Home-Made "glass" Slicker For Leather

[msdeluca]

So, I'm all about making something out of nothing and for free. I needed a glass leather slicker but didn't want to pay the $20 and up price.

I had a discontinued sample of 1/2" thick Corian that was already cut to 4" square. I then rounded the corners, and used a 1/4" radius router bit to produce a fully rounded edge. Sanded it down to 220 and wet molded a grip out of scrap 8 oz veg tan leather.

Works great.

I'd bet one could order a sample from Dupont for free or next to nothing.

Hope this helps,

Mike

Edited October 24, 2014 by msdeluca

[hornm]

Pretty cool. I made mine out of a small cutting board that I cut in half. Ended up with 2 (wich is good because I loose things constantly).

Horn

[papadanny]

Way to think out of the box. I now will follow your lead on this. Thanks.

[eglideride]

Great pictures to go with a great idea! I will have mine made by the end of the weekend. Thanks for sharing!

[msdeluca]

Thanks for the comments... the leather grip has now been modified courtesy of my English Bull Terrier... caught him being a little too quiet... went to check and found him retooling my work.

He seems to have a flair for leather work...

[silverbullet]

Does his toothing cost as much as tooling . Ha Gary

Does his toothing cost as much as tooling . Ha Gary

[GoldenKnight]

I went to the tile section of my local home improvement store, got a glass bull-nose wall tile used for border edge (about 2"x4") and use the rounded bull nose part. $0.67

I figured if it didn't work, it didn't break the bank. Still using it 3 years later.

[slipangle]

Great idea, Mike,

I'm wondering, do you think going to 220 is a smooth enough finish? I suppose you could lap that face/edge down as far as you want, maybe even 1000 grit, But the advantages may not be there. Does Corian smooth and polish out more the farther you go?

Neat idea.

Slip

[msdeluca]

Great idea, Mike,

I'm wondering, do you think going to 220 is a smooth enough finish? I suppose you could lap that face/edge down as far as you want, maybe even 1000 grit, But the advantages may not be there. Does Corian smooth and polish out more the farther you go?

Neat idea.

Slip

Corian is harder than oak, it is non-pourous, and has a heft similar to glass. I would think that as long as the surface is not marring the leather surface, it is smooth enough. I've taken corian up to 600 grit and can get a nice sheen, but it doesn't hold it, at least as a counter surface.

IIRC, Bruce Johnson used a piece of poly cutting board for years and others use hardwood. It seems to be working fine for me.

[slipangle]

And a heckuva lot cheaper than getting a small piece of 1/4 plate glass cut and radiused.

Nice looking item. Thanks.

[Charliewz]

I get mine from

http://www.dupont.com/products-and-services/construction-materials/surface-design-materials/brands/corian-solid-surfaces/products/corian-all-colors/sub-products/designer-white.html

$8 for a 4x4 sample. I use it for pocket knife scales.

Charlie

Edited November 2, 2014 by Charliewz

[Manypawz]

What a great idea! Thank you for sharing.

[oltoot]

Many good ideas and selection will vary by individual. Here's what I did +/- 30 yrs ago. I went to a glass shop and got 4 pieces (I'm still using the first one and have traded two so I'm down to one spare) of tempered glass rounded and smoothed on one side, added a leather handle much like the others and voila!. BTW I think the secret of long life has been that I made a protected place for it on my bench so that the edge is out of the path of any other tools as they dismount/mount their own special places. I almost forgot glass was 1/2 thick and 4 1/2 by 4 1/2

Edited November 2, 2014 by oltoot

[Colt W Knight]

I've been using a square glass serving plate. It works, but I really want a real one eventually.

[silverwingit]

As to the grit of sandpaper the OP used, it may be that having a little "tooth" on the edge of the slicker could actually enhance its effectiveness as it might grab lightly onto the wetted leather instead of just gliding over its surface. That might slightly stretch and straighten out the leather leaving it nice and flat and ready to tool. And isn't that the purpose of a slicker?

One might want to experiment with increasingly fine grit paper.

Michelle

[oltoot]

Slicking is also smoothing so I wonder about marks?