Rein Rounder - Tips And Advice Wanted

[UKRay]

I own a very nice shiny rein rounder that sits on my shelf and looks great. Sadly, it never gets used. I have tried it a couple of time but could do with some clear instructions on what to do with it (please keep your suggestions clean folks and no it isn't for sale!). Can anyone help please?

Assume I know nothing - which is probably pretty near the truth.

How do I start? What do I do first?

Pictures would be sooooooo helpful!

Cheers guys,

Ray

[Jax]

I would love to try 1 of those, its gotta be better than beatin the crap out of the leather in a wooden block lol

[bruce johnson]

Here's how I do it. You either fold the leather back onto itself ot around a filler piece of leather and sew it to hold it "closed". It is best to sew into a channel and glue the channel closed once you done stitching. Then I knock off the square edges with a pretty heavy round bottom edge beveler. I dampen my leather pretty well - about like a good casing would be - back to color and cool to the touch. I apply a light swab of saddle soap (I use white). Then I start with whatever hole the piece will easily slide through and draw it through a few times. The I step down the next size and so on until the round profile is there.

The trick is to get the thickness right before you start for the diameter you want to end up with. I usually split my leather and filler to make a combined thickness of about 1-2 oz over the diameter I want to end up, There will be some compression of the leather as you work it in the rounder.

[oltoot]

To get the 'feel' you could start with pieces of heavy skirting, edged to almost round, then follow Bruce's tips. As a parallel process, you could practice the assembly (sewing etc as above) getting ready. HINT: most (including me) have a marked tendency to try 'rounding' too heavy a piece. Better to start a little on the light side and work up. HINT: You may want to split the rounded portion of the core piece just a tiny bit. That will often help make the piece more pliable.