Edge paint

[Ferg]

It really doesn't matter to me what folks decide to use for edge painting. I do know from experience, the grooved roller coaters are the best for small shop use.

If I was doing belts like some folks do, I might try some other method. I am not bragging, simply saying how simple this can be, I can do the edge on a round coaster in less than 60 seconds.

Lightly sand edges keeping them as square as you can, one coat sealer, sand, one coat finish, sand, second coat of finish, DONE!

Ferg

Edited May 18, 2018 by Ferg

[RockyAussie]

Thanks to my wife's fantastic photography skills and the new light tent I built, I am able to show a few of the 100 croc dress belts I finished off yesterday. Other than the tips which I sanded off to shape I was able to do them with NO sanding due to thin edge and the use of a couple of machines. The second picture shows an edging machine that I use for the belt tips and wallets and such and the next is a you tube  link to an edging machine I made for the sides of straps. I was able to feed the keepers through with the same machine and method as well. Note in the small edging machine picture I am showing a brush that I replaced with a piece of aluminium to get a finer more consistent coat.

 

[BDAZ]

Brilliant Harry!  What paint do you use in your machine?

How do you catch the crocs? Stand on a beach with dead chickens in your hands??

 

Bob

[RockyAussie]

18 minutes ago, BDAZ said:

Brilliant Harry!  What paint do you use in your machine?

I use a couple ...for black it is OMAC Lux semi matt OM 357556 which I think may be the same as Giardini maybe, and for colours I mostly use Ares (Italia)  S.R.l -AR 6350 which Neutro Denso Lucido which should be the same as Fenice AR 6350 to which I mix in pigments to get whatever colour I want.

For the crocs all sorts of bait can work...lawn mowers ...Coca cola....chain saws...

[niakulah]

On 5/14/2018 at 10:22 PM, charon said:

Maybe one of you minds sharing the secret of good clean edge paint with me? I spent the last two weekends trying to figure that out myself and the only thing I learned is how hard it is to peel that stuff off my edges once I screwed it. I'm working a lot of thin leather (1-2 oz) and sometimes it's hard to seal the gap between the 2 sewn pieces by just burnishing it. So I thought I'd give edge paint a try. I tried Giardini black and Fiebings Edge Kote all wit hthe same result: I't wobble and wonky and far from a clean, smooth surface no matter how many layers I apply. What I did is the following:

Glue the pieces together - sad them plane - bevel the edges round - (optional) burnishing - apply edge paint (I used a pencil, one of those edge paint appliers that look like paddles and a scratch awl). Firstly there's no way to get a clean line between the leather  and the edge paint, you always get more down at one point and less at another so the line is always wobble. And on top of the edge ... it's a total mess. I'm currently at work and cannot attach any images, but I'm sure most of you can imagine what I'm talking about. I read that you can use a modified french soldering iron for the cost of a small house to heat treat it but seriously that's ridiculous for that price, they can't be serious...

I also read you don't need to heat treat the Giardini stuff but I can't do it (apparently). Most of the youtube tutorials you find use some 9-10oz unbevelled leather, maybe it's easier with that but for the thin leather I use with a round bevelled edge it's impossible (at least for me). So if anyone has that magic trick to get it look nice please have a heart and share the information. I hate throwing stuff around my workshop but we had a lot leather flying around recently... 

Not an expert by any means, but I did manage to get a decent edge using Giardini semi-dense and dense paints through a lot of trial and error.

Applicator - Tried the rolling applicator that came with the kit, a round awl, a pencil, and a paint box with brass rollers. Could not get it to apply smoothly with any of those except for the paint box, but that still had high/thick spots. I had NO prior experience so it could definitely have been a problem with the applicator, the person

In the end I settled on this applicator. Also available from DLS and RMLS.

 

For prep, I bevel and sand the edges up to 400 grit. I just bought this as well and I think it works very well to give me a nice rounded edge. I know that Giardini recommends that you apply it to a rough edge and then sand in between but I could never get it to be as smooth as I would like it to be.

