Intermediate Bookbinding: Week 8

Scharf-Fix, the ultimate leather paring machine (unless you like another brand)

This past Wednesday was leather paring night, meaning that we spent all 3.5 hours of class time shaving off layers of our leather until it was thin enough to cover our books. 

Our evening began with some cookies for us early birds. Unfortunately, the rest of my evening was not as good as this cookie.

I gathered all the necessary tools (new blades, wrench, etc) and eagerly set to working using the Scharf_Fix, a leather paring machine that allows you to remove larger areas of leather than a paring knife does.

I did a quick test patch to see how much I was paring off before setting to work on my larger leather piece.

But... it wasn't long before I had made my first hole.

I pared away the damaged edge using my paring knife, shook off the mistake, and went back to work.

And it wasn't long before I had made my second hole. I continued on, determined to pare my first ever piece of leather, and wound up making 4 holes in all. The moral of the story is that leather paring is much harder than it looks or sounds, but I can't wait to get back and practice so I can develop the finesse needed for proper leather paring.

This apron covered with leather dust is from the first half of the evening, by the end of the evening, my classmates told me my whole face was covered in leather dust as well!