Finishing Edges

[JSDing]

I'm just using a little plastic hand-slicker.

[hidepounder]

AHHHAA!!! Now we're getting somewhere. I always burnish with 18oz cotton duck canvas. It's the same stuff they make the old wall tents out of. If you have a commercial fabric store in your area they will have it. You only need a piece that's about 8" square. A tent shop would happily give you a piece of scrap and it will last you a long, long time. The other thing I use are the cocobolo dremel burnishers that are made by Bear Man (on this site).At the very least, use a cocbolo hand slicker. Any of those products will produce far superior edges to your plastic slicker. Now, if you want to go a step further, let me know. I think I still have some canvas burnishing mitts ($10), a couple of cocbolo hand slickers ($30) and some canvas burnishing wheels that you chuck into a drill ($60). But picking up a piece of scrap canvas would be by the cheapest and fastest thing to do. Once you have the canvas, you'll see a marked improvement. You can start using saddle soap or Quick Slick to burnish with as well and you will be pleased with the results!

Hope this helps.....

Bobby

[JSDing]

Hey Bobby,

Thanks so much! I'll check out those burnishers you mentioned and hopefully make some better looking things! I really appreciated your help, it really cleared things up.

[Pablo27]

Bobby, just got thru reading this entire article and making myself a cheatsheet of all the great suggestions and tips you have given. As has been said before these posts by you are simply explained so that everyone can make sense of and put to use. This has taken an immense amount time and patience to help others and I am so grateful for professionals like yourself who share with all of us. Thank you so very much.

Paul

[fatbob1945]

Hello everybody,

I receive quite a few PM's and emails requesting information on edges, finger cutting, tooling patterns and various other topics. Questions regarding some of these topics come up on a fairly regular basis, so I thought I would put something together that members could easily refer to. This article describes the way I finish edges and Johanna has posted it in the "Tips & Tricks" section on the main page. I hope that some of you will find it helpful.

Finishing Edges

Bob

Very nice professional looking work sir!

[fatbob1945]

I saw an earlier post that says to lay a finish before using saddle soap. I've been trying to burnish with saddle soap on glazed leather, so it's already finished, and it still ends up staining any time it gets past the edge. Anything I can do to combat this?

use fiebings deglazer before you dye or burnish the leather. It's cheap and is also great for cleaning up your brushes and drips and spills from your dye. It also will clean most smudges from your leather and make it accept the dye more uniformly. Don't smoke when using it kinda stinky but goes away fairly fast.

[hidepounder]

use fiebings deglazer before you dye or burnish the leather. It's cheap and is also great for cleaning up your brushes and drips and spills from your dye. It also will clean most smudges from your leather and make it accept the dye more uniformly. Don't smoke when using it kinda stinky but goes away fairly fast.

rawr66

When you say you're using glazed leather, I assume you are talking about a chrome tanned product. If that's true, you won't be able to get a nice burnish. Chrome tanned leather won't hold a burnish. Hope this helps.....

Bobby

Edited November 18, 2014 by hidepounder

[Jbatman]

Not to hijack this thread but if anyone is interested I have a ton of edge paint to get rid of...if there's enough interest I'll order some containers and part it out for folks (http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=60156)

[jellyroll]

Complete Noob here. Just got into this leather working stuff since I didn't want to spend $100 for a knife sheath that I wanted to buy and figured I could make it myself. Well........as everyone knows, I am now completely addicted.

I won't show my knife sheath as it was my first project (and I think it looks like at leat a $50 sheath), but I have been trying to figure out my issues (too many to list), and edging is a big one.

Thank you Bob for your explanations. Great responses from everyone as well.

I tried your canvas suggestion for burnishing and holy crapola is that the way to go. I have no machinery to attach to except a Dremel to sand with, and I have been hand burnishing my items and it is all the difference in the world. And I don't even know if I'm using the right kind of canvas as I am using the only thing available.........old painters tarps.

Now, at this point in my leather working experience (only about 1 week now), my "projects" are simply just making drink coasters. Easy to cut, nothing to stitch, and even the ugly ones work in the end............so at least I can put my junk projects to some type of work.

But, as I was working on some samples I realized some streaking after using Resolene. Besides going lighter on the next coaster, how can I remove the streaks after I my first rookie coat? And is the removal method best for a polishing of this too after a second coat?

(And for Bob.......how do you get any projects done with all of the information you post on here.....and I'm sure you're swamped with PMs and emails............quite amazing).

