Help Edging Really Soft Leather

[Gecko]

Hi all. I am working on a purse for my wife and bought some Horween Essex leather. It's like working with butter.

Is there a trick to edging such soft leather?

I have been trying on scraps with water, bees wax, gum trag and a hand slicker to try to get a nice clean, smooth edge, but not having much luck.

[Tugadude]

I'll be interested in other opinions, but when leather is really thin and pliable, burnishing doesn't work. You need friction/heat and that is hard to generate when the edge is moving all over. If you want the best chance of success, a mechanical burnisher is worth a try. Lightly run the edge against the rotary tool and make sure the edge is moist first.

If the leather is very thin, perhaps folding the edge over would be the best approach. This is commonly done on garment leathers which for obvious reasons don't lend themselves to burnishing.

[Nuttish]

I no longer bother burnishing most Essex, Dublin, Chromexcel, and Legacy in anything below 8 or 9 oz. It's not worth the trouble. The material is too flexible in every dimension not to pull the nice surface you've created apart and make it appear cracked, hazy, rough, etc.

Keep trying, and I hope you figure something out.