Joe Bender-Zanoni wrote:
>
> That looks very nice indeed. What did you use to cut the leather and skive
> (is that right?) the edges?
Personally, I like to trim the nose and the rear edge with a single edged razor. I always lay white tape down to see where the cut is going to go so I can get the right distance from the rivets, a nice smooth curve, etc.
The Swift happens to come with the lower flap edges already chamfered (I usually correct the little "factory" bobbles so it is more uniform). But the B.17s that I have modified came without the chamfered flap edges (a Brooks economizing move) so I used the tool second down from the top in the picture. This tool (I don't know the proper name) puts a uniform chamfer in the edge of the leather without the danger of going to deep by accident. The tool at the top is a skiver, which I never have found a use for when modifying saddles. The three lower tools in the photo are all for putting different amounts of radius in the cut edge of the leather.
Leather tool photo:
http://www.velo-retro.com/
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, CA
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