Jellyroll

[raysouth]

Hello Bob,

Just had to say that I enjoyed the excellent video on burnishing and wanted to say thank you for providing information about the Quik-Slik as offered by Sheridan Leather. It is a superb product and works like a charm. I had a few rough edged items in the shop and experimented with burnishing using the product and was amazed. Almost made the edges look like a pro did the work. lol

I thought, initially, that it was a bit expensive but when I learned how little I had to use during my trials, it is, indeed, a real bargain. I would recommend this product to anyone that wanted an excellent product that would assist with achievement of a finely burnished edge.

Also, I used a motorized burnisher, the one offered by Steve of Cobra Fame, and it is also a very welcome addition to my workspace.

Thank you, again.

God Bless.

Ray

[slipangle]

This reminded me…remember when the circular, "donut" shaped hand slickers were made of Lignum Vitae? Before they switched to plastic. I still have a couple of those and while I usually use my Lignum burnisher mounted in my lathe chuck, those old circular hand burnishers can be very handy for some projects.

Scott

At the very least, use a cocbolo hand slicker.

Hope this helps.....

Bobby

[Tim321]

Hi Bob,

Just wanted to thank you for your tutorial. Now that I have finally been able to track down the glycerine soap, my burnishing has definitely improved and the amount of time spent trying to get those perfect edges has decreased. Using a refillable marker full of dye has also made my edge dying look 100% professional, and reduced a mess on my fingers.

My only question is what can be used to toughen up the burnish when we are say making bags that get bumped around etc. I have used both resolene, beeswax and tan kote but if the edges of a flap on a messenger bag get rubbed from a shoulder strap, I have found that the burnish tends to go "fuzzy" in a very short time. I have not seen neat lac here in Canada so have not had the opportunity to try it. Perhaps one of the Tandy sheens which are acrylic based may work?

Anyones thoughts would be appreciated.

Tim

[MorningStarL]

Boy Howdy, Thank you!

I'm making 9 knife sheaths right now. I used your technique. I've got repetitive strain things in my hand, so my partner made be a burnisher by wrapping a 3/8" dowel with denim so I could chuck it into a drill on low speed. I don't have glycerine soap: I've been burnishing with water then saddle soap. I did a finish pass with a piece of caribou antler, then edge-dyed a couple of the belt loop straps and top edges of the sheath, waxed and buffed them. (Those parts are hard to do after the sheath's done.) I've never done anything that looked that good. Thank you.

[J W Craftsman]

Great tutorial, thank you for taking the time to do this. Have a question for everybody. When using thin leather, 2/3oz for things like card pockets for wallets how do you do it?

I'm able to get a decent edge in the leather but it's so flimsy and soft that it just mushrooms the edge and by the time I'm done with all my steps it just doesn't look good. It's so thin it feels impossible to hold it without it just flopping around. I've tried sandwiching the leather between two rulers but still less then desirable results. Any advice or edges just better left unfinished for wallet pockets?

[J W Craftsman]

No advice on burnishing thin leather?

[Halitech]

what I've done is only use very light pressure then lay it on a flat surface and run my burnisher over it to eliminate the mushroom

[kkikoss]

Hello guys! can anyone please tell me the exact order of how to use these three products?

The products are , first burn with gum tragacanth, after use black fiebing edge kote and finally finish with fiebing tan kote.

Is the order in which I use them correct?

I have read elsewhere that I must use first the black edge kote then burn with gumb and finally finish with the tan kote. so is this the ideal way to do it without leaving any black stains on the wrist skin?

Thanks for your time.

[kkikoss]

and one more and finally question :

for this result.

which products exactly should I use.

Maybe first fiebing acrylic paint and then tan kote finish?

Generaly speaking which is the best product for the perfect finally edge finish? tan kote or resolene?

Thanks again!!!

[victorl]

Hi all, newbie here just starting out and spending hours reading all the great threads here.

Anyway, I've been having a problem with edging a project with 2 layers of leather. After sanding and burnishing with gum tragacanth, I can still see the seam between the 2 layers and it looks like its splitting apart in some areas as well. I'm wondering if I didn't burnish it enough or maybe I didn't glue the leather together well enough...Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Victor

[Tayylor]

Victor, I'm having the same problem. Hope you get an answer soon.

[platch92]

JW,

For my wallet pockets, I just put wax on the edges and lay them on the bench and burnish with a piece of canvas or blue Jean. Flip the pocket over and repeat. You could still use a wooden burnisher with the same concept. My pieces canvas and my tool roll are cheap nail pouches from the hardware store.

Edited September 12, 2015 by platch92

[Tayylor]

Thank you, what wax do you use?

[platch92]

Paraffin until I get some beeswax. It can be found by the Mason jars/canning section of like walmart or stores like it.

[cicftaiwan]

Very helpful! Thanks!

[DavidOw]

Really cool!