Thinking about Chartermade? [REVIEW] Skiving knife and Indispensable Replacement Blade

[@gaslitworldf.melissab2897]

Even if you're new, working with premium quality tools will enhance the experience, building confidence. Working with crappy materials might undermine the joy of leatherworking, so you end up quitting. Premium products can be sold if you decide not to pursue the craft or even gifted to a fellow craftsman. To illustrate... I hated sewing the first time I tried it, b/c I couldn't get the scissors to cut the fabric. Years later, I acquired a high quality pair of scissors, now I enjoy cutting fabric.

[@JamesBerry]

Thank you so much for your detailed comment! Yes I completely agree with you, working with quality tools makes a huge differnce both in the appreciation of the craft (and fun you have doind it) and in the final result (more precision equals fewer errors). That being said, for the price there are other things I would recommend an amateur/beginner to get first to improve his craft (better leather, better stitching irons maybe, a good stitching poney ...). Moreover, I feel like someone who has just started in the craft really needs to understand what his/her needs are better before making this type of investment. ...unless they already has access to such tools or simply won't go for anything less than the best. In which case Chartermade are an excellent choice!

[@lo.leathercrafts]

Thank you so much for sharing James, I've been on the fence about L'indispensable, you have convinced me!

[@JamesBerry]

That's good to hear! Which way are you going then? Avoiding the Indispensable knife altogether or going for the knife with the Chartermade blade?

[@ffotograffydd]

I have the Chartermade blade for the l’indispensible knife, it’s definitely an improvement on the blade that came with it! I hope to buy the Chartermade pattern knife at some point, and possibly the skiving knife.

[@JamesBerry]

I've been tempted by the pattern knife... May look into it also :)

[@lbdeuce]

Hello. wonderful video. Thank you. Do you not find single bevels knives naturalist pill in the direction opposite of the bevel. Ive made a handful and i started with single bevels for 2 reasons.. 1; The flat side of the blade rides better along a straight edge and 2; Easier to make sharp and maintain sharp. However, I changed to a conventional grind because I find that it follows the scribes line from when you trace a pattern better. As I said I found single bevels to naturally wasnt to veer in the direction opposite of the the bevel. Interested to see if other people have experienced this as well.

[@bazlur-Vancouver]

I have indispensable - not so good, but said that charter made blade works with that very well and cost 35$-blade. Olfa or NT are far better knives than others. I have all the famous leathercraft knives from Korea, Japan, Germany, France, China etc(more than 15). Mozart knife is good too.

[@JamesBerry]

I'm a huge fan of Olfa and NT blades and think they're great for beginners looking to get started with "real" tools (vs the cheapest tools you can find in any hardware store). That being said it's important to remember that all Chartermade blades are made by hand (cut, shapped, hardened, grinded by hand) one by one - so the quality and level of craftsmanship is once again higher than what you can expect from machine made tools. To summarize NT and Olfa are great, but they're simply not in the same league. If Chartermade is too expensive for you, which is fin and which was my experience when I got into the craft, then I'm 100% certain Olfa and NT are great choices for you.

[@BorealLeatherworks]

My Chartermade skiving knife is also my pride and joy.

[@MuseLeathercraft]

LOVE my Chartermade Blanchard replacement blade! Thanks for the > 👍🏼 G

[@JamesBerry]

You're welcome, yeah Chartermade blades are really quite awesome!

[@seattlefoodcritic]

To be clear, you are right handed using a RH blade (with the flat against the leather and the bevel facing out)?

[@JamesBerry]

Not exactly, lately I've been using it with the flat side up as it gives me more control over the angle of my cut. I think I would now prefer a left handed blade since in order to have that curved edge on the right.

