Skiving Machine

Do you know what ‘to shive’ means? This is a machine that thins out the leather. Before we start to sew the shoes together, we need to shive the parts. To shive means to thin out the leather so that it becomes easier to sew the different parts together. When sewing together 2 or 3 different parts, the leather soon becomes too thick to sew through. The skiving machine solves this, by scraping a bit of the leather off so that it is easier to sew through, it also makes the shoes nicer and more comfortble to wear. The skiving machine is also used to thin down other pieces of leather that will be used in other products such as belts and the edging on hand bags. The red and blue machines do the same thing. So now you know what it means to shive!