What is the purpose of spinning a glass cylinder over a piece of

[antipaladin]

What is the purpose of spinning a glass cylinder over a piece of

leather? Is it just a cosmetic thing or does it impart some sort of

additional functional characteristic?

[WyomingSlick]

What is the purpose of spinning a glass cylinder over a piece of

leather? Is it just a cosmetic thing or does it impart some sort of

additional functional characteristic?

What exactly are you talking about here? Is this a small hand held glass cylinder, or are we talking about a large glass cylinder that is mounted in a machine?

[Rawhide]

Pictures say 1000 words. Can you explain this a little more.

[whinewine]

Something sticks in my mind that this was used in smoothing/finishing the leather before leaving the factory, like a platen of some sort- ironing the leather?? (of course, there are lots of things in my head, not all of which are real, so take this with a grain of salt...)

[UKRay]

Something sticks in my mind that this was used in smoothing/finishing the leather before leaving the factory, like a platen of some sort- ironing the leather?? (of course, there are lots of things in my head, not all of which are real, so take this with a grain of salt...)

I may be wrong, but it seems that you have two ideas fighting for supremacy here.

When a side of leather is being finished it goes through a process called 'plating' which essentially means it gets a good ironing and all the wrinkles are flattened out and the surface is made nice and even. It also flattens the leather down a lot and gives it more body. The plating machine I have seen working most recently is at Collyton in Devon, UK and was frankly terrifying to watch. It was a massive cast iron construction fitted with a rotating cylindrical 'iron' on a traveller which allowed the operator to flatten out the hide from one end to another.

The other process is called slicking which is often carried out by top class saddlers and involves a glass 'slicker' or scraper that flattens and smooths out the surface of the hide and gives it a beautiful texture.

An interesting side effect of plating is that the leather becomes harder to work - several continental European tanneries plate their leather to within an inch of its life and he resulting hides are very difficult to cut because they have such a hard surface. The tannery at Collyton is guilty of the same thing and I have a hide hanging in my workshop that is so hard I can't use a knife on it safely. I have to cut it with the clicking press.

Anyway if that helps I'm pleased but you are welcome to ignore it!

Ray

[Art]

Hi Ray,

Are you talking about what we call jacking?

Art

I may be wrong, but it seems that you have two ideas fighting for supremacy here.

When a side of leather is being finished it goes through a process called 'plating' which essentially means it gets a good ironing and all the wrinkles are flattened out and the surface is made nice and even. It also flattens the leather down a lot and gives it more body. The plating machine I have seen working most recently is at Collyton in Devon, UK and was frankly terrifying to watch. It was a massive cast iron construction fitted with a rotating cylindrical 'iron' on a traveller which allowed the operator to flatten out the hide from one end to another.

The other process is called slicking which is often carried out by top class saddlers and involves a glass 'slicker' or scraper that flattens and smooths out the surface of the hide and gives it a beautiful texture.

An interesting side effect of plating is that the leather becomes harder to work - several continental European tanneries plate their leather to within an inch of its life and he resulting hides are very difficult to cut because they have such a hard surface. The tannery at Collyton is guilty of the same thing and I have a hide hanging in my workshop that is so hard I can't use a knife on it safely. I have to cut it with the clicking press.

Anyway if that helps I'm pleased but you are welcome to ignore it!

Ray

[CampbellRandall]

I think both Art and Ray are right - just in different words.

A glassing jack rubs a glass cylinder over a hide for a slick,translucent surface. (AKA jacked leather, glassing, glazed, glazing)

This is used most commonly with alligator hides. Below is a link to an article on the basic process.

http://campbell-bosworth.com/articles/Finishing-Methods.pdf

Edited December 28, 2009 by CampbellRandall