NMTM Essential Skills Series: Skiving, Part 2

Yesterday I talked about my method for skiving larger pieces of leather. Today, courtesy of Carrie Sloan Meyer of C. Sloan Originals, we have a method for skiving lace. Even when purchased from hobby suppliers, leather lace is usually too thick to be used right off the spool. Skiving is an important step in prepping the lace for use, and a good skill to have but plan to practice - a LOT.

For this method, you'll need a hard, smooth surface like a piece of marble or a glass cutting mat and a razor blade glass scraper. This kind of scraper can be purchased at any store with a hardware or paint section.

Skiving Lace

Dunk the lace in water.

Here is the basic angle I use.

Start pulling lace with left hand and hold scraper in right. I also push the scraper forward some too It's not all pulled from behind.

Keep hands at same angle all the way

Done!

I love this tool because it also doubles as a straight cutting device to make skinny straps!

Many thanks to Carrie for sharing her method with the Facebook group, and allowing me to repost it here!

Some additional tips for skiving lace from the group:

- Material is important. Good lace is easier to skive (and will look better in your final project) than cheap lace. 

- This is very much a learned skill - you WILL waste lace as you learn, and even when you feel capable you'll STILL skive through sometimes. That's okay - it's all a process.

 It's good to note that this is one of many methods for skiving lace. If it doesn't work for you, experiment until you find the right method!