Gun Belt Edges

[BigMatt]

I am looking at getting into making belts and selling them at gun shows and a farmers market I am a part of (we grow sweet corn too).

I make lined belts from 2 pieces of 8-9. I glue and stitch, and burnish the edges with beeswax. What is the best way to finish the edges of a belt that will stay flexible and won't get rough after a while. The beeswax looks good when I am done, but after a while, it gets a little rough - especially where it goes through the buckle.

I have read hidepounder's burnishing article, and it looks good, but I am still worried about durability.

Thanks for the input.

[TwinOaks]

When you slick an edge, what you're doing is compressing the leather fibers and getting them warm enough to activate the collagen in the cells. As long as you have a pretty smooth edge before trying to finish it, it will look good and last a long time. As far as beeswax, that is one of the finishing steps, NOT what should be used to get the edge smooth to begin with. A good sanding will help smooth the edge, but a really sharp knife and careful trimming will leave an even smoother edge. And here's the crux - leave your edges WIDE, dye, glue, stitch, and whatever else you need to do to the belt...and once you've done all that, THEN trim the edges. This will give you the smoothest edge you can get, and also hopefully ensure that your leather is glued all the way to the edge (which eliminates that pesky separated edge that sometimes happens). Once you've trimmed to size, run the edger on the corners, moisten and start slicking but without the beeswax. If you use a hand held burnishing tool, you should hear a light clicking noise when you change direction. Once you have everything slick and burnished down, dye the edge, and hit it again with the slicker. Repeat as needed in case you have spots that didn't take the dye well. Once that is done, get a heavy cloth like canvas and burnish the edges with that. THEN apply the beeswax (although a beeswax/paraffin blend works better IMO) and finally buff with the cloth.