Thread: Not a razor but a skiver sharpening ?

Anyone know of someone reputable near east tn. That could sharpen one

Interesting piece.! A plane for leather, so to say. Never seen one up close, maybe someone with a leather shop could help.

There's also a ton of YouTube videos on it.

There are a few styles Mike. Most of them actually look more like a chisel.

Mine is small. They come much wider, some have a curved edge, double bevel symmetrical grind. They need to be razor sharp. I use mine to part the leather from about 1.5mm down to zero in about an inch. I free hand sharpen mine with 600 and 1200 grit Atoma diamond hones and finish on chromium oxide on leather. Most of the time I am just touching it up on the strop. I did drop it once and had to fix the edge.

Lee Valley and, I assume, other places have Mylar abrasive sheets that you can put on a wooden form to fit whatever shaped edge you want to sharpen.

https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop...for-sharpening

I have a round knife , kiridashi, That I use for skiving leather. I watched videos on sharpening kana, and kiridashi, chisel... those techniques should get you set. But you can go wo to far wrong by following the existing bevels. By far my favorite is the kiridashi, which will pop hairs easily.

I would look to a leather shop for advice. Most skivers are chisel type and are sharpened much the same and stropped on leather pasted strops. Flatten the back and polish the bevel until you get a burr, then remove the burr by polishing the burr off on the back.

If you are doing leather work, you really need to learn to sharpen and hone it yourself, to maintain it. You can remove a damaged edge on Diamond plates and finish on high grit Wet and Dry, then strop on paste. You can easily go from 1 or 2k to paste for a mirror finish.

I keep mine cutting by stropping on Diamond paste and Chrome Oxide. There are several videos on-line on stropping skivers.

Might try emailing Alex Gilmore, he knows how to sharpen all sorts of weird Japanese tools. The Japanese have all sorts of strange blades - not that skivers are strange...

Might even reach out to Tony Miller, he works with lots of leather for strops and maybe he could point you in the right direction.

Thanks for the reply. Just sent it back to supplier to sharpen. I thought about films but i chickened out.

You don’t need film for a leather tool, 1& 2k wet and dry and strop on a piece of leather or cardboard with a good metal polish or Chrome Oxide

You will still have to strop it to use and maintain. I would be interested to see what level the supplier honed it.