Leathercraft skill—How to sharpen a cutting knife

Leathercraft skill—How to sharpen a cutting knife

Tools are the second hand of handcraft. But usually everyone only pays attention to the maintenance of leather goods, but ignores the maintenance of tools. In addition to causing a great loss of tool life, dissatisfaction during use will also make people lose their love for handmade products.

leather knife

After the leather knife is used, the sharpness of the knife head will decrease. In order to maintain the sharpness of the leather knife, grinding is indispensable.

But in fact, there are many people who don't know how to grind and under what conditions. At the same time, it is also very important to be able to understand what the sharpest state of the leather knife looks like. If you can understand the sharpness of the leather knife, you can understand the necessity of grinding.

Sharpening steps:

Prepare whetstones of different thicknesses and soak them before sharpening to fully absorb the water.

Adjust the inclined part of the tip of the knife head to an angle close to the surface of the whetstone, and move the leather knife back and forth to perform grinding work.

Check the cutter head every grinding period. If there is a gap in the cutter head, grind it repeatedly until the gap disappears, and when the tip of the cutter head comes out, you can proceed to the next step.

Turn the blade over and grind it against the surface of the whetstone to remove excess.

After grinding for many times, change to a low-mesh whetstone for repeated grinding for a period of time until the sharpening is completed.

The confirmation of sharpness can be carried out with shredded leather. For a leather knife, as long as it is sharp enough, it can easily cut leather without applying force.

Round punch

When the opening of the round punch is surrounded by a layer of rust, the punch will become blunt and affect its use.

The grinding of the round punch is very simple, just use sandpaper to polish the rust layer on the surface to restore the sharpness of the notch and the overall brightness of the round punch.

edge cutter

As a tool that is frequently used in the process of making handmade leather goods, the edge trimming knife is an important factor that affects the smooth edge trimming and the beauty of the leather edge. The groove design of the edge of the edge cutter can fit the edge of the leather to cut out the curved edge of the leather, and at the same time it can be more convenient for grinding.

When grinding the edge cutter, wrap the grinding rod with fine sandpaper or place a suitable size needle on the table and cover it with sandpaper and grind the edge cutter tip against the sandpaper.

It is also best to use sandpaper of different meshes for rough grinding and fine grinding. It is recommended to sand with 600+1000 mesh sandpaper in sequence.

In fact, for most metal tools, dulling and rusting will inevitably occur after a long time of use. Such as diamond cutting/oblique flat cutting, etc., just use sandpaper to properly grind and polish the teeth.

For the maintenance of tools, in addition to taking appropriate protective measures during daily use, it is best to place them carefully when not in use; especially if they are not in use for a long time, they should also be properly sprayed with a layer of anti-rust oil and sealed to prevent rust.

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