Now that you mention it...
...and forgive this diversion from the OP.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
george wilson
When I have to plane the most un planeable material(like skiving the fuzzy suede off of chrome tanned ray skin(a nearly impossible task with a plane!!),ONLY a W1 blade will do. When planing an obnoxious wood that is hard on blades,A2 is a better choice.
I have a 1095 English parer I've used for skiving shagreen/galuchat since my days as a bookbinder (nearly four decades ago). Where I used to find thinner and less challenging baby hides of good quality, nowadays most chrome-tanned hides are larger and as thick, tough and as hard on cutting edges as anything I've ever worked.
I've used just about everything to thin and pare the body of ray leather; spokeshaves, rasps, bench planes, razor and Rali planes, flexshafts and so on, but for turned edges, I'll stick with my extremely sharp low-beveled English parer off a well-worn hard-calendered horse butt strop.
The top-quality John Fong hides sold for cordwaining took some real work to thin for furniture, boxes, lamps, clocks, cabinet pulls and small leather items such as jewelry and watchbands, but the effort was worth it. I used to sand the more fine-grained skins but for larger skins with bolder placoid scales I now prefer files.
Interesting subject; galuchat and woodworking.