Recommendation? Pro Leather tools

Springfield. Of course. I should have just checked there instead of relying on google. Thank you!
 
I dont know Dave .... Im cutting out a sheath right now ... and my roundknife is great for the initial cut, and maybe the second slightly deeper one ... but then is seems to bind up in the leather, and I need to push really hard .... which inevitably leads to a slip of the knife, damaging the leather. probably it just needs to be sharper, with a shallower bevel than the factory edge??? right now I can not see making that cut in one pass (leather is TOUGH stuff.....)

(actually, right now, I am using the roundknife to make the initial pass or two, then needing to finish up with an exacto blade.......)
 
Cushing H. said:
I dont know Dave .... Im cutting out a sheath right now ... and my roundknife is great for the initial cut, and maybe the second slightly deeper one ... but then is seems to bind up in the leather, and I need to push really hard .... which inevitably leads to a slip of the knife, damaging the leather. probably it just needs to be sharper, with a shallower bevel than the factory edge??? right now I can not see making that cut in one pass (leather is TOUGH stuff.....)

(actually, right now, I am using the roundknife to make the initial pass or two, then needing to finish up with an exacto blade.......)
Click to expand...
Yep ya got something going on to need to do all that to cut. So several questions. What leather are you using? What roundknife? Highly polished edge, no visible teeth at all? Thickness of the stock the roundknife is made of?

Here's a couple of little vids:

Login • Instagram

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com

Login • Instagram

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
 
Horsewright said:
Yep ya got something going on to need to do all that to cut. So several questions. What leather are you using? What roundknife? Highly polished edge, no visible teeth at all? Thickness of the stock the roundknife is made of?
Click to expand...
well .... lets see. The leather is Wickett & Craig skirting. The roundknife is by Al Stohlman brand. Looks like stock is 0.1". TBE is about 0.025 on the ends. I sharpened it at 15 degrees per side, stropped on leather - no teeth. It cuts through paper just fine. I dont really have a way to polish it (dont have a buffer....).

Does the TBE need to be taken down lower? (and how the heck do you do that on a round knife?????)
 
Well it shouldn't be the leather. Thats one of the reasons its my favorite leather, ease of cutting. When I first decided to make my own roundknives I had one objective. More cutting less sharpening. I had been using the Osbornes, I mean thats what folks used. Lots of sharpening a little cutting. I spent some time talking with Paul Long both about the shape of the blade (asymmetrical instead of symmetrical) and the stock thickness. He was pretty insistent on the stock thickness being in the neighborhood of .040-.045. I went with that and haven't looked back. I've got .0153 behind the edge and my edges are convex and polished. A short distance back from the TBE I have .0235. I freehand sharpen and thin roundknives on my grinder. I set my platten at about 45 degrees and I stand to the side. When I do sharpen its really more of a thinning of the metal behind the edge rather than the edge itself. How long is your handle? Most commercial knives have way too long of a handle and folks don't realize it when they are first trying to get their head a round a roundknife. When ya make a fist and where your fingers roll into your palm thats about where the end of the handle should rest your fingers near the blade. Gives ya more control and power. Then practice. If ya bought a side you are gonna have some waste down there by the belly. Cut that stuff up into little pieces. You might also consider cutting your leather pretty damp. This can create some other problems that can be mitigated but it'll help ya learn. Nichole, my wife, does most of her cutting on damp leather.
 
Thanks Dave … all of that makes sense. I swear, I start the cut, the blade goes half way through the thickness of the leather, then seems to bind between the edges of the cut. A too thick blade and dry (rigid) leather is consistent with that.

I guess I could try thinning one side of the blade (carefully, and dulling the edge first!). Nothing really to lose.

When you say cut damp leather… how damp? Sprayed lightly, or soaked like it would be for stamping?
 
Cushing H. said:
Thanks Dave … all of that makes sense. I swear, I start the cut, the blade goes half way through the thickness of the leather, then seems to bind between the edges of the cut. A too thick blade and dry (rigid) leather is consistent with that.

I guess I could try thinning one side of the blade (carefully, and dulling the edge first!). Nothing really to lose.

When you say cut damp leather… how damp? Sprayed lightly, or soaked like it would be for stamping?
Click to expand...
Casing overnight would actually be the best but of course is a pain. Requires lots of planning ahead. Dampen with a sponge (both sides, roughout first) enough that the color changes uniformly. Then wait a little till the color starts to come back. Thats about right. Why only on one side on thinning the knife?
 
Horsewright said:
Why only on one side on thinning the knife?
Click to expand...
I guess that does not really make sense, does it? Ok ... both sides :-)

not quite sure if I can reasonably thin the middle - the handle is in the way - though I guess I could run the belt at 90 degrees from "usual" (i.e. with the handle oriented sideways - kind of akin to what is called vertical grinding of a long blade. I just do not have experience with control with thinning with "vertical" grinding
 
Cushing H. said:
I guess that does not really make sense, does it? Ok ... both sides :)

not quite sure if I can reasonably thin the middle - the handle is in the way - though I guess I could run the belt at 90 degrees from "usual" (i.e. with the handle oriented sideways - kind of akin to what is called vertical grinding of a long blade. I just do not have experience with control with thinning with "vertical" grinding
Click to expand...
Yeah its a learned thing. Lot easier to take too much off the points and not enough in the center. But then again how much cutting d o you do in the center?
 
