Edge finishing leather

[Buckshot]

Now, I know the theroy...
But how doe sit work in practice?

Do you dye the leather before putting the edgeing stuff on?
I have a white plastic disc to rub the edge with. Can this be put on a drill? How long do you rub the edge for?

Basically I'm after a step by step.
I don't think anyone's gone into this part of sheath making in much detail

Any help would be great.

Cheers

Mark

[Eric_Methven]

Excellent question. I'd like to know the answer too as it's the only part I don't do (yet).

Eric

[rancid badger]

I normally dye it first, but have found that it will take dye afterwards as well.
I use either carnauba wax or bees wax.
basically you apply the wax then burnish the edge with the disc or even better a piece of smoothed hard wood.
You need to support the job on a bench if it's flexible ( like a belt) then find the grain direction and go with it. If you get this bit wrong, you know straight away as the grain stands up and becomes rough. You need to apply a fair bit of pressure but, to be honest, as with a lot of things in leather working, it's just a knack. Practice on scraps first till you get the hang of it.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x125/stalch/P1180013copyresized.jpg
in this picture you can see the result on the edges of the belt loop.
Really, all your doing is smoothing the edge down and the polish comes from burnishing, the wax seals the job as well as adding extra sheen

hope this helps
regards
Steve

[Buckshot]

Thanks RB for that
I'm glad I'm not the only one who wants to know

Cheers

Mark

[Mirius]

Indeed, that was useful! Thanks.

[Buckshot]

I had a play last night. Put the plastic disc on a bolt and used my pillar drill.
I found that I had to use quite a bit of the edge goo (can't remember the name) to stop the leather burning. But it did work OK.

Cheers guys

Mark

[Pitkin]

Interesting now i know thankyou

[leon-1]

Mark if you are using gum tragacanth it's really easy, dye it, dry it, apply gum tragacanth (rub it in with a cloth until it's really quite damp) and using a bone folder or boning tool rub it quite hard and fast, the edge will polish and seal. After that you can resolene it and apply waxes and it will no longer take dyes or water.

If you do not have gum tragacanth you can use lightly sugared water to form a glaze or you can lick the edge (your saliva nearly always has sugars in it and that is what helps to form the glaze).

Edge slickers (your poloypropelene disc, they can also be found in wood and bone) are quite good, but if it's burning leather your pillar drill is set to too high a speed, personally I don't use one as it doesn't do heavier thicknesses of leather and I tend to work with heavier stuff quite a lot.

Having said that I may make one from buffalo horn.:D

Hope this helps

[Buckshot]

Thanks Leon
I do have some gum so I'll use that

Mark

[Longstrider]

Hi Mark,
I find it best to sand the edges of any areas of multiple thicknesses of leather and to round off the corners of both multi layered sections and single layered sections with an edging tool (usually a #2 or a #3). Once I have them sanded down to about 800 grit wet-n-dry I work down through ever finer grit sizes to this) I apply the leather dye if required. (I always use Fiebings Leather Dye) As soon as the dye is dry I slightly moisten the edge with either water or a little spit and buff with anything suitable (plastic wheel, piece of horn etc)
I did try Fiebings Edge Cote once. Once being the operative word. Horrible looking 'plasticy' edges were the result so I sanded it all off and started again.

In the picture you can see the edge of a sheath I made for a big bowie (centre). This leather self-darkened as I worked it so did not need to be dyed at all to achieve a nice finish with my method. The top sheath was not finished, just cut and dyed. The black sheath at the bottom of the picture was sanded properly and dyed black before buffing.
I do occasionally use some gum tragacanth on my edges but have found that when I do the edge tends to deteriorate quicker if it gets wet than one I've done without the gum.

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/7050/img0475sg9.th.jpg (http://img443.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0475sg9.jpg)

It's not too much work to do the buffing by hand. I did try the 'stick it on a bolt and whack it in the Black-n-Decker bit myself once with a spare plastic wheel I use. I either got no result at all due to applying the leather with not enough pressure, or I melted the wheel and burned the leather if I applied it a little harder. Not a practice I'd recommend.

[Buckshot]

Hmm, interesting.
Thanks LS