Bill Bird’s excellent video series on heel counter patterns—my notes here—ends with a really interesting tip: Skive the top edge of the counter from the flesh side, but the bottom edge of the counter, below the featherline, from hair side.
He actually gives a really excellent diagram:
What I haven’t been able to figure out, either from Bill’s videos or on my own, is why it might be better to skive on both sides of the leather like that.
Any ideas?
I mentioned this to the much wiser @Twand in person earlier today, but it didn’t seem obvious to him, either.
