Leather Pattern Cutting, Shaping And Trimming

[Topcat]

I was having a conversation with a "leather bender" a couple of days ago. He is without a doubt a skilled craftsman......but his ideas are locked in another time and place. He proudly announced that leather benders do not use power tools, dremmels, sanding equipment and sharpen their blades by hand.....WOW! I am a tool and die maker and I use every tool I can find that works and sharpen my blades on a hollow grinder with zero tolerance machine jigs. I thought about this post before posting it and do not wish to arouse the ire of traditionalist leather workers.....but for those of you who want to produce great work without all the hand intensive work.....here are a couple of tips. The 1" upright sander with a Trizact belt in about 60-80 grit will shape your glue joints cleaner than a razor knife and for adjusting curves and rounding corners they are the best. You work from 1 side and then remove the leather burr from the other side and the result is super. Now comes the dremmel tool.....fitted with 1/2 and 3/8 mandrels there are 3 great grinding sleeves available......Trizact......carbide......and last but absolutely best....DIAMOND. This will edge leather, adjust a radius, shape corners....etc and runs cool. Most of this is available on Ebay and Google will find the rest. Shop from home on you computer. If you make you own edge burnishing tools....try nylon that is made with Moly already imbedded (small parts .com).....you won't believe the difference. These are just a few of many ideas available to make you leather working easier and you results better. If you are a tradionalist.....great! Cheers....Topcat

[MADMAX22]

Kind of in both worlds myself.

For my edges I use the dremel sometimes with the little drum sander. This gets a nice edge but to be honest it takes a little more work after the fact then if I had used a good sharp head knife (or whatever knife you prefer) to cut the edge if its done properly. The thing where it saves me time is when I have small portions that are to hard to get a clean cut with the knife or where the leather is extremely thick say like 24oz or more of leather (sheaths) where its very difficult to get a straight good cut.

This works for me because I dont have the wheel setup to do the polishing and such, if I had one of those for the edges then I probably wouldnt care about getting as smooth of a cut edge.

As far as burnishing tools the best one I have so far is made from cocobolo wood. I sanded it down and put several half circle notches of various sizes in it and it works wonderfully.

I think the best thing is a happy medium of the two styles unless your customer wants and pays for entirely handmade items.

[katsass]

Kind of in both worlds myself.

As far as burnishing tools the best one I have so far is made from cocobolo wood. I sanded it down and put several half circle notches of various sizes in it and it works wonderfully.

I think the best thing is a happy medium of the two styles unless your customer wants and pays for entirely handmade items.

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MAX, gotta agree with you. I cut as close as possible but finish with a Dremel. Have 3 of them but seem to use a cordless more than any other. As to cocobolo, I'd love to get hold of a 1/2 inch square about 4 inches long to turn down on a lathe to make an edge burnisher. Haven't found any yet. As to the use of power tools, my scrimshaw instructor (a nationally known master engraver) told me, after I questioned him about a power scrim tool (which I can't afford), that people pay for the hand that guides the tool. The tool just makes some of the work easier, the lay-out, pattern. and the final product are the result of the artist's ability. I like that thought. Mike

Edited May 4, 2010 by katsass

[Topcat]

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

MAX, gotta agree with you. I cut as close as possible but finish with a Dremel. Have 3 of them but seem to use a cordless more than any other. As to cocobolo, I'd love to get hold of a 1/2 inch square about 4 inches long to turn down on a lathe to make an edge burnisher. Haven't found any yet. As to the use of power tools, my scrimshaw instructor (a nationally known master engraver) told me, after I questioned him about a power scrim tool (which I can't afford), that people pay for the hand that guides the tool. The tool just makes some of the work easier, the lay-out, pattern. and the final product are the result of the artist's ability. I like that thought. Mike

I like that thought too! It's the old archer and the bow argument.....it takes both....cheers.....Tocat

Kind of in both worlds myself.

For my edges I use the dremel sometimes with the little drum sander. This gets a nice edge but to be honest it takes a little more work after the fact then if I had used a good sharp head knife (or whatever knife you prefer) to cut the edge if its done properly. The thing where it saves me time is when I have small portions that are to hard to get a clean cut with the knife or where the leather is extremely thick say like 24oz or more of leather (sheaths) where its very difficult to get a straight good cut.

