Edge Bevelers

[johnggrg]

Which edger works the best for each thickness of leather in oz's? Also would like to ask is there an easier way to sand the edge after using an edger? thank you. john

[johnggrg]

Like best size beveler for 5-6 oz leather and so on???? john

[pete]

Like best size beveler for 5-6 oz leather and so on???? john

I have a #2,3&4. I rarely use the 4 but have found that there is no one that you MUST use. Use a #2 and see if there is the result that you want. I sometimes use a 2 on heavy leather(7,8,9oz) and get the edge that I want.

Other times I have used a #3 on 4/5oz if that is the edge I want. Take a scrap of your project and start with a 2&3 and burnish the edge. You'll know right away!

There is no one tool to use. I had the same question when I started too!

pete

[bruce johnson]

There is no standardization of sizes between makers or between different types of edge bevelers within the same maker some times. For instance a #1 round bottom edger from Jeremiah Watt is about three times as big as a #1 Tandy edger. Normally a #1 bisonette edger from CS Osborne is larger than their #1 edger in the 126 style. The old line makers like Gomph, CS OSborne, and HF Osborne are all bigger than the equivalent Tandy edger sizes too. On 5/6 I'd use a #1 for what I have, so probably a #2 Tandy if that is what you have.

I sand a lot of edges but do it before I go over with an edge beveler. I use a benchtop 4x36 belt sander. I lightly go over to true up edges and remove glue that went over an edge. Keep everything moving, but the belt sander is slower than a drum sander or Dremel. You can scorch pretty easy with those.

[Andrew Chee]

1323895600[/url]' post='224382']

There is no standardization of sizes between makers or between different types of edge bevelers within the same maker some times. For instance a #1 round bottom edger from Jeremiah Watt is about three times as big as a #1 Tandy edger. Normally a #1 bisonette edger from CS Osborne is larger than their #1 edger in the 126 style. The old line makers like Gomph, CS OSborne, and HF Osborne are all bigger than the equivalent Tandy edger sizes too. On 5/6 I'd use a #1 for what I have, so probably a #2 Tandy if that is what you have.

I sand a lot of edges but do it before I go over with an edge beveler. I use a benchtop 4x36 belt sander. I lightly go over to true up edges and remove glue that went over an edge. Keep everything moving, but the belt sander is slower than a drum sander or Dremel. You can scorch pretty easy with those.

I have some Jeremiah watt western edges sizes 0-2. For 4oz leather, you have to use the 0. For 7-8oz+ I use the 2. The 1 is for somewhere in between. The reason for this is because of the design of the prongs of the edgers. If you try to use the 2 on 5oz leather, the tips of the prongs hits the table before the cutting surface contacts the edge.

I bought a set of those bisonette edgers on eBay that are made from silverware. They're pretty nice but don't work very well on thin leather at all. I don't think you can use it for anything thinner then 6-7oz. Same reason as the western edgers. The sides of the edger hit the table before the cutting edge comes into contact with the leather.

Andrew

[bruce johnson]

Good point Andrew. Some of the old patterns used different width stock for the different sizes. Some makers now use the same width bit stock regardless of size. With the smaller sizes there is too much excess width to get the angle I like and the cutting edge on the leather. You either have to use a flatter angle with the leather on the bench or set the leather on an edge of the bench and let the tool run over the side. Seems to be a common complaint with western and bisonette edgers.

[Art]

When I first started leatherwork a few (?) years ago, I was a computer pro, a gunsmith, and a machinist. I figured a #3 edger was a standard of the leather industry and it really didn't matter who made it. Oh how wrong I was. My Tandy #3 was taking off huge amounts from 6-7oz leather. I learned a lot in my first years on what NOT to do. I took a week and visited a leather pro in Coty, Wyoming and learned or is it relearned so much that I took another week a couple of years later. She had a bunch of tools, but probably not a quarter of what I have now. I got to play with a lot of different edgers, and found that they all cut differently and surprisingly (remember strict technical background here), the numbers didn't mean anything remotely resembling a system, even within the same maker.

What have I learned? Start with the smallest edger you have, probably a zero or #1. If you are buying new, start with a #1, you will be suprised that it will often do the job, or you might have to go to a #2. You need to learn what edging is before you get enough knowledge to know you need more. So for the average leatherworker, a #0, #1, and #2 by the same maker might do you pretty well, if you are a little tight on dollars, get just the #1 and buy more if needed.

If you work on very thin leather, like 2oz, you can't really use a standard edger of any type, you need one with very narrow toes, not turned up toes, but very narrow, look at Ron's Montana edgers to see what I mean.

Modern edgers by custom makers are, in my opinion, superior to the antique Osborne and Gomph edgers in a lot of ways, but usually because the older edgers have been resharpened and sometimes modified, and most of the older ones are designed for BIG harness, where horses were pulling huge wagons full of some commodity or another. That is why sizing is non-standard. Even with the custom makers though, you can't expect consistency between makers only within the same maker.

Art