Manual Leather Skiver

So far this device works really well. Make sure you buy safety razor blades because the ones that come in with this are garbage. Overall this is well built and easy to use.

Birthday present from my wife, Considering this is from China it's made pretty well. My expectations were not very high. I have been looking for quite a while for a good way to skive Chrome tanned leather in preparation for sewing. I almost purchased the Schärffix skiver and was tossing around the idea of buying a bell skiver. I have an old Cast iron hand crank gear driven American skiver that works extremely well with veggie tan. The thicker the leather the better and it's not meant for chrome tanned leather after all it didn't really exist when the American was originally designed. I have just about every hand skiving tool you can imagine, numerous styles round knives, Head knives, dexter knives, Tandy skivers and various hand made tools for Paring / skiving. This thing really seems to be the best for me. If I skived chrome tanned leather full time all day I would have a Bell Skiver. My current needs are met with this tool. It's certainly a step up from a hand skiving/ paring tool and yet not as productive as the bell skiver. My first impression was icky, I thought the parts were practically falling off and full of slop. I had to tighten up the turn buckles adjust the slop and lock down the lock nuts. I added a drop of sewing oil to the threads and the pivot points a little dab of grease to the cam leaver that opens the jaws and everything operates smoothly with next to no backlash. Making a few adjustments was refreshing change as I had no need to completely rework the tool like I have with so many Chinese tools in the past. The machining on the blade holder could be a bit better and the blades are terrible, just absolutely terrible. Adjustment takes very little time, with a little common sense you'll get repeatable results. I personally did not experience the deflection Jeff Peachey mentions with the Schärffix style paring/ skiving machine. Perhaps with long term use this may present itself as a problem. I've dulled half a dozen double side blades so far and this is working really well. The 18 Blades that came with this were junk, maybe someone else had gotten better blades. I purchased Schärffix blades they fit and hold a good edge. Standard DE Blades (Double edged razor blades) will fit as well are the best buy. I would suggest buying a sample pack from amazon to try different manufactures before purchasing a box of a 100. The YaeTek Manual Leather Skiver works well on soft leather, thin veg tan and will cut thicker veggie tanned leather however Heavy veggie tanned leather will almost certainly destroy the tool in short order. Heavy veg tanned leather should be used in a sturdy machine like the Landis or American type skiver. Great tool and I would buy this if my wife had not gotten it for me first.

No replacement parts are available so if you lose a roller you have a useless machine. Rollers merely drop in place but are not restrained in any way so with least movement they come flying out and are very hard to find. The three rollers included are each made for a different purpose so are not interchangeable.

Once set up right, it works very well. Found that it works best with short shallow cuts. Do two to three passes at a bit of an angle. Work your way up to the full depth of the skive.

It’s well built for the price. I needed to skive some long pieces of leather for a project and it worked well. You will have to take your time and learn to use it first, this is not a tool you can just pull out of the box and run.

This product is poorly built and after a short time it did not work correctly

Okay, right up front I have to say the instructions were not in English (I think it's Chinese). However, there are plenty of YouTube videos on how to set this up and use it, that this is a minor inconvenience. They even have videos on how to "tune it up" to make it work even better. It's well made and shipped fast. All in all, it's well worth the price.

It comes with no instructions. The blades that come with it are dull. So far I have been unable to skive anything. I have been able to tear leather trying.

I hate hand skiveing, I'm just terrible at it, but cant afford a bell skiver yet. This thing came out of the box ready to use, just put the blade in and go. It's adjustable so you can easily adjust the hight and angle of the blade. So far I've only used it on some semi-firm 3-4oz to skive the edges of a turned bag, and it has worked wonderfully.

Funktioniert wie es soll, nur nicht zu viel auf einmal abnehmen, absolut zu empfehlen oder

Upon assembling all parts, I attempted to skive the leather but it would cut it through. I thought that practice would make it better. I tried to adjust it but adjustments spring stopped working (or something broke), so I can't adjust thickness to cut the leather. At the moment it is good for nothing and I would be happy to send it back if this could be repaired or replaced.

I’ve used it quite a bit since it arrived. I’ve watched the tutorials. I’ve seen all the theory. But it’s difficult to like. I’m sitting here with cut fingers from the blunt blade jiggling around, sore thumbs from keep having to tighten the fixing nut and all my trial leather bits either skived too much as I’ve cut through the whole thickness or seemingly thicker than it started! I know a good craftsman / woman doesn’t blame their tools. But I’m not a good craftsman so I can! I’ll persevere but am already looking at skiving machines wishing I’d kept the £120 this cost to put towards a proper one.

Works ok on thicker leather. Forget using this on thinner leather (less that 3oz), it just chews it up or doesn't skive anything (in my experience). I can't seem to get the thing attached tight enough to my table to stop it moving when I pull the leather through. I dislike that it takes trial and error to figure out how much to skive, but unless I want to pay $2000 for a bell skiver, this little machine will have to do. I would rate it just ok.