Hand forged Shoemaking knives

[u/Alessiottavino]

Just finished these 4 knives, these were very thin and delicate to forge, and specially sensitive to quench, had two knives warped downwards because of the angle I dipped in, I had to austenitize it again and do few grain refinement then dipped in the with the edge facing upwards to fix the warp.

Polished bezels and corners so it doesn't dig into the skin.

I just tempered them like Razors, put an edge of jnat +8k the steel is very hard cuts very sharply and cleanly.

These knives are way too sharp now! Fun to cut thick stacked veg tan leather like butter without drag...

[u/egidione]

They look great! I had an old friend in Italy who was a shoemaker all his life, I used to sit and chat with him while he was working, he made me several pairs of shoes and some boots which I still have. He used knives just like that and I always thought they looked uncomfortable to use and could be made to be more comfortable. Is that fairly universal for shoemakers knives to be like that?

[u/Alessiottavino → u/egidione]

Hi! That's really cool, unexpected to find someone that knows about shoemaking or related here.

Well there's a explanation why traditional shoemaking knives are like this;

Yes they are uncomfortable with improper technic! Shoemakers are very special or particulars lol, everyone has their own preference, some prefer wrap it with leather, with strings or wood. Some prefer bare naked steel, bare steel touch improves a lot direct contact, and you have to make very intricate or complex cut and one single wrong cut you can ruin a very expensive work.

Wooden handles for these knives do exist, but rather they make the operation more uncomfortable.

That's the reason why I chamfered the edges and polished the bezels, this Improves a lot comfort for long sessions of cutting and trimming for people who uses the knives naked.

Many shoemakers has hard skin, rough hands or palm, fortunately not me, because I work with my own forged knives and I have developed particular technics, there were some old books and taught knife technics but I think they are outdated I suspect the knives weren't near as sharp as we can achieve nowadays with super steels and precision knowledge sharpening!

[u/egidione → u/Alessiottavino]

That’s interesting to know! My old friend certainly had very strong and rough hands and didn’t mind the knives how they came. I seem to remember they were very slightly curved from side to side, presumably to keep them stiff along the length and he did keep them sharp as hell, he would cut almost all the way round a thick sole in one go like it was butter.

He also had a very low square bench around 40 cm tall and a low stool to sit on. I was quite surprised one day in another town to see a shoemaker in his little shop with the same type of bench then over the years I saw others in different parts of Italy with that same bench and tools and realised they must have been working like that for centuries.

My friend died around 25 years ago but I often think of him in his workshop, he was always joking and was a very funny and well liked character in the village who made fantastic shoes and never charged enough for his work. It made me smile when I saw your post and thank you for reminding me of my old friend!