Working with Thin Leathers

Each piece of leather is unique and in general just has a lot of character. It’s what I love about leather. Somewhere along the way though, I had failed to apply that beyond just the look of leather. In other words, yes, each piece of leather looks different, and you can get many different kinds of leather that have been tanned differently, but that also means you need to treat them differently when working with them. I quickly found out that some of the skills I learned working with a very thick and stiff piece of leather, didn’t really apply to kinds of leathers that were thin and soft (even though it was still veg tanned). So let’s talk about working with thin leathers.

When cutting thin leathers: use a rotary cutter.

Unlike thicker leathers, soft leathers can snag if you don’t have a good balance between moving the blade downward and forward. This problem really only rears it’s head if your blade is dull, which is sometimes the case because I’ve yet to master sharpening. For this reason, I usually use a rotary cutter when it comes to thinner leathers. The blade itself is thinner than that of a round knife (especially a dull one) and has much less of a tendency to snag. If your blade of your rotary cutter is dull, they are easy to replace and easy to sharpen with a rotary blade sharpener. Alternatively, you could be really good at sharpening… I’ll get there one day!

When dying edges on thin leathers: use edge paint.

When I first started I don’t think I really understood the point of edge paint. It just seemed like something that was easier to mess up. Well no surprise, it actually has advantages, hence it’s popularity. The reality is that a lot of thin leathers, especially soft/supple ones just don’t burnish well. The fibers are simply too loose. So instead of using dye, that sinks into the leather and still allows you to burnish the leather itself, why not use something you sits on top of the leather and burnish that instead. This is the strength of edge paint. It adheres to, but doesn’t sink into the leather the way dye does, and is very easily burnished. It also tends to look much smoother than dyeing, unless you’re really proficient at sanding your edges smooth. That said, I find edge painting to be trickier than dyeing. As I mentioned, it’s easy to mess up, so make sure your using the right applicator (which Tandy sells for cheap). Before burnishing the paint you also need to make sure you build up a few layers of it. I plan to write a post about this a little bit later, but for now the general process is this:

When burnishing thin leathers: don’t use a burnisher.

Example of a mashed edge, even if a bit exaggerated.

This especially applies to thin leathers that aren’t soft and supple. Because of the downward force that a burnisher needs to create friction (especially when doing it by hand) the edges often get pushed down too hard and keep that shape because it’s a rigid leather. You can sometimes get away with it on very supple leathers, because they don’t hold shape well, but usually won’t burnish anyways. There’s a few ways to get around each of these problems.

Use a piece of canvas instead of a wooden burnisher. Often times I’m more pleased with my results from canvas anyways, but this is especially the case with thin leathers. The reality is that you can create a lot more heat with canvas with a lot less downward force. Basically, you can burnish with out mashing your edges. 

Using a wooden burnisher on a flat surface.

You can still use a wooden burnisher, but you’ll have to use it differently. To prevent a lot of force coming down on top of the edge, you can instead lay the piece of leather down and use the burnisher alongside it. This keeps the direction of your movement purely going across the edge, instead of into it. Do make sure to flip the piece of leather and do both sides of the edge.

When stitching thin leathers: cast the thread over your needle.

A lot of the times when you see a project made of thin leather, you’ll see one side of the stitching be very diagonal, but the other side be very flat. This is because the the threads don’t have a enough space to twist around the other before coming out the other side. One way I’ve heard it suggested to get around this problem is casting the thread over your needle before you start the stitch. It’s a little confusing, but it’s explained well here. After talking to some leatherworker friends and trying it out myself, I don’t think this always fixes the problem and think it may just be something you have to deal with. But, it is definitely worth trying out yourself. If you find a solution, let me know and drop it in the comments below.

Another small tip in addition to this: make sure you’re not pulling your thread too tight as you finish off your knot. On thiner leathers this can actually cause the leather to bunch. And in addition to your leather being ugly from bunching, your stitching will look uneven as well. So, tighten your knot with constant force, but not with all the force you have.

When beveling thin leathers: don't

Awhile ago, I had used a burnisher on a project made from thin leather and in addition to the edges getting mashed, the surface of the leather began to fold over. This can happen even if your using a piece of canvas. So naturally, I thought I’ll just use a beveler and get rid of it. Well… my beveler was a little bit too serious for a thin piece of leather, and I ended up just cutting off the entire edge. I know there are bevelers with a slighter angle that won’t cut as deep, but in general I don’t think it’s a good idea to bevel thin and supple leathers. Supple leathers especially don’t bevel well, and the process generally creates lots of snags. Instead I’ll usually sand those edges round with a high grit sand paper. It is a lot easier to make a mistake doing this by slipping and sanding the surface of the leather, so make sure you’re controlled when you do it. I start by sanding the top of the edge like you normally would, and then slowly angle my hand downward so I’m hitting the edge of the edge. I’m not sure that last sentence made sense, so here’s a picture to help out!

What I mean by "edge's edge."

Sanding the edge.

Sanding the edge's edge.

Sanding the edge's edge.

It’s really easy to get frustrated when you’re learning and working with different kinds of leather. You thought you had finally got your burnishing down (seriously it took me to long) only to fail at it on your next project that was made with a different leather. When you’re first starting it’s easy to think the problem is a lack of proficiency, which is generally the case, but do keep in mind it could be the type of leather. Hopefully these tips about beveling, stitching, burnishing, dyeing, and cutting thin leathers will help you keep your attention on what skills you need to keep practicing, as you work with many different kinds of leathers.

