Motorized Edge Burnisher

[Blackey Cole]

I built mine by "loosely" copying the machine Bob Park has. Shaft, pulleys, shaft stops, all came from Graingers. They deliver quickly if you don't have one nearby.

ferg

The Grainger part numbers for these parts would be great if you have them

[Blackey Cole]

I got a Grainger catalog today and found the piece I was looking for. It is a Heavy Duty Ball Bearing Mandrel, I am going with the 5/8" drive shaft, part # 6L098, costs $65. So as soon as the eagle flyes again I am off to Harbor freight for their 1750 RMP motor and the to Graingers for the rest.

[randypants]

i usually do it by hand. spit, then burnish, then dye, then gum trag, then burnish.

i just converted(kind of) this table top buffer from Harbor Freight.

left side is a cotton buffing wheel. right side is the same, but covered with denim. makes edges like this.

the line running down is my fault.

i'll probably stick to doing it by hand unless i can get this smoother.

but i've been doing leather work for 2 months, so i'm sure i'll get better.

[Art]

Over the course of 20 or so years, I've chased the burnishing demon, with varying but usable results with the short amount of time available to produce them (I actually work for a living and the kids needed fed). So here is the progression:

First I used the various hand burnishers including canvas.

Then I watched the Bianchi Video and ginned up this rig

That thing worked for a lot of years, then I thought (as all software engineers do) that there MUST be a better way. Cruising eBay one night, I came upon this

This little puppy cost me $500 which may seem like a lot, but honestly one of my Burr-King belt grinders cost 4 or more times that. Well I had the room and the money so off I went. In the box of parts, I found the edge iron heater assembly

and installed it, the previous owner had only done cold burnishing. The edge irons look like this

and come in different widths and configurations. The way you use these is cold burnish damp leather after cutting or sanding, then apply burnishing ink (ink with wax in it), after the ink dries completely (up to 2 hours later) hot burnish with Yankee Wax or Carnauba wax. Selecting the proper cutter and iron is the hardest part of all of this. If you have larger areas to burnish, there are also leather burnishing wheels to do that job.

For a final finish I like to use a loose muslin wheel on the Big Baldor buffer, this brute cruises along at 3600 rpm, but even at that speed it is surprisingly gentle, but you don't want to hang around in one spot too long. It and the brushes on the polisher are great for removing excess dyestuff after drying.

Needless to say, I can never leave well enough alone, and the seller had the mate to the TR3 polisher, the T2-S-RB finisher.

Cost here was the SAME as a new Burr-King, but I was there with a truck. The 1.5 and four inch belt grinders are handy and even better the thing's got a vacuum. It has a bayonet mount so I can hang whatever tool I want on it and a heel top lift cutter

which also works great on belts and trimming anything really. I'm not as used to it as I'd like so a lot of stuff still gets sanded. There is also a sole cutter

which is way tricky to use, even on soles for which it is designed, about 30 different cutters came with it and I am still working that out.

Of course this is all in search of the perfect edge.

Art