Leathertoolz - leather craft tools review blog

2015년 2월 10일 화요일

What type of wood is used on this Japanese tool?

you may have noticed that you always have same type of wood for different tools.

it is whitish, some times little tan, very light and soft wood.

The wood on these tools are made of Magnolia obovata.

It is very soft and kind of dense. easy to modify, easy to cut, carve.

and the blade or steel tang is tightly attached to the wood.

if you pick hardwood such as a rosewood or walnut.

you will have hard time sticking the blade in the the wood. because they are hard

and easily cracked from forcing the steel in the wood grain.

Magnolia obovata will get patina look after years of use.

they will turn into some kind of polished brown/grey look.

I had my handle U-ru-shi finished.

it will preserve the wood for many years.

I recommend you to put some wood finish oils on the handle.

because it will get soaked and dried a lot when sharpening the blade.

some Japanese leather workers take out the blade and sharpens it and then

put it back to the handle.

that's why they are designed to come apart.

Traditional Japanese Leather Creaser : Hot edge iron tool

These tools I would like to introduce you are very essential for leather craft.

玉ネン(Da-ma-nen) Hi-ra-ku-bi - Flat head type
玉ネン(Da-ma-nen) Tu-ru-ku-bi : Cuved head typeネジネン(Ne-ji-nen) : Adjustable screw Type

These three tools are very common in Japanese leather craft industry.
They have been around in Japan for a very long time.
you may never seen before these tools. so I would like to show you.

beware, I am left-handed, so these tools are all made for left handed person.
There are also right handed options too.

This is 玉ネン(Da-ma-nen) Hi-ra-ku-bi - Flat head type
This is for right AND left hand use.
it is good for making straight lines.
3 and 4 mm is set for the gap from the edge of the leather. and yes, that's the only option.
it is the most commonly used size.

玉ネン(Da-ma-nen) Tu-ru-ku-bi : Cuved head type
This is for left hand use. you can see there is a curve on the tip so that you can easily make curve lines
in tight spots.
I believe Tu-ru-ku-bi means "head of a bird" which is the shape of the tip does look like a shaped of bird's head.
3 and 4 mm is set for the gap from the edge of the leather. and yes, that's the only option.
it is the most commonly used size.

ネジネン(Ne-ji-nen) : Adjustable screw Type
is you may seen this from more often.
it resembles the type in western world. which is from dixon or blanchard etc.
you can adjust the gap of the two steel so that you can make your choice of line from the edge of the leather.

(picture is going to put later)

2014년 11월 22일 토요일

My first homemade Japanese Leather knife

This is my first home made leather knife.

I did the heat treatment, handle, finish, sharpening and everything.

More I get into leather craft, more I get into leather tools especially leather knives.

Made of Tool steel, American Cherry wood, Brass Pin

So far, edge is holding up very nice.

I am going to use it and compare it to other factory made knives.

2014년 7월 26일 토요일

Danny Marlin : Trimming Knife 122 Stag handle

Danny Marlin's facebook :
https://www.facebook.com/danny.marlin.52

This is Danny Marlin trimming knife model 122.

it has curved blade which is very effective for both thick and thin leather.

I am left handed, so I asked Danny to stamp his logo on right side of the blade.

(Usually, brand mark is stamped on the LEFT side of the blade.)

on the other side

Beautiful grooves of the stag

Just beautiful. good for grip also.

All I can say is that it is nature of the beauty.

They are natural material so it is one of a kind and not perfect.

I will keep this knife in my collection. It is too beautiful to use.

Standard is Mesquite Wood.
You have to add more dollars to upgrade to stag handle.

Here is a link to a video review for the 122 trimming knife

2014년 7월 25일 금요일

About the Knife Steel

Hello

Are you having fun with leather craft?

When I started leather craft, I usually touch three things the most.

1.Leather

2.Wood

3.Steel

So to the best of my knowledge, I would like to share information about those material.

if there's something wrong with this article, please feel free to correct me.

When you do leather craft, you use knife and awl a lot.

if you know your knife steel, you can sharpen them easily.

I will not go in to deep. just enough for the leather craft.

Knife steel is categorized into two.

Stainless Steel = SUS = inox steel = inox & Carbon Steel

you might know that stainless steel is a steel that does not rust, but actually stainless steel DOES get rust when exposed in harsh condition.

Harsh condition means, lots of sweat from hands or extreme humid weather.

For Carbon Steel, you need maintenance.

but you can sharpen Carbon steel sharper then Stainless steel.

so most of leather craft knife is more towards to the carbon steel.

(some stainless is also possible for razor sharpness)

If you want to cut leather, especially thick leather, you need to sharpen your knife extremely sharp. Sharp enough to shave.

and after you make sharp edge, your edge must maintain the edge.

that is called "edge retention"

If your knife has bad edge retention, it's bad knife.

you have to sharpen them after every each cut and that's very annoying.

