Home, Crafts and Hobbies Atlas

How Hands Make A Home
Tools and Equipment

Skiving Knife

SKYV-ing, rhyming with diving, not with living.

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A single-bevel blade set in a handle, drawn across the flesh side of a piece of leather to pare it thinner without weakening it. Skiving is done most often along an edge that will be folded, glued or lapped over another piece, so the finished seam does not bulk up.

Facts
Open Questions
Introduced When (Circa)
Not established by the sources consulted
Skiving as a technique is documented in ordinary saddlery and leatherwork of the twentieth century and is almost certainly older, but no source consulted gives a date for the knife itself.
Origin
A 1939 photograph from a Texas saddle shop shows hand skiving already an ordinary part of leatherwork, thinning the flesh side so two overlapping pieces, a belt or a watchband among them, join without extra bulk. 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Used In

Sources
1. Skiving (Leathercraft) (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section
Quote, Lead section
the process used in leather crafting to reduce the thickness of leather, especially in areas that are to be bent or folded and which must be pliable without becoming weakened
View the Source
1. Skiving (Leathercraft) (Wikipedia)
WikipediaImage caption, 1939 Texas saddle shop photograph
Quote, Image caption, 1939 Texas saddle shop photograph
Hand skiving leather in a Texas saddle shop, 1939
View the Source
1. Skiving (Leathercraft) (Wikipedia)
WikipediaUsed In: Leather CraftingView the Source
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