Heating Creasing irons

[Aart]

Hi all,

I Have used the search engine on this forum and it found some highlighted

areas on heating the border tool (visited the Jeffreys Youtube etc). But there must be more to it.

Up to now I've heated my creasing tools in the 'old' camping gas flame.

I find this very unsatisfying. I know about the 'Why we do it'

That it firms up the border. That it finishes it off more or less beautiful, but the 'how' has always (in my case)

more or less been an experiment. By the way in Europe we use a wooden bordering tool which I've NOT tried to

heat (yet). Could I have some feedback please.

Best regards

Aart.

[gary]

Hi all,

I Have used the search engine on this forum and it found some highlighted

areas on heating the border tool (visited the Jeffreys Youtube etc). But there must be more to it.

Up to now I've heated my creasing tools in the 'old' camping gas flame.

I find this very unsatisfying. I know about the 'Why we do it'

That it firms up the border. That it finishes it off more or less beautiful, but the 'how' has always (in my case)

more or less been an experiment. By the way in Europe we use a wooden bordering tool which I've NOT tried to

heat (yet). Could I have some feedback please.

Best regards

Aart.

Aart,

I've tried several methods of heating creasing irons and always return to an old camping gas stove. I've tried a small gas blowtorch - okay but you need to be accurate when holding the iron in the flame and it heats up too much unless you're very careful. The meth spirit lamp, which everyone shows being used but are very difficult to find unless you go to antique markets, was a bit too slow.

Now I just use the stove but have fashioned a stand out of some old wood blocks that will hold the creaser above the flame - it allows me to do a few odds and ends to get ready to crease. I keep the flame fairly low when I'm using the stand but turn it up to finesse the temperature in between creases.

I always keep some scraps of leather handy to test it out on.

I use a double creaser with a gauge 'leg' to maintain consistency but find it a handicap on some rounded corners.

I also found the creasing blade a bit too thick so I ground and filed it down and, at the same time, took some of the length off so that I could hold the creaser vertically rather than at a slight compensatory angle which I found I was doing when both 'legs' were the same length.

If anyone can find a better way, I'd give it a try. I did consider making an edging blade for a soldering iron but I think that would be even more impractical as you probaby couldn't get enough pressure on it and it would be way too hot unless it had some sort of control thermostat plus the initial heating period would be longer than just lighting a stove. Maybe the pyrographers have a better solution.

Gary

[Aart]

Thanks Gary,

Glad to see that I'm not alone on this subject.

Aart.

(Of for a (working) weekend now so not able to reply before monday. Sorry)

[celticleather]

I think the 100% best-ever way of heating creasing irons is with an electric 'finishing stove'.

They're mostly used by bookbinders to heat their gold-foiling tools, and the big advantage is that they are thermostatically controlled, with no naked flame, and have handle-rests that prevent the handles from becoming hot.

On the downside, they're not particularly cheap, and can be a bit space-hungry. They come up for sale on eBay from time to time, so it may be possible to pick one up for a reasonable price.

Some pictures below of examples I found on the web.

Edit: I just realised that a search for 'hotplate' on eBay brings up many results that look like the second picture, at very reasonable prices. The surrounding woodwork would be very easy to make.

Edited July 9, 2009 by celticleather

[McJeep]

(enter the newbie ;0)

When does one use a creasing iron? Is this a decorative thing or does it help crease a fold in leather - say when doing wallets out of heavier material for example?

[Kevin]

Briefly, It's decorative. Like cutting a border on a western belt, which you can't really do with English bridle leather, so you just crease the edge instead. The leather is denser than US tanned leather so you have to heat the iron for the crease to stay in the leather.

Kevin

[celticleather]

As far as I am aware, the crease line serves no purpose other than decoration. It is traditionally used on bridle- and harness-work in the UK. Saddlers would often make other products such as belts etc, and use of the crease line was thus extended.

Loops on harness-work would sometimes be skilfully creased with ornate patterns, and were small masterpieces (pics below).

