Black Dye Rubbing Off Edges

[Elmore]

Hi guys,

I've been trying to figure out a solution to the dye rubbing off of my edges. I make my edges following Bob Park's tutorial and use Fiebings Black Pro Oil Dye. After I dye the edges I buff them with a soft cloth until the black dye stops bleeding off and then burnish with paraffin wax. I then coat the edges with Atom Wax but have started using acrylic Resolene to try and seal the edge even better. Yet if I rub my fingers along the edge and apply a little friction I am able to get a black outline. Here's a picture of what I'm talking about (this was an early protype and the outline is not as prominent on successive ones but it does illustrate what's happening nicely!) Any ideas on how to stop it?

[Cyberthrasher]

I would use the finish BEFORE using wax. It's probably not sealing that well. I usually wax my edges as the very last step and then burnish with elbow grease and a denim rag to melt the wax in and make it shiny and smooth.

[Elmore]

I'll have to to give that a shot, it makes sense that the paraffin could be acting as a resist to the resolene. I've been using a a dremel wheel wrapped in cordura nylon that I spin against the block of paraffin to get nice and waxy and then run it along my edges. This results in a pretty smooth edge but nowhere near as shiny as I've seen on some people's work!

[Cyberthrasher]

It definitely takes some work to get it down. I'm still adjusting my process all the time. I'm not sure if you've read Hidepounder's guide to edge finishing or not, but it might be worth a revisit to see if there's anything else to gleam from it (as well as the comments).

Right now, it's edge bevel, sand with 120 to even up and get rid of any mushrooming around the bevel, sand with 400 to start getting it really smooth (slightly dampening the edge works wonders here), rub in saddle soap and then use my dremel burnisher, dye, finish, then rub briskly by hand with canvas/denim and beeswax. Actually, the wax is just residual on my rag.