Motorised Wooden Burnishers

[Chavez]

Hi!

Can someone please help me with a bit of advice on how to use a motorised wooden burnisher?

I've applied some water & saddle soap to an edge of a WIP belt,

then loaded a burnisher into my proxxon, set the dial to 15k rpm and dragged a belt edge along the groove. The result was a very rough edge, so I started experimenting with proxxon speed and the pressure applied to the belt. I've managed to get some semi-decent results on 8k rpm, however, this involved just slightly tapping the edge with the burnisher groove over and aver again and was rather time consuming.

Can someone please let me know how you use wooden burnishers and what speed & pressure you use. What are the signs of the speed/pressure being being too low or too high?

Thank you

[Sixer]

I could be wrong... but 8k rpm seems like way too much. If you're going to fast you should probably be able to smell the fibers burning. That's not good. Are little pieces of leather coming off at all?

[Chavez]

Hi sixer,

If I hold the burnisher for to long, yes, I could feel the burn. I thought it was part of the process :brainbleach: Like you can't have a BURNisher without some burn =)

Would recommend dropping the rpm to 5k?

Edited June 20, 2012 by Chavez

[Ferg]

How bout around 1200 to 1500 rpm. Works for me.

ferg

quote name='Chavez' timestamp='1340226853' post='253416']

Hi sixer,

If I hold the burnisher for to long, yes, I could feel the burn. I thought it was part of the process :brainbleach: Like you can't have a BURNisher without some burn =)

Would recommend dropping the rpm to 5k?

[WinterBear]

Also, what wood is your burnisher? Bearman and Spinner use cocobolo. There's a natural oil in cocobolo that seems to help prevent binding, and it is a very hard wood--the burnishers I have from Spinner (Bearman makes them now) are nearly glass smooth and very dense, but even then can get hot enough to scorch the leather if my rpm is too high on the dremel.

[BearMan]

Here's some info that might help.

Burnishing Compounds, Edge Dyes & Waxes

So now you have your burnisher, some leather, the machine and are ready to go! Not yet grasshopper...you need a burnishing compound! Ask any number of leatherworkers what they use and you'll likely get an equal number of responses. The following is simply my take on the subject as I learned it from Bob Park. Saddle Soap + Water. Glycerine Soap works also. Simply add some soap & water to a dish to create a slickening agent, dip your fingers in and rub a small amount onto the edges of your leather (preferably after they have been edged & sanded properly). This will lubricate the edge of the leather and help disperse the burnisher friction & heat more evenly. It also helps the two from sticking together or abrading as you burnish. A couple of other popular compounds, though not my recommended ones, are Gum Trag, beeswax, and saliva. Obviously, saliva isn't sanitary so it's out. The other two aren't my favorites as they both will seal the edge of the leather, hindering the ability to dye the edge further after burnishing if desired.

Once the piece has been burnished with a non-sealing compound, you can then apply a contrasting color edge dye or simply seal with your finish of choice and buff to a shine. The final buff should be done by hand as using a rotary burnisher over a finished or edge dyed edge will result in the burnisher melting, abrading or heat cracking the edge paint, none of which are desirable.

[WinterBear]

Whoops! My apologies. The name is BearMan, not Bearman and it's BearMan and Beary that do the burnishers. Well, there's egg on my face.

[Chavez]

Thanks!

I'll drop the rpm and see how it goes.

How much pressure do you apply to the edge?

Edited June 21, 2012 by Chavez

[Ferg]

Just enough to get the shiny smooth edge.

ferg

Thanks!

I'll drop the rpm and see how it goes.

How much pressure do you apply to the edge?