A crease line is unlikely to help in the folding of a wallet. In this case, it is probably better to gouge a V-shaped channel on the flesh side of the leather, to perhaps half the thickness, which will weaken it at this point and encourage the fold to follow the line with less resistance.

[McJeep]

I figured that was it but have learned a couple times here to never ever assume ;0) Thanks

[gary]

I was told once, by an old saddler, that it also helped to stop the edge of the leather becoming 'frayed'.

Can't see it myself but you never know.

Gary

[Luke Hatley]

I use a Heat Gun to heat up my edge Bevelers. and i like the dark burnish i get from it....

[McJeep]

I use a Heat Gun to heat up my edge Bevelers. and i like the dark burnish i get from it....

Does it make the burnishing any smoother when heated? I usually play with speed/pressure of the dremel (how i burnish) when burnishing. More to get the smoothness than colour as all o my stuff is blllllllack at this stage ;0)

[UKRay]

The old harness maker who taught me had a small cast iron gas ring connected to a gas bottle that was always burning in the workshop. It was used to melt beeswax, glue, heat creasers and make gallons of tea. I have been looking for one for the past four years and can't find one anywhere. A real relic of the past.

The thing that made this stove particularly good for heating creasers was a kind of rack designed to hold the pot or kettle away from the flame to get maximum heat. By resting the wooden handle on the bech and the metal shaft on the rack the 'head' of the tool was right in the hottest part of the flame and heated up very quickly indeed.

We used to crease all our straps very hard. The idea was that compressing the leather fibres close to the edge of the strap stiffened the strap slightly - think about the effect of welding a couple of strips of channel section steel to a sheet of tin. It added a nice 'feel' to the leather and also helped to keep the new strap rigid as it was fed through a buckle. Sure the effect didn't last long but I always thought it made our new harness feel rather special and somehow emphasized the 'new' factor.

Ray

[Aart]

So, Hi, Back in town again,

Thank you Celtic leather, Luke and Gary.

I think I'll go for the hot plate

Best regards

Aart.

[MADMAX22]

Wonder why they dont make one like a soldering iron, plug it in and it would go to a predetermined temperature and you would be good to go.

Im sure the electricians around here if there are any could come up with a simple solution.

[Mick]

Wonder why they dont make one like a soldering iron, plug it in and it would go to a predetermined temperature and you would be good to go.

Im sure the electricians around here if there are any could come up with a simple solution.

It'd be easy and cheap to use a light dimming device, rotary probably easiest, to control the heat of a soldering iron or woodburner. sure, you'd have to play around with it at first to find the right temp, but scribe a line with a sharpie when you've found the right setting...

a slightly more interesing idea would be to use a electric stove burner control, it'd be a lot more heavy duty...not that you'd need that for a 40 watt soldering iron!

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

The old harness maker who taught me had a small cast iron gas ring connected to a gas bottle that was always burning in the workshop. It was used to melt beeswax, glue, heat creasers and make gallons of tea. I have been looking for one for the past four years and can't find one anywhere. A real relic of the past.

The thing that made this stove particularly good for heating creasers was a kind of rack designed to hold the pot or kettle away from the flame to get maximum heat. By resting the wooden handle on the bech and the metal shaft on the rack the 'head' of the tool was right in the hottest part of the flame and heated up very quickly indeed.

We used to crease all our straps very hard. The idea was that compressing the leather fibres close to the edge of the strap stiffened the strap slightly - think about the effect of welding a couple of strips of channel section steel to a sheet of tin. It added a nice 'feel' to the leather and also helped to keep the new strap rigid as it was fed through a buckle. Sure the effect didn't last long but I always thought it made our new harness feel rather special and somehow emphasized the 'new' factor.

Ray

Over here in the States we have burners like that on the large propane camp stoves (not the Coleman camp stoves). I have a double burner on mine, but I have seen singles, as well as just the burners for sale. Another source may be a propane convection shop heater. I have one that goes from 75,000-200,000 BTU's, just one large ring burner.