Ahhh a beautiful machine. A leather skiver, simplistic complexity at it's very best. This one is used to make shoes, it trims the under side away from the edge of a leather shape so that edge can be folded back on its self to allow for a super neat edge. Just until recently this machine lay alone in a state of disrepair..
That was until after years of sleepy searching I managed to find a replacement bell knife blade. Made in Germany, sent from Texas used in Sydney. Below you can see how much wear the old blade took.
Once the blade was fitted the guess work into how this machine was meant to work began. But before that could happen I needed to make a tensioning device to reduce slippage and in turn reducing creation of heat by friction slip.
With good traction, bedding in of the new blade using the inbuilt blade grinder commences.. The bell life needed to be adjusted in such a way that it is in it's position to skive. When it is bluntened during work, the sharpener can be engaged in the same place it was in during bedding to ensure the blade geometry is not interfered.
12 hours later.... A correctly honed, bedded in and super sharp blade ready for another 80 years of work.
By far one of my favourite machines so far.
This one was for you Dad.
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