in 94 (was 13 at the time) I made a few leather sheaths and used a Buck 105 Pathfinder with it's Razer sharp 5" blade to cut leather. That knife is a family hairloom so it's locked up. Leatherman type tools need to have short blades but I might can go for something longer in a more traditional knife. Opinions wanted, thank!

Heber
 
I have always found that Wharncliffe blades are the best for cutting leather and other "craft" tasks.

I used to use this (BRKT TUSK):

IMG_1147.jpg


Then I replaced that with this (J. Neilson hand forged):

IMG_2119.jpg


And now I use this (Modified Busse Sus Scrofa):

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:)
 
I agree with soupy. There is a Mora wharnie that is fantastic for this purpose and only costs 6 bucks.
 
Also, a good razor knife works well too, and hey, no sharpening.
 
I do my rough cutting with leather shears. I get the edges a little finer with box cutter. I've whittled down uneven edges with a super sharp SAK farmer with a lot of success too.

Heck, I've made a quick and dirty sheath that had its entire cut and shaped by the khuk that was going in it:D
 
My Grandfather had a shoemakers supply business, He sold a carbon steel, straight edged, 4" blade knife with a round wood handle for cutting leather.
It was cheap, very thin but tough, and could be sharpened like a razor, I know they are still available.
I bet one of the Moras, or Opinel's would be the closest in comparison.
 
soup_monger said:
I have always found that Wharncliffe blades are the best for cutting leather and other "craft" tasks.

I used to use this (BRKT TUSK):

IMG_1147.jpg


Then I replaced that with this (J. Neilson hand forged):

IMG_2119.jpg




:)
Click to expand...

Anyone who has a T.U.S.K. (one of the 11 made with a bolster no less!) _and_ a J. Nielsen wharnie is OK in my book. :D :thumbup:. I agree that style blade is perfect for that kind of heavy cutting. I have a TUSK (the stag one with bolster) but only one from J. so far. Very nice.

Here's a poor pic of mine:

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Norm
 

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I used to use one of these for leather working -
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And it works very well, but my wife .... likes to borrow it, so I put it in the utility drawer.

Now I use one of these....
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"F" in this picture. It works very well. It's made by Flexcut and is very inexpensive.

Wharncliffe blades do work best, I think, but I like a very thin blade, and not too long.

Andy
 
Wow, theres a lot of nice looking knives in this short thread. Thanks a bunch. Looks to me like the Warncliff/sheeps foot styles seem to be the most populare. I used a 1" clip point and it did good. But I'm sure a thinner blade would be even better. Lots of ideas which I like. Thanks!! And feel free to keep the pics and ideas coming. ;)

Heber
 
Svashtar said:
Anyone who has a T.U.S.K. (one of the 11 made with a bolster no less!) _and_ a J. Nielsen wharnie is OK in my book. :D :thumbup:. I agree that style blade is perfect for that kind of heavy cutting. I have a TUSK (the stag one with bolster) but only one from J. so far. Very nice.

Here's a poor pic of mine:

attachment.php


Norm
Click to expand...


Thanks Norm.... but... being a user and not a collector... each knife was sold to fund the next one.

I still have two J. Neilsons though.... :D
 
I cut all mine now with a birds beak kitchen knife sold by Kershaw knives. Specifically its this one right here. http://www.chefsresource.com/keshcl21bibe.html I keep this in my leather working box with my other supplies.

Best knife for cutting even the thickest bull hide I get my hands on. Stuff that used to be hard was made easy when I got this jewel.

Nice and thin, super edge keeping and perfect leverage thanks to the ample handle.

STR
 
STR said:
I cut all mine now with a birds beak kitchen knife sold by Kershaw knives. Specifically its this one right here. http://www.chefsresource.com/keshcl21bibe.html I keep this in my leather working box with my other supplies.

Best knife for cutting even the thickest bull hide I get my hands on. Stuff that used to be hard was made easy when I got this jewel.

Nice and thin, super edge keeping and perfect leverage thanks to the ample handle.

STR
Click to expand...

That is very nice, and I love VG-10. From the description though I would not have initially thought about trying it out on leather, as they just talk about vegetables, kitchen prep, etc. Thanks for the link.

Norm
 
Same here. For years I used a little Stanley blade or another 3/32" thick Wharncliff style blade of some 1095 steel I have that I made that I originally used for wood carving.

What happened was that Thomas Welk from Kershaw sent me one of the birds beak kitchen paring knives to test for him and get back to him about after using it for a while. So I had never really given them much thought you know. The thing worked though and although great in the kitchen I knew its fate if I left it there with my wife the way she if famous for beating up edges.

So, I originally hid it in my leather box so April wouldn't put her whammy on the edge and when I was making a sheath it was already there in the kit and was convenient. I just grabbed it and used it to cut this really thick bull hide like over 1/4" thick stuff where I had already drawn a curved pattern for wanting to use it for the spine or spacer between both layers for the edge of the knife to sit against. Man that thing made such short work of the leather and was so much less effort even with deeper penetration of the thin blade compared to anything else I ever used that it became a permanent fixture right there in my leather kit! Its simply great for that and made cutting curves and patterns a lot easier to control for me..

STR
 
Or you could simply go to a leather tool supply store where they have several different knives for cutting leather.:thumbup: :D :cool:
If the second page doesn't come up with the knives on it type knives in the search box at the top of the page and it'll bring them up.
When I checked to see if the links were good sometimes a different page than knives and related pieces came up. :confused:

The knife below is only $7.95 and if it's the one I'm thinking of it's real thin and will take one helluva page!!!! A shoe repairman I knew gave me an older one with lots of life left and I wound up cutting a little over half its length off because I kept cutting myself with its tip.:rolleyes: I put a modified wharncliff point on it, a sharp angle instead of a radius, so that I could cut a sharp inside corner when needed. You can't do that with a a regular or square point.

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This company has everything you need for doing leathercrafting up to and including the Craftool saddle stamps!:thumbup: :cool: :D

craftoolset-01.jpg
 
Yvsa, Those are the ones! or close, the ones I have here have, AFCO, New York,NY stamped on the side.
Grandma used those knives for cutting everything, there was even one with an 8" blade.

I tried to snap off the tip of one once to make it like a Wharncliff style. It was really hard to do. I finally put it in a vice and hit it until it finally broke, a file could barely touch it.

Darn things could double for a straight razor, lol
 
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