How to Use a Skiver

Imagine skiving is that evil predator seal and I am poor hapless Buster Blooth. And imagine the sheer horror of attempting to escape an overbearing mother, only to be apprehended by this hand eating seal. That feeling of dread, is the dread that fills my heart when I know I have to skive something. Sure it's a little dramatic, but skiving and I really did start off on the wrong foot.

The first time I attempted to skive anything was on my second project, which was a purse I made for my wife. I've referenced this purse before in a post about rivets, so I won't say much about it, other than I made it with the first piece of leather I ever bought, which was a really rough 8oz piece of veg tan. Really stiff 8oz leather may be great for, say a belt, but horrible for a purse. So instead of buying an entire new piece of leather I thought I’d be clever and skive the entire thing.

I was not clever.

What resulted was about six to eight hours of extreme frustration while I tried to skive all of this 8oz leather down to about 5oz. And I tried really hard to keep it all smooth, but it ended up extremely pitted. To make matters worse, I was using a super skiver (which I didn’t even really know what that was at the time) and started to rush towards the end as I got more and more impatient. That, of course, only resulted in me cutting a hole completely through a few pieces of leather and having to start all over again.

Long story short, it was a horrible mess, and I still have some angst towards skiving.

I had no idea what I was doing. Super skivers aren’t meant to be used that way. Normal skivers aren’t supposed to be used that way either. What I really needed was a splitter.

So, here’s some things I’ve learned along the way about skivers that I wish I would’ve know prior to making that purse.

Skiver vs. SUPER Skiver vs. Splitter:

It helps to think of these three tools as different versions of one another. They all do the same thing, but to a different capacity.


This is the smallest, and it's for reducing the thickness of leather in small areas. It’s most common function is skiving edges, which will make an edge less bulky. This is normally desirable if you have two pieces of leather stacked on top of each other. Think of a wallet that can hold multiple cards. Each card is held in place by a different piece of leather, yet the edge is all a uniform thickness and not extremely bulky. This was achieved by reducing the edge's thickness by means of a skiver.

This pretty much works like a skiver, just more so. The depth and width of your cuts are amplified… and so are your mistakes. I actually find the super skiver to be a lot less of a controlled process than the normal skiver. I would not recommend using a super skiver on leather that wasn’t at least 8oz thick. It would cut all the way through on thin leathers like 3oz, and even on something like 6oz leather, I think it’s too easy to make mistakes. Where the super skivers really shines, however, is with belts. Most people, myself included, skive the ends of their belts that fold over, around the buckle. This prevents the belt from being to bulky. It’s really nice to be able to skive that quickly with the super skiver. It usually only takes two or three passes with a super skiver as opposed to the eight to ten it would probably take with a normal skiver.



If we are sticking to this super thing, its basically like a super super skiver… but it does work a bit differently. The blades of skivers and super skivers are bowed in the middle, which means your cut is going to be made across the middle of your blade. A splitter blade is flat and cuts across the entire blade. Splitters reduce the thickness of the entire piece of leather, instead of just parts of it. This is what I had hoped to do with the purse: take all the 8oz leather and make it 5oz. I don’t currently own one of these because they will cost you a bit of money, but it would definitely be nice to own a splitter one day.


Tips for a Skiver:

1. Using a skiver doesn’t take much force, so you can hold the leather still as you skive it with just a few fingers. This is great because it lets you skive using both hands, which gives you a lot more control.

2. Additionally, skivers can get kind of stuck in the leather as you use it. Usually this happens when you accidentally bury it too deep in the leather. There are two things you can do when this happens. Take the skiver out and skive the other direction. Or continue to pull, but pull up as you do it. If you decide to continue the skive and pull up, which is what I prefer, having both hands to gently rock it back and for while tilting it upwards really helps to smooth out the mistake.

A Skived Edge

3. When skiving an edge, always have your skiver at an angle. Rest the back end of the skiver on the table and angle the blade, so that the middle of the blade is on the edge of the leather. Resting the back part of the skiver on the table as you skive will help you maintain a consistent angle.



Tips When Using a Super Skiver:

Take these tips with a grain of salt because, as I have already mentioned, my skill with a super skiver is not… super.

1. I’ve noticed that the super skiver has a natural tendency to want to bury itself in the leather. I will pull down into the leather as I attempt to sink the skiver to the depth that I need it, but then pull the skiver up and towards me about 15% to fight against it sinking further.

2. To get a flat surface, know that you are going to have to overlap your cuts. As mentioned earlier the blade is curved, with the lowest point in the middle. If you are trying to skive more than just an edge you will have to over lap your cuts about 1/3 on either side to get a nice flat surface.

3. Clean out your blade. Skivers in general, but especially super skivers, tend to get bits of leather stuck between the blade and the tool. This makes the cuts much worse for two reasons. First they won’t be as even or smooth. And second, it pushes the blade further away from the tool making your cuts deeper than normal.

4. Finally make sure to sharpen and replace your blades. If I'm being thrifty, I will sometimes take the blade out and strop it. This keeps it sharp for awhile, but if I am still having problems after stropping it, I just replace the blade. The replacement blades are much cheaper than the leather you’re about to make a mistake on, so don’t be afraid to throw them out and replace them. Do be careful when replacing them though. Sometimes the replacement blades aren’t consistently sharp. If this is the case I’ll throw that one out until I find a good one.

All in all, I really prefer the normal skiver to the super skiver. I find that it can accomplish the same thing, in about the same amount of time, with a lot more control, and that control is really what is most important to me. 

I’m really hoping these tips keep you from being traumatized like I have been. Let me know if you have a skiving tip I left out, or an Arrested Development gif you can somehow relate to leatherworking. Here’s to a brighter skiving future.