Dave, just a quick update. spent some time cutting leather (need to re-do a sheath I totally messed up ... at just about every point :-( ). got the leather nice and wet - and the cutting went much, much easier. still not as clean and "single-pass" as you and others have indicated, but pretty close. I suspect when I get to thinning the head knife it will go even better.

cutting the wet leather is definitely a different "feel" - less hangin-up either due to fibers or "pinching" by the leather .... but it also stretches in a way dry leather does not. at least soaking for an hour or two before cutting gives a head-start on the casing :)
 
too much water maybe. For traditional casing dunk your leather till the bubbles stop coming out. Then wrap your leather in a wool blanket and leave overnight. Cut your leather in the morning. It will be very plastique with out being so stretchy.
 
Ack .... what ever convinced you to get in to this gig anyways? too wet .... too dry. Soaked too long ... not soaked long enough. gotta get it wet to cut it and stamp it .... then gotta let it dry to glue and sew it. Oh .... and if you cant get it stamped in one go ... find a way to keep it damp without keeping it damp too long (if there is such a thing). OH ... and then you gotta get it wet again to wet-form it. I think I am getting dizzy. :-)
 
Cushing H. said:
Ack .... what ever convinced you to get in to this gig anyways? too wet .... too dry. Soaked too long ... not soaked long enough. gotta get it wet to cut it and stamp it .... then gotta let it dry to glue and sew it. Oh .... and if you cant get it stamped in one go ... find a way to keep it damp without keeping it damp too long (if there is such a thing). OH ... and then you gotta get it wet again to wet-form it. I think I am getting dizzy. :)
Click to expand...
I'm switching to Kydex for now 🤣
 
Cushing H. said:
Ack .... what ever convinced you to get in to this gig anyways? too wet .... too dry. Soaked too long ... not soaked long enough. gotta get it wet to cut it and stamp it .... then gotta let it dry to glue and sew it. Oh .... and if you cant get it stamped in one go ... find a way to keep it damp without keeping it damp too long (if there is such a thing). OH ... and then you gotta get it wet again to wet-form it. I think I am getting dizzy. :)
Click to expand...
Because in pre internet days I wanted some cowboy stuff I couldn't find to buy, a pair of chinks (short chaps). So I made my own, then another pair for somebody else and then some other stuff and more chinks for other folks and here we are. We use to have two saddle shops here in town I'd hang out in and pick up tips. Rest is done by figuring out what didn't work. I've probably made close to1500 pairs of leggings now. Sheaths? Well north of 20,000. Water with a sponge or spray bottle and a hairdryer are on most tooling benches. Moisture content for various processes is indeed important. Ya got me though ya don't have to make all the mistakes I did. But in the end its just dead cow. They make more all the time.

N.W. Gean said:
I'm switching to Kydex for now 🤣
Click to expand...
No don't give into the soulless dark side!
 
Horsewright said:
Because in pre internet days I wanted some cowboy stuff I couldn't find to buy, a pair of chinks (short chaps). So I made my own, then another pair for somebody else and then some other stuff and more chinks for other folks and here we are. We use to have two saddle shops here in town I'd hang out in and pick up tips. Rest is done by figuring out what didn't work. I've probably made close to1500 pairs of leggings now. Sheaths? Well north of 20,000. Water with a sponge or spray bottle and a hairdryer are on most tooling benches. Moisture content for various processes is indeed important. Ya got me though ya don't have to make all the mistakes I did. But in the end its just dead cow. They make more all the time.


No don't give into the soulless dark side!
Click to expand...
Lol … they do indeed make more ( I hope it came through I was just trying to be humorous…)

Hair dryer? What for? I thought it is a BAD THING to dry leather too fast?
 
N.W. Gean said:
I wish it wasn't true, but I figured out that my troubles with leather work were taking the fun out of knife making for me. I'm not totally done with leather though. Just a hiatus.
Click to expand...
Yeah. I totally screwed up my last sheath at every level. Ended up just throwing it away. Left me in a really bad mood a couple nights ago…
 
N.W. Gean said:
I wish it wasn't true, but I figured out that my troubles with leather work were taking the fun out of knife making for me. I'm not totally done with leather though. Just a hiatus.
Click to expand...
Cushing H. said:
Yeah. I totally screwed up my last sheath at every level. Ended up just throwing it away. Left me in a really bad mood a couple nights ago…
Click to expand...

It happens. Even still. Just the last batch, twice. So I had this oak carved sheath, a large one, for a special knife already to wet mold. I punch the belt slots while wet and somehow the punch slipped up into the stitching. No fixing that:

8vlHsWD.jpg


NgQkyhO.jpg


Only one fix. for that and it didn't work:

DJ56aXH.jpg


This one did.

Eu1V7jg.jpg


However, I plodded on over the next couple of days:

11qtzWM.jpg


Course I'm working on some holsters too at the same time and this happens:

bbP87Eu.jpg


T1u8bAV.jpg


It's a crinkle cut from our pinking blade roller knife. We use scrap for overlay sheaths or holsters like this. The water buffalo must have been scored by over run from the pinking knife from some other project and I hadn't seen it when I glued on the overlay or sewed the holster. However I got er wet for wet forming and punching the slots and I think the stress and flex of removing the punch from the leather opened up the scoring. My only explanation. No fixing that either. Oh well more keeping on, one foot in front of the other, journey of a thousand miles beginning with one step, 4th quarter, ride that bronc, let er buck etc, etc.

SlbfxxX.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top