Finishing Edges On Natural Veg Tan.

[Macca]

The European way is most certainly not a soldering iron & edge paint, thats a botched up work around you have working for you on a few pieces you have done.

I assume you are trying to refer to using a Fileteuse & wax, that it used by a very small number of workers over here & does produce good results on difficult leathers, expensive tool as its designed to get to & maintain a regulated temperature for leather, its not a soldering iron.

The European way as you call it, is hand burnishing, gum arabic or animal glue.

OP, as mentioned, Bob did a great tutorial on burnishing http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=18101

[DavidL]

I have some good pieces made with a cheap iron and I don't even have the edge paint yet, who doesnt mess up while they are practicing? Edge painting is actually easier in my opinion since its hard to mess up the face of the leather because the only liquid touching is the edge paint vs saddle soap, glycerin, ect.

A mid - high level soldering iron like a japanese hakko brand (90 dollars) can set the temp. exact to the degree and has flat tips. Some european brands (either louis vuitton or prada) use a soldering iron (probably $100-150 with pointed tip and temp control) .Campbell randall also sells a soldering iron for 200 made specifically for heating the edge.

Different styles to leather working. Just like there are different styles of Fighting like western boxing or karate, ones not better than the other, which ever one you prefer is up to whoever it is. I prefer using whatever works well and it tends to be different techniques that are either japanese, western, european as long as the results look like I intend them to be.

[Macca]

No, you prefer whatever you THINK is the quickest & advise everyone to do the same, you now say you don't even have the edge paint, why recommend it ???

& FFS, they don't use soldering irons in Europe, I've told you what the tool is, a Fileteuse manuelle, sold by Mando.fr, used primarily for chromed & exotic leathers. The control is not the same a soldering iron, look at the bits sold with it, any of them look like soldering iron bits ? No, the temp control on a soldering iron would not work with so much metal on the end.

I have seen people using an iron with very hard wax & dye, I still would not recommend it, especially on natural veg tan.

I would have thought, anyone who has the gall to even think of using the name Atelier would understand the benefits of putting the hours in to understand the fundamental techniques & not continue to look for shortcuts before they even have the basics down.

[DavidL]

I've done both ways and spent at least a few hours burnishing and recently started trying the heat tool. In my personal opinion I prefer the heat tool and the burnishing (hide pounder technique) is the way to go in my opinion for saddles and heat tool when working with chrome, and pull up and thinner veg tan which are nearly impossible (except the veg) to burnish without the heat tool and is a more versatile. Burnishing requires a lot of time unless you have an electric edge burnisher, but the results are good.

In a production atmosphere edge painting shouldn't be ruled out and burnishing with an electric burnisher is equally as good (apples vs oranges), but when it comes to being able to use one technique throughout your whole line of goods

heat burnishing can be used for everything. Although vegtan can burn so you have to adjust the heat to about half and work slower or a pre step has to be take to saddle soap the fibers down.

The difference between the soldering iron and the proper tool is that one is 150 dollars and the other is 2 thousand. The soldering iron provides 50% of what the proper tool can do it can heat up to exactly the right temperature and stay hot, but the real tool is the better equipment if you have the cash-flow or are willing to spend the extra amount. Otherwise an iron is a starter tool, it can however regulate the temperature as they are made for soldering expensive components and need to be at the exact temperature without dropping.

At the end of the day I'm not going to recommend the 2 thousand dollar tool as its possible to get it done with the iron, also louis vuitton or prada has used a soldering iron in one of their youtube videos. Il try to find it but the only thing necessary is the exact temperature and a hot tip, you could if you are serious about it get someone to machine a part like the flat fan type tip to fit into a hakko soldering iron.

personally I spent at least 200 actual hours try to perfect what I'm doing, most of which was saddle stitching, construction, and now recently I have been moving on to the "extra" parts of leather working which are edge finishing, sewing piping, handles, designing the patterns to that the pattern is perfectly aligned for turned edges, working with exotics. I think 3 or 4 years away from getting every little detail right and several more years from perfecting the art so to speak.

There are things I'm still learning as I'm moving along since i don't have a mentor or have the money, but I understand the fundamentals of leather working to a certain degree.

[Macca]

ughh..

enough

Look at the OP, asking for advice on his burnishing technique & you recommend edge paints you haven't even tried. Bob's tutorial is the perfect way to burnish natural veg tan.

Seriously David, stop recommending techniques, tools etc when you have no experience of them !

[AndersenLeather]

After you have bunished the edge with the slicker try to sand the edge down again. Yes thats right. Sand it down again. The first time I use around grit 180. Then bunish it again. If you are still not happy with the result repeat the process. Gradually use finer sandpaper. 320-400 is the finest that makes sense. Finer that that and it will not sand the edge but burnish it instead.

If you only wish to use natural products the this is the way i would do it:

Wet the edge with water. I use a molotow marker filled with water. it is better to user too little water than to much.

Burnish the edge. I use a small piece of sand paper grid 3000

Sand the edge with grid 180

Wet the edge

Burnish

Sand the edge with grid 320

Wet the edge

Burnish

Sand the edge with 320

Wet the edge

Burnish with sandpaper

Polish with canvas cloth. You could add beeswax at this point if you wish.

Look at the pictures to get an idea of what I am talking about. Note that the sandpaper I used had been used for black edges so sand edge looks a little black.

[DavidL]

Thats fair enough.

I do suggest that you could give it a shot if you don't like the look then you can pin it down to whats the best technique only once you try all the different ways and incorporate what works for you as everyone has a different technique. Maybe you may use an iron for the very last step to melt beeswax at a very low temp and before that you burnish with a

electric burnisher ect.

Once you find a your technique you will use it until you find something better but (hide pounder) probably tested out his technique and perfected it over the years until its down to a science, so I'm suggesting to just spend sometime to just experiment with heat, burnishing, waxes, different dyes and whatever, before just using hide pounders technique so that you can tweak his technique based on first hand experience.

[Turn n Burn]

You can make a dimmer switch wired to a plug and plug the solder iron in to it and control the heat that way also a cheap solder iron like wood burner has changeable tips i used the for wood burning until i got a pro unit.

[Red Cent]

Very little water and a dowel rod with sanded grooves. But first, understand that all veg tanned leather is not the same. I had to order some leather from a different vendor and, boy, did I get a surprise.

The point: We are not doing ourselves a service until we all realize one method that works on a rather stiff, dry piece of leather will not work on a soft "spongy" piece of leather. Or leather from two distributors or retailers will not burnish the same way.

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=55573

[whipstitchwallets]

hey here's what i do:

1. sand

2. apply water with finger...very lightly, and only to the very edge. wood burnisher

3. apply gum trag (this is a natural product) with finger or q-tip, again very lightly, and only to very edge. wood burnisher

4. apply blend of beeswax paraffin and coconut oil. wood burnisher

5. canvas burnish

from here I'll either apply fiebing's aussie or do another cycle of gum trag with wood burnisher...maybe some more wax...I sort of go by feel.

This evolved slowly from beginning with hidepounder's thing, now it is completely different. I don't dye the edges so that sort of makes a lot in that tutorial unneeded.

I'm not a leading expert, but what I do know is from my own experience