There are many knives out there for leather craft.

if the steel is hard and properly heat treated, you can assume that it has good edge retention.

Normally,

Hard steel is hard to sharpen, keeps a good edge,

Soft steel is easy to sharpen, loses a edge relatively easy.

I will stop here. just enough for the leather craft cutlerly.

The unit for hardness is HRC. it is Rockwell hardness.

Sharp tip press again the steel, and when the moment the tip dents the steel, the HRC

is determined.

If you look for specs into Survival or hunting knife, the manufacturer tells you what HRC

they are.

What HRC is "good" enough for knife?

In my humble opinion, above HRC 58 is good.

When HRC is about 65. it is very very hard steel.

almost, too hard that if you have thin blade and twist cut too much, it will break.

Most leather craft knives are not telling us HRC, how can we choose knives?

In that case, we can choose knife steel, instead of HRC.

because each type of knife steel is usually heat treated in certain range of HRC.

O1 steel for example, it is around 58~61 HRC.

Stainless Steel - Chrome 10.5% or more + others

SK steel example : disposable blade

CPM154 , 154 CM, ATS 34 : Knipschield Knives (Minnesota, US)

CPM S( )V Series

CPM S35VN : Leather Wrangler Knives (Texas, US)

Carbon Steel - 0.12 ~ 2 % of Carbon + Others and most company keeps them secret.

Spring Steel : TINA 270, (Germany)

Japanese Knife steel

Steel below is manufactured by Japanese steel company "HITACHI-KINZOKU" (日立金屬)

Yasuki Hagane : Source of Iron material

Yasuki Hagene → reduce impurity → Yellow Steel, N.2 (Intermediate)

Yellow Steel, N.2 → reduce carbon slightly → Yellow Steel N.3 (Soft)

Yellow Steel, N.2 → reduce impurity more → White Steel N.2 (Intermediate)

White Steel N.2 → add carbon → White Steel, N.1 (Hard)

White Steel N.2 → reduce carbon slightly → White Steel N.3 (Soft)

White Steel N.2 → add Tungsten and Chrome → Blue Steel, N.2 (Intermediate)

Blue Steel, N.2 → add carbon → Blue Steel, N.1 (Hard)

Blue Steel, N.1 → HARDENING PROCESS → Super Blue Steel, N.2 (Hard)

Elements

Carbon : Element for Strength and Hardness. High Carbon content means Hard Material.

therefore it needs good forging skills

Chrome : It increases the characteristics of wear resistance and ruse resistance.

Tungsten : It increases the hardness and increase sharpness

Molybdenum : it increases Toughness, Durability

Vanadium : it increases wear resistance and toughness and make steel crystal fine.

Super Blue Steel is most expensive.

Each steel has it's purpose, with white steel, you can get the sharpest edge.

Yellow Steel : Japanese Saw

White Steel : Japanese Plane, Chisel, Kitchen Knife

Blue Steel : Japanese Plane, Chisel, Kitchen Knife

for leather craft, Super Blue Steel and Blue steel is good.

Steels don't show any of color. All steel has same color to human eye.

It was a old way to recognize the steel by putting the color papers to the steel. Hitachi no longer use this method but the steels are still called the same way.

Yellow Steel = Yellow Paper Steel = Ki-gami

White Steel = White Paper Steel = Shiro-gami

Blue Steel = Blue Paper Steel = Ao-gami

Super Blue Steel = Ao-gami-SUUPA

Super Blue Steel : Nobuyoshi Japanese Knife (Japan)

William Rose : Round Head Knife (Not Available)

William Rose West Phila

William Rose (W.Rose) well known as the best antique knife in North America because the steel is very good. Compare to modern steel, it is still very nice. It has good edge retention.

Round knives are the only leather tools they produced.
Unfortunately, W.Rose stopped producing the round knives.
You can not buy new one,you have to find antique ones.
Most of them are rusted or has cracked handle.

For mint condition ones, if the guy is willing to sell, it would be around $300.

Well used ones are around $200.

This is picture when I got mine.
it had some rust and wood handle is dried.
I am finding out when exactly this one is made.

my guess is it's around World War 2.
because usually ferrule is brass but mine is made of steel.
When WW2 era, there were shortage of brass, because they are used in bullets. so the price went up very high.
so many times, Brass were replaced by steel.

For example, WW2 zippo made of steel.

William Rose started a blacksmith shop in 1798 in Blockley Township, Pennsylvania which is close to west of philadelphia.
that's why it has "West Phila" under the W.Rose mark.
In the early 1800s, they made millitray sword.
In 1864, they started to manufacture knives.
In 1884 Goodwin bought W.Rose and move the company to Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania.

W.Rose was ran by three generation of Goodwin family,
Employee Edward King and his son bought W.Rose in 1989.

In 2001, Kraft tool owns W.Rose and they are still making professional trowel.