Sanding Leather?

[AR-Trvlr]

I picked up some irregular scrap leather to experiment with making sheaths & learn about tooling / decorating. The only problem is its' weight - it's like 9/10 oz, and I'd rather have something like 6/7 oz to work with.

Is it possible to sand it down to a lighter weight? Any problems with doing so? Anything to watch out for?

 

[metalbender2]

you'd do better to skive it down, which is to say split it. you likely don't have a skiving knife so here is another method to try. slit the edge of the leather with a utility razor knife to about a depth of 1 inch, ( take your time with this as the cut needs to be even)
place the piece onto a hard surface such as a marble or wooden cutting board, side you want to keep face down. using a fillet knife work down the length of the piece just as if you were filleting a fish. since a fillet knife is not a half moon shape as a skiving knife is, youll be limited to one direction ie basically one width that is narrower than the fillet knife is long. baring all that, order a skiving knife.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Hand skiving a large piece of leather is fraught with risk of cutting yourself. If you don't have a skiving/splitting machine ( and few do) ,it would be best to use the leather as is, or get some in the weight you want. FWIW, many sheaths are made from 9/10 weight leather. You also might use it for the backs and welts, and get some 6/7 for the faces.
Sanding leather works fine for tapering welts and strap ends, and for relieving folds, but trying to do a whole piece sounds like a poor idea. Sanding will leave a rough, suede type surface.
Stacy

 

[Bufford]

When leather is too thick such as when I make keeper straps and other things that need some bend, I simply take them down to the required thickness using nothing more than a fresh 50 grit belt on the grinder. If it needs further smoothing I dress the leather with a 120 grit to get rid of the fuzzies clinging to the leather.

 

[bob levine]

Get the correct weight of leather for the project you are working on and set the heavy stuff aside till you have use for it. The right material for the job is the answer. What is the question? I've been doing custom leatherwork for over 50 yrs. My 2 cents worth

 

[LRB]

I have done it on a horizonal sander useing 36 grit belts, but they need to be new belts or you can burn the leather. Also puts a lot of debris in the air.

 

[DC KNIVES]

9-10 oz is perfectly acceptable for sheaths especially larger and field use type sheaths.Skiving would be the best, but like said few have a skiving achine and small skiving knives are for small sections.I sand leather daily,from edges to skiving down belt loops.Use fresh belts, slow speeds and if you wet the leather first you cut down the amount of dust dramatically as well as keeping the surface smoother.Dave

http://dcknivesandleather.blademakers.com/

 

[LRB]

Thanks for the tip Dave. I will try it wet next time I need to do it.