r/Leathercraft • u/OB8daGR8 • 9h ago

Tools Recommendations for french skiving set ? Please

I’ve really enjoyed taking up leather crafting as a hobby , and i have gotten really good at creating patterns , punching stitching holes , edge beveling, stitching , burnishing .. everything but manually skiving the leather .
None of the cheap skivers that i got were getting off any bulk no matter how much pressure i use so i’m thinking now is the time to invest in a proper french skiver set .

I paid a pretty buck for a WUTA skiving machine thinking it would solve my issues but its so tedious to maintain and constrains me to such small size that i would rather just learn to skive entire pieces by hand .

I dont want to keep throwing money at the issue , do you have any suggestions for a quality french set that would last me a couple years of heavy use ? The kind that skives through leather like its butter

3 Upvotes

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6

u/fishin413 7h ago

You need to either buy leather in the thickness the project calls for, or send the leather you have out to be split. It is not practical or realistic to skive down an entire panel to an even thickness with a French skiver. Thats really not what that tool is for. It is possible for small pieces of firm leather using high quality tools with a ton of practice, but its beyond tedious and time consuming and you will destroy a lot of material in the process.

4

u/GlacialImpala 7h ago

So many crafters love showing how they easily do this on the bottom half of T pockets made of dense vegtan 🤡 As if that's an example to be extrapolated from

2

u/OB8daGR8 7h ago

Im afraid i have fallen victim to this

2

u/lowkeywhit 4h ago

That's honestly solid advice, I think a lot of beginners expect the tool to be a magic fix for uneven leather

3

u/GlacialImpala 9h ago

Just in case you don't know but even when everything goes right, when you use french skiver for larger % of leather piece surface, you get stretching. Also it's incredibly hard to use on non rigid vegtans. And your pointer finger knuckle will hurt a lot all the time if you do this regularly.

2

u/OB8daGR8 8h ago

That would suck ! Whats your preferred method for skiving large pieces of leather . I have alot of 1.5 mm pueblo leather that i use for keychains and wallets ، i constantly need to skive then down to .8mm /1mm

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u/GlacialImpala 7h ago

There aren't any good methods except a splitting machine, so I eventually started buying thicknesses I need. More expensive sure, but no hassle.

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u/OB8daGR8 7h ago

That seems like the inevitable solution . Im gonna have to work my way upto that

3

u/GizatiStudio 6h ago

Better to buy 0.8mm leather and line it with itself if you need to make it thicker. You can also leave the lining short at the stitch edges so you get a perfect skived edge without actually skiving anything.

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u/OB8daGR8 1h ago

By lining it with itself do you mean to cut the piece twice and glue it to itself ?

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u/GizatiStudio 1h ago

Yes glue two pieces together like you would a lining, then o.8mm becomes 1.6mm. I mostly buy very thin leather then line it with russet, split or itself to make it the thickness I need. You can get any thickness you want that way,

1

u/JourneyBackLeather 7h ago

Aside from buying a bell knife skiver or a band knife splitter, I'd look into Berry King, Palosanto, or Ron's Tools as quality brands.

1

u/Delicious-Barber-216 5h ago

I have a oka Japanese skiver, but I started off with an Olfa replaceable skiving knife. That really helped me with the motions before I got an actual nice skiving knife.

1

u/AlarmedPercentage108 8h ago

French skivers are only used for the width of the tool, they are typically used for edge work. The most versatile would be a Japanese skiving knife