Thank you for taking the time for sharing with us. Philip, I own few skiving knives, some like yours, I believe after watching the way your hold the knife, I believe it been my problem. Thank you again.
Skiving chrome-tanned leather definitely takes a lot of work. I usually start off with an edge-paring machine (e.g. Scharf-fix) equipped with a Feather blade, and take off a little at a time. I get the leather to where I generally want it, then I go back by hand and touch up where it needs work. If the leather fibers bunch out over the edge, I cut them off with a craft knife (the blade is like a long X-acto blade) on a mat. If the leather stretches, I measure out where it needs to be and I cut off the excess. Still learning as always.
I use a pane of glass for skiving, tends to work well. In some cases, depending on the elasticity of the leather, backing it with some blue painters tape can help as well.
I have the Craftool hot stamping machine. It's still Chinese made, it's nothing special as far as features and practicality, and it's more expensive than your typical amazon find at about $600, but it does the job. Both rack and pinion are definitely steel (and fairly beefy actually), and if your stamps and your hot foil are good quality and you're happy to spend some time setting it up every time, you will absolutely get a good impression every time. The main limitation is that it's small so it's almost impossible to reach the middle of a bigger pieces, and it doesn't have those clever systems that allow you to set the position of the stamp with mm accuracy, you really have to invest a few minutes and some trials to make sure you got it right before you pull the lever on your real piece. And you probably have to build some jig and/or a movable fence to help you in the process. So those things can become annoying very quickly if you need the machine every day, but for those of us who make a couple of bags a month it is definitely a viable option. It's just a stamping machine, I don't really care if it will last for generations or not, there are many other tools and consumables I'd rather spend serious money on.
This was great, thank you. You mentioned Chinese tools coming into their own now. I’m wondering if you know a brand that makes great diamond stitching irons. I am in Australia and the cost of them here is ridiculous- and shipping from elsewhere is nuts. So was hoping to get a great deal on good tools. Thank you so much, for this and for your fabulously instructional videos. They’ve helped me grow as a creator.
My apologies for preempting your video, but I have an answer to your 3rd question (as posted above). A person can make a small fortune with leather work. All they need to do is start with a larger fortune.
Great, I am currently debating which Heat foil machine to buy - I am pretty sure I will buy the one Kevin Lee sells, but my biggest problem now is the brass alphabet... superduper expensive and usually too small (4 or 5mm, I'd like 8 or 10 mm) + I need special characters such as Š, Ž, ...
I tried a cheap one off Ebay once and totally regretted spending the money. I use the one from Dram Factory and would say it's in the mid price range. Love it.
