🔪How To Sharpen Your French Edger

[@ralphnabhan]

Followed your instructions and sharpened my Kevin Lee French edger just yesterday. Brilliant technique and easy for anyone to follow and the difference in cutting is night and day. Thanks Philip!

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

That's awesome to hear Ralph! A sharp blade makes such a difference

[@commentpotato_0]

Nice! Thanks for information! Thumbs up!

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

Glad it helps!

[@squeezy99]

Great tips - thanks for posting - I've now got very sharp knives!

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

Glad to help!

[@_BigLife_]

Hello from Texas. Thank you for the informative video and confirming my thoughts on what to do.

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

You are so welcome Ryan, glad you enjoyed it.

[@_BigLife_]

@@LeathercraftMasterclass night and day difference.

[@ZippedUpKitz]

Thank you for this… I got some of these and they were so dull I couldn’t cut butter outside on 100° summer's day! After watching you do your thing, I went into my work room and went to work… now, I have working tools! :) and you have a new subscriber! Cheers!

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

That's wonderful to hear! Thanks for sharing 👍

[@gall_blader_works]

Thanks for these tips! I use a similar system but never considered applying sandpaper to the leather strip for the inside. Bravo!

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

You're welcome Luis. Glad you found it helpful. 👍

[@DrawerFullofRocks]

Forgive me if this is a frustrating question. When you say "milling mark" are you referring the the bevel at the tip of the blade. Is this the part that you re trying to remove and smooth out? Thank you . New info for me and I am trying to hone my new french edger at the moment.My best, Stephanie in New Mexico USA

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

Hi Stephanie. If you Google milling marks and click Images, you will see what I am talking about. Spiral machining marks from the milling process. A good edge should be smooth on both sides. If one side is rough from machining, you will never get a smooth push cut from an edger, so they must be removed. If your edger doesn't have this issue, you're fine to bypass this.

[@DrawerFullofRocks]

@@LeathercraftMasterclass Thank you. I did do that after I made my comment and still felt a bit frustrated, so I left my comment here because I wanted to hear your thoughts about milling marks, in particular. Thank you for responding!

[@rondumontier1187]

This is a pretty good info video. Nice work

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

Glad you liked it Ron. Thanks for watching 👍

[@aimanbatool5191]

hello. great tips. what is solution you are using on sand paper?

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

It's just water with a droplet of dish soap. I find it keeps the particles on the move.

[@JoesStyle]

Now that showed brains, ingenuity and what I called being old-school and coming up with your own "thing" and seeing what works. A lot of this comes from practice and just plain trying things out, as well as being well rounded - meaning knowing things from different areas i.e. woodworking, metal smithing, candle making etc... it doesn't really matter what. All of these skills become part of your toolbox and you are able to come up with different ways of doing things by combining aspects from your worldly experiences. This is what I think of when someone mentions diversity in business not skin color for the sake of it, different races have different learned experiences and knowledge and in a workforce this is very beneficial - but the skill has to be there in the first place. You can't just hire someone that isn't qualified for the job just for the sake of diversity. Woah, sorry for the rant-went off on a bit of rant there. Thanks for videos. This is my new tool prep method for this as well now!

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

Thank you Joe. Diverse competency, I get it. I appreciate you sharing this.

[@tomandalbert]

Great

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

Cheers!

[@oldoutdoorsguy1157]

Finding the correct "angle" of "cutting" with almost any cutting tool involves concentration and consistency of angle of cut, as you have already found. But, another important point to work on is called "muscle memory" here where I live. It is the toning of those muscles used in performing the cut repeatedly so that it is "memorized" by the muscles involved in the cutting procedure. It can't really be "taught" as it depends on a lengthy amount of time using those muscles to gain a better and better cut for that specific procedure. Generally, it is referred to as that angle at which you remove just the right amount of material to gain a near perfect angle of cut when you use the tool. I hope this helps you adjust your physical position at the bench and your precise repetition of movement to come as close to a "perfect" cut as possible.

[@Notorious2024]

Just recently bought a Palosanto and it’s not as sharp as I hoped out the box. Would 2000 grit be ok to sharpen with or should I order some 2500 grit? I already tried to strop some and still wasn’t getting a good result. Hoping I’m doing everything correctly.

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

If you can get an edge with 2000 grit, you can finish that off with polishing compound within a few minutes of stropping. I don't think you need any higher grit to be honest.

[@Notorious2024]

@@LeathercraftMasterclass ok I will give that a try. Appreciate it 🙏

[@jarosawkus1976]

I'm wondering if those would be any good on some tough chrome tan leather? I seem to only get good result on veg tan.

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

Yes, absolutely, but if you edge is anything but hair popping sharp forget it. You are more likely to stretch the leather and alter dimensions in the process too. So you may want to cut to dimensions after skiving.

[@Screaminhelo]

Timing for discovering this is perfectly for me. I am looking to get a French edger for skiving edged for small projects. I am glad to see basic techniques using simple materials producing high level results.

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

Glad it was helpful! I think I use them more and more these days

[@shepherddog1199]

So I don’t have that much money, but we do have an old Kaiser blade that’s broken and I’m going to attempt to make a French edger on it. Any tips you have on putting the groove in properly? Edit: or a link to some pretty cheap ones that don’t have a high shipping cost

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

If I'm honest, the machinery (milling machine) you'll likely need, the heat treatment process on steel so thin and the time it takes, I'd go for something off aliexpress.com which usually offers free shipping.

[@bazlur-Vancouver]

I will try with my edger sure. what type of compound do you use on your leather strop?

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

Dialux

[@bazlur-Vancouver]

I can see a torch on your right side. what purpose do you use it?

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

Heating edge creasers fast

[@alanp802]

do you have a link for where you bought these french skivers? kind regards, Alan

[@adnanatesal]

👏

[@diastoleny]

Just stepped up from my Wuta to Barry King. Majorly dissapointed. French edger as sharp as a baseball. Ridiculous.

[@LeathercraftMasterclass]

Really? Barry King almost seems to be a religion in leathercraft circles. I've never used them though.

[@Notorious2024]

I just bought a Palasanto and having the same issue.