Spliting heavy leather

[P.W.Berkuta]

I have some 10-12 oz veggie taned leather I want to reduce in thickness. It measures 6" X 24" (approx) and I want to reduce it to 7-8 oz. I don't have a skiver but can make something if necessary but I need to know what works before I go down a blind ally and have to build something else. Have any of you done this or something similar?

[Hungry Horse]

Find a saddle shop, tack shop, or a shoe repair, that has a splitter. You can skive  it down by hand, but it will take some time, and getting it uniform will be a job.

  Hungry Horse

[J Henry]

  "Find a saddle shop, tack shop, or a shoe repair", save yours self the work and time,go buy what you need for the project...been there done that,,never again,in the end still bought the leather. What are you making ??

[James Rogers]

A high quality, well sharpened and tuned splitter, 8 inches or wider will do the job. Lots of bucks for those. Cheaper to take it to a shop that has one or most likely buy a piece in the thickness you need.

[T.C.Albert]

What James said....

Keep the thick stuff for future projects like knife sheaths or holsters...
it may really be best to order what thickness you need...

if you are totally against that...try tacking the leather down and using
a belt sander if a splitter cant be found. 
tc

[P.W.Berkuta]

Thanks for all the good inputs. I have two 10-12 oz hides that I have been using for knife sheaths - high quality stuff. Some knives don't require that thickness of leather so I wanted to save some bucks and skive some down for the smaller & thinner blades. I guess the best thing is to "bite the bullet" and pick up some thinner leather. I do have two sides that are 4-5 oz for bags & such so why not help the economy and buy more STUFF -- it's only money and you can't take it with you . Thanks all .

[Poor Bull]

I recently needed to thin some heavier leather down.  I cut the leather to my pattern and used my 4 by 36 inch belt sander.  I just held the leather flesh side down on the running belt.  It put out a big cloud of leather dust but,  worked like a charm.  Just keep moving the leather so it doesn't thin unevenly.

[P.W.Berkuta]

Thanks for the suggestion Poor Bull. I think I will buy some thinner leather and be done with it. I use the belt sander method for doing a lap joint on 2" wide leather strip for my knife belt grinder.

[FDR]

http://wickett-craig.com/

The best leather for knife sheaths there is!


Fred