Sharpening Or Polishing Stitching Irons, Pricking Irons Or Chisels

[YinTx]

If someone can help by providing information or pointing me in the right direction I would be most appreciative. I have been searching the forum trying to figure out how to "polish" pricking irons. Some of the irons I have from Osborne and Joseph Dixon are a bit rough, and I would like to know an efficient way to get in between all of the teeth. The metal is pretty hard on some, I believe the Osborne irons are drop forged. I have tried wrapping sandpaper around a flat bit of leather, but I am concerned I will actually wear a different angle into the teeth, ie sand only one side. This is less of an issue on the European style irons than on the diamond shaped stitching chisels, which are designed to go completely through the leather. Many of these are really rough the entire length of the tooth, which makes them difficult to pull out of the leather once punched through.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

For other images:

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?app=galleryℑ=28911

YinTx

[DavidL]

im interested as well.This subject is something that would be taught in european leather school, information is hard to come by. The easiest way I would think would be to apply green rouge on a piece of thin cardboard material. Just polishing the teeth would make them slide out easier while removing the minimal amount of iron.

If you are hitting the iron all the way through till the leather reaches the full distance of the teeth it will likely always stick to the leather.

You can use the same tools the toolmaker uses to sand the iron teeth down (rasp used for metal). Do know that this requires a expert touch so damaging your tool is a possibility. If you do decide to sand the teeth i would be interested in pictures.

[YinTx]

No responses, so maybe a lost art? Surely someone is willing to share how this is supposed to be done!

YinTx

[JAZZMAN]

Hi yin, you might want to try emailing Nigel Armitage about this, i know on some of his review videos he mentions polishing his pricking irons, he has always helped me out in the past.

[RStevenson]

i think you may need a thin file or try wrapping some sand paper around a thin piece of wood

[Nuttish]

If someone can help by providing information or pointing me in the right direction I would be most appreciative. I have been searching the forum trying to figure out how to "polish" pricking irons. Some of the irons I have from Osborne and Joseph Dixon are a bit rough, and I would like to know an efficient way to get in between all of the teeth. The metal is pretty hard on some, I believe the Osborne irons are drop forged. I have tried wrapping sandpaper around a flat bit of leather, but I am concerned I will actually wear a different angle into the teeth, ie sand only one side. This is less of an issue on the European style irons than on the diamond shaped stitching chisels, which are designed to go completely through the leather. Many of these are really rough the entire length of the tooth, which makes them difficult to pull out of the leather once punched through.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

DixonIrons.jpg

For other images:

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?app=galleryℑ=28911

YinTx

What's wrong with that iron? Even Blanchards have machining marks on them.

I narrowed the tines on an Osborne by lapping the sides on a piece of emery paper on glass so I can definitely say that at least modern Osbornes are not too hard to work with.

You can sharpen them with progressively finer grit steel nail files. Cheaper than a set of jewelers files.

[YinTx]

Nuttish,

These are brand new, so I am hoping that there is absolutely nothing wrong with my irons! Only issue is that they are a bit rough in the teeth, and some of the teeth are a bit fatter than others, and some have rather large burrs on them keeping them from making a clean mark. I only want to clean them up a bit, but I have been unsure how to go about doing this without causing damage to the teeth. Was struggling with how to get in between the teeth cleanly without hitting the nearby teeth while working. Hadn't thought of jewelers files... and are your referring to using fingernail files? Sounds like something that would work well! Thanks for the tips.

Sandpaper on thin wood sounds like it would work well too, especially when I get into finer grits. Thanks for that idea, RStevenson.

I will PM Mr. Armitage on this topic, to see if he responds. I did make a post on his video reviews regarding irons, but he hasn't responded. Hopefully I haven't insulted him in some way!

YinTx

[YinTx]

As a side note, just noticed that Dangerous Beans hasn't been online since April 7th, so I haven't had the chance to upset him since he was last here.

YinTx

[Ole South]

Soak a piece of wet/dry abrasive paper and lay it on your granite block for the large flat sides. I start with 500 grit and progress to 1000 then lap on an Arkansas stone or go straight to white rouge on a thin leather strop flat on my bench. Between the teeth you can wrap a piece of plastic or a wooden tongue depressor with soaked wet/dry paper and (painstakingly) polish between each tooth. Clamping the iron in a small vice helps to reduce rounding the edges and maintaining the teeth angle Follow up with a rouge loaded strip of leather.

Stroke in one direction (l/r or up/down only, you choose) after you've removed any major imperfections to reduce the amount of polishing you have to do if you want a mirror-like finish.

[Nuttish]

I wouldn't use sandpaper on thin wood. The paper will invariably bulge and cause you to round over corners. I take it from your extreme perfectionism that you wouldn't want that.

Yes, I'm talking about fingernail files. They're tremendously useful tools for all kinds of things.

[Ole South]

Wet/dry paper (NOT sandpaper) when soaked will adhere to almost any stiffener without bunching if you don't use excessive pressure or over use it. The binder adhesive used keeps the paper backing pretty stiff, surface tension does the rest.

You CAN glue strips to a feeler gauge or wooden if you want keep it from moving but I've found just folding a wetted strip and laying thin fairly rigid backer won't cause any problems. You'll probably be working up and down the length of the tooth (rather than the width) anyway to reduce friction once the tool is polished. Thus you'll not encounter any bunching.

Edited April 25, 2015 by Ole South

[ContactCement]

Wet dry sandpaper glued to a cheap thin metal 6" ruler should do the trick for larger spacing.

[YinTx]

I did end up with some jeweler's files, then on to very fine sand paper.  This took care of the rough profile where the iron contacts the leather, and then I just kind of stropped the tines with thin leather to finish up.  Worked ok after that!  Thanks for all the suggestions, got me where I needed to be.

YinTx

[JKHelms]

I use a buffing wheel on my bench grinder to polish mine 

also good for razor knife blades and my leather knifes.

just be sure the wheel is turning away from you and be careful. 

[ContactCement]

A stiff Revlon diamond fingernail file wrapped with wet dry sandpaper worked great to hone my Craftool Pro Fine Diamond stitching chisel 8 tooth. It looks like you have some heavy burrs or bent tips. When using buffers or grinders take care and dont overheat the metal.

[johnv474]

I have used Mothers magnesium and aluminum wheel polish to polish tools, including pricking irons. I picked it up in the auto section of Walmart but I imagine any polishing compound for metals would work. 

 

I dip the pricking iron into this paste and then use a fleece wheel attached to a Dremel-type rotary tool to hit each side of each tooth.  I leave the tool set to the sloweat speed because it flicks polish everywhere.  I also use this setup for polishing other tools. 

 

I don't know if the results are perfect but it certainly works for my purposes.