Smoothing flesh side

[ericluther]

Hey all, I'm working on my first cuff style watchband and Im wondering how to smooth out the rough flesh side??

thanks in advance

Eric

[Hidemechanic]

How rough is it?

There are a few ways, you could order the thickness you need and good piece shouldn't be fuzzy.

If you have a splitter you can pick a heavier piece and slit it down to the size you want and that should smooth the back if it's a good piece to start with.

If no splitter, you can use a sander.

If no sander, you could (again with a heavier piece) dampen the back and hand skive it carefully.

If it isn't too fuzzy you could rub it with beeswax. I have a sole finisher that has a fat piece of hard wood I have grooved for burnishing, on the wider part I load with wax and press the back of whatever I want to smooth down.

I'm sure there will be other suggestions. Hope there's something here that is helpfull.GH

[indypbear]

Eric,

Try Leather Balm w/ Atom Wax and buff it with an old athletic sock until it gets the dull off. Works for me on belts etc. where I want the back somewhat smooth and sealed. Hidemech's ideas are good also where it's med. to extreme fuzz.

Indy

[CitizenKate]

Anther possibility that works great for me... I have a slicker I made from a piece of 1" thick wood and covered it with leather. To slick the flesh side of my pieces, I apply some kind of wax finish (I've used different ones and they all seem to work fine), then rub over it with the edge of my slicker.

Kate

[TwinOaks]

Okay, I'm ready for the heckling..

I've used a woodworking tool for that before. Sureform, I think is one name for it. It performs suprisingly well, and I've used it to uniformly reduce the thickness of some scrap before. It certainly isn't on par with a splitter, but, it'll do a good job of smoothing out the flesh side.

[ericluther]

Thanks so much everyone!

[mikeymoto]

Hi, I'm a newbie, and maybe this answer will obviously reflect that. I've used gum tragacanth on the flesh side of leather to smooth (and burnish) it out. I use the polished edge of a long-handled screwdriver. It may work better if you slick it in one direction only, rather than a back-and-forth motion.

Edited January 29, 2008 by mikeymoto

[Kevin]

Mikeymoto, After 30 yrs. that's pretty much what I do. Kevin

[yaklady]

I just wet it down a little, rub it with my bar of glycerine saddle soap, and rub it with my rub stick. Rub-a-dub-dub, that's all it takes!

I tried that with my bad yak, too, but it didn't smooth him a bit, just made him mad.

[ericluther]

lol thank you

[Peter Ellis]

Okay, I'm ready for the heckling..

I've used a woodworking tool for that before. Sureform, I think is one name for it. It performs suprisingly well, and I've used it to uniformly reduce the thickness of some scrap before. It certainly isn't on par with a splitter, but, it'll do a good job of smoothing out the flesh side.

Not going to heckle, really, but.. Surform is a brand name. They make a variety of rasps and some other tools generally intended for forming wood. I can see where some of them might work on leather and might be useful for skiving where a bunch of leather needed to be removed. But from what I know of their tools, I can't imagine one that would be good for smoothing a surface.

Doesn't mean there aren't any, I don't pretend to know all of their tools.. but Surform isn't quite enough information for someone to find the right tool with.

[DelNeroDesigns]

Hi I've sanded the piece and then used a match or candle to burn off the fuzz then applied a heavy wax sealer.

[Chitin]

I use a liberal amount of gum tragacanth and my trusty edge slicker. Works great, I've gotten it so smooth it was hard to tell one side from t'other!