[@AlexanderMason1]

The charter made blade use D2 steel which has extremely good edge retention. I isn’t dry corrosion resistant but as long as you take care of it and use common sense it shouldn’t rust. I’ve actually found a blade that fit’s the “l’indispensable” made in DC53 which is an improved version of D2 (although very similar in use) and for a bit more money, another one made in M390 (one of the highest end super steel on the market and the best I’ve ever seen used for leather craft tools) as incredible as the edge retention is on D2 steel, m390 has more than DOUBLE the edge retention, is extremely corrosion resistant (it is very stainless), has more toughness then D2 or DC53 (such hard and edge retentive steels are usually pretty brittle, but when compared to other similar steels, it is still very tough) and also happens to easily come to a mirror polish (it is nicknamed microclean by the maker, Bohler) which D2 or DC53 struggles to do. That last part is only cosmetic though and not important. The only downside M390 has is that even though it will stay incredibly sharp for an incredibly long amount of time, once it finally does get dull, (all steel no matter how good eventually dulls) it is an incredible pain in the rear to sharpen and take quite a lot of patience and experience to sharpen it. One way to avoid having it go completely dull is stopping it before every/almost every use, even when it doesn’t seem to need it. This will make the very durable edge on the blade even more durable/sharp. Maybe avoid knife designs that are harder to sharpen to begin with like a round knife or head knife if you want to go with m390. The l’indispensable blade or a Japanese styled blade is pretty easy to sharpen though as it is a straight edge. You just need to keep the right angle. Anyways, nice video.

[@lo.leathercrafts]

Thanks for the info, I've been looking for the m390 replacement blade, but I haven't found it, can you share the name of the maker? Btw I think that Kevin Lee offer a L'indispensable replacement blade in D2 steel too

[@JamesBerry]

Thank you so much Alexander for your detailed comment on this! I'm still a noob when it comes to good modern steel options and have been very happy with D2 steel blades so far... but after reading you I now feel I simply MUST try out this M390 steel for myself :D Thanks again for all the great information! Glad to read you enjoyed the video :)

[@AlexanderMason1]

@@JamesBerry thank you for the reply. Your videos are amazing! Yes D2 is a formidable steel and is certainly more than good enough. It is a premium steel and it does sharpen more easily than M390.

[@michaelshea4834]

Why is the Chartermade tool ‘Not for amateurs’? Is it just the price, or are they in all actuality hard to use?

[@JamesBerry]

The price is high but you certainly get a hell of a tool for that. It has made skiving so much easier and more fun than the previous knife I was using. That being said, for the price there are other things I would recommend an amateur to get first to improve his craft (better leather, better stitching irons maybe, a good stitching poney ...). Moreover, I feel like someone who has just started in the craft really needs to understand what his/her needs are better before making this type of investment.

[@teogabrielsson4717]

@@JamesBerry I also use a Chartermade skiving knife. I actually started out with a "Ivan" blade many years ago and realized pretty quickly that I would need a higher quality blade to enjoy crafting. There really is no alternative to using a skiver so If you want to be a leathercrafter you most certainly will need one. If you know that you will enjoy the craft.. go for a good one from the start. The only alternative is a bell skiver and those are pretty expensive, 2k - 5k dollars.. depends on which brand you choose. You also lose the handmade feel while using machines.

[@jgdevoe]

And looking at this isn’t the bevel on the wrong side? I’m left-handed and if I’m going to use this, let’s say up against the straight edge. I don’t want the bevel there. I want the flat side of the blade there which means I’d have to buy what you call, the right hand blade

[@tanboonhwee4368]

they are certainly a big jump in quality from the original

[@bazlur-Vancouver]

Chartermade skiving knife is expensive

[@JamesBerry]

Yes, but you definitely get great quality!

[@antonc108]

The prices are too high simply because of Supply and Demand for handmade tools, and that supply is low due to time needed to produce and manpower (which is probably only one man), while demand is high because of videos like this, reddit and forums. If you can't shell out the high prices for CM, you actually can get superdeals with foreign artisan hand mades if you can get over the demonizing of some countries.

[@madlok9114]

learn how to sharpen your own skiving knife, you can get a 5$ amazon blade to the sharpness of these ripoff blades easily.

[@JamesBerry]

While that is true, great steel will always "have the edge" over cheap steel. To each their own.

[@madlok9114]

@@JamesBerry same.thing applies you can buy a quality steel billet for a fourth of the price and hone your own blade , and who said chartermade is quality steel?????