This works for me because I dont have the wheel setup to do the polishing and such, if I had one of those for the edges then I probably wouldnt care about getting as smooth of a cut edge.

As far as burnishing tools the best one I have so far is made from cocobolo wood. I sanded it down and put several half circle notches of various sizes in it and it works wonderfully.

I think the best thing is a happy medium of the two styles unless your customer wants and pays for entirely handmade items.

Try the 1/2 diamond drum sander (Ebay) It will enlighten you and you will never use the sanding drum again....I'll try cocobolo.....topcat

[MADMAX22]

Hey Kat have you checked out ebay. Thats where I got all mine. I just checked and the guy I ordered from doesnt have any listings currently but under crafts-woodworking-lumber there are all kinds of stuff from $3 on up.

The pen blanks work really great for the round type burnishers. They are usually about 1" square by about 6-8" long. For the burnisher I currently have I used a blank that was 1/4"x3"x24" and just cut out my section I needed then took the dremel to it. Works great considering my lacking of wood working skills.

Ill have to get me one of those diamond drums and try it out also.

[Pelallito]

Katsass,

Here is a link to cocobolo-http://www.exoticwood.biz/cocobolo.htm

They have a lot of interesting woods.

Topcat,

I will look at small parts for the nylon, and eBay for the diamond sander. If you have any other tooling ideas, please share with us.

Regards,

Fred

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

MAX, gotta agree with you. I cut as close as possible but finish with a Dremel. Have 3 of them but seem to use a cordless more than any other. As to cocobolo, I'd love to get hold of a 1/2 inch square about 4 inches long to turn down on a lathe to make an edge burnisher. Haven't found any yet. As to the use of power tools, my scrimshaw instructor (a nationally known master engraver) told me, after I questioned him about a power scrim tool (which I can't afford), that people pay for the hand that guides the tool. The tool just makes some of the work easier, the lay-out, pattern. and the final product are the result of the artist's ability. I like that thought. Mike

[katsass]

Katsass,

Here is a link to cocobolo-http://www.exoticwood.biz/cocobolo.htm

They have a lot of interesting woods.

Topcat,

I will look at small parts for the nylon, and eBay for the diamond sander. If you have any other tooling ideas, please share with us.

Regards,

Fred

Thanks Fred, I'll hit you site for the cocobolo and e-bay for the diamond sander also. Mike

[katsass]

Hey Kat have you checked out ebay. Thats where I got all mine. I just checked and the guy I ordered from doesnt have any listings currently but under crafts-woodworking-lumber there are all kinds of stuff from $3 on up.

The pen blanks work really great for the round type burnishers. They are usually about 1" square by about 6-8" long. For the burnisher I currently have I used a blank that was 1/4"x3"x24" and just cut out my section I needed then took the dremel to it. Works great considering my lacking of wood working skills.

Ill have to get me one of those diamond drums and try it out also.

Thanks MAX, I'll hit e-bay and look at those pen blanks. I had seen them before but thought that they might be pre-drilled so I ignored them. In my leather work I can use some power stuff and feel fine about it...Dremel, 3/8 drill, airbrush etc, but in my scrim it's all hand done. Don't get much call for it, seems to cost too much in relation to the laser etched stuff that can be had out there. People don't understand the time and effort involved in real scrim. A pic of a sample of a piece of my work. Mike

[Pelallito]

Mike,

That looks awsome.

Fred

Thanks MAX, I'll hit e-bay and look at those pen blanks. I had seen them before but thought that they might be pre-drilled so I ignored them. In my leather work I can use some power stuff and feel fine about it...Dremel, 3/8 drill, airbrush etc, but in my scrim it's all hand done. Don't get much call for it, seems to cost too much in relation to the laser etched stuff that can be had out there. People don't understand the time and effort involved in real scrim. A pic of a sample of a piece of my work. Mike

[katsass]

Mike,

That looks awsome.

Fred

Thanks Fred.....Here's a set of 1911 Colt grips scrimmed by me........

Mike

[Pelallito]

Mike,

They look great too!!

Fred

Mike,

That looks awsome.

Fred

Thanks Fred.....Here's a set of 1911 Colt grips scrimmed by me........

Mike