 

I have a leather wrapped knife that has 3 coats of Giardini semi-dense on its edges. After painting I carried it around in my pocket for about 2 weeks just to see if the paint would come off. That was about 6 months ago and I haven't had any issues with the paint peeling so far. I'm at work and I don't have a pic of it so I'll try to snap one and post it here after I get home.

 

[BDAZ]

"The Crocs ate all the Sharks"!

[RockyAussie]

1 hour ago, niakulah said:

Not an expert by any means, but I did manage to get a decent edge using Giardini semi-dense and dense paints through a lot of trial and error.

Applicator - Tried the rolling applicator that came with the kit, a round awl, a pencil, and a paint box with brass rollers. Could not get it to apply smoothly with any of those except for the paint box, but that still had high/thick spots. I had NO prior experience so it could definitely have been a problem with the applicator, the person

In the end I settled on this applicator. Also available from DLS and RMLS.

 

For prep, I bevel and sand the edges up to 400 grit. I just bought this as well and I think it works very well to give me a nice rounded edge. I know that Giardini recommends that you apply it to a rough edge and then sand in between but I could never get it to be as smooth as I would like it to be.

 

I have a leather wrapped knife that has 3 coats of Giardini semi-dense on its edges. After painting I carried it around in my pocket for about 2 weeks just to see if the paint would come off. That was about 6 months ago and I haven't had any issues with the paint peeling so far. I'm at work and I don't have a pic of it so I'll try to snap one and post it here after I get home.

 

Seen them before but haven't tried them yet. I'll get one and try it. Thanks for sharing.

[RockyAussie]

1 hour ago, BDAZ said:

"The Crocs ate all the Sharks"!

Yep...

[BDAZ]

Yikes! That was from a Fosters ad...

Bob

[charon]

Wow, great information here, thanks a lot guys, as always thats much appreciated.

@RockyAussieWow Harry, I envy you on this great machine setup you got there. It looks so easy when you're doing your edges and they look absolute fantastic in 60 seconds...I don't tell you how that makes me feel right now  Also, thanks for sharing these great videos.

8 hours ago, niakulah said:

Not an expert by any means, but I did manage to get a decent edge using Giardini semi-dense and dense paints through a lot of trial and error.

Applicator - Tried the rolling applicator that came with the kit, a round awl, a pencil, and a paint box with brass rollers. Could not get it to apply smoothly with any of those except for the paint box, but that still had high/thick spots. I had NO prior experience so it could definitely have been a problem with the applicator, the person

In the end I settled on this applicator. Also available from DLS and RMLS.

 

For prep, I bevel and sand the edges up to 400 grit. I just bought this as well and I think it works very well to give me a nice rounded edge. I know that Giardini recommends that you apply it to a rough edge and then sand in between but I could never get it to be as smooth as I would like it to be.

 

I have a leather wrapped knife that has 3 coats of Giardini semi-dense on its edges. After painting I carried it around in my pocket for about 2 weeks just to see if the paint would come off. That was about 6 months ago and I haven't had any issues with the paint peeling so far. I'm at work and I don't have a pic of it so I'll try to snap one and post it here after I get home.

Thanks for the advice on these tools, I bought them both to give them a try as well

 

12 hours ago, Wedgetail said:

I've not had much experience with painting edges compared to these other members, but did have a crack at using the pencil once or twice.

The key difference between a pencil and a cone shaped applicator with grooves in it is that the applicator rolls. If you don't roll the pencil too, you'll just end up smudging paint around... that and the grooves store more paint for longer and smoother runs.

But for both, if you are getting a bead of paint on the applicator that looks like a drop, you've got too much paint and will end up with a big glob at the start which will give you a wobbly line for sure.

Less paint, roll the pencil along the edge. Those are my tips

Now I do have a fair amount of experience with painting models and miniatures. So if you want to have a crack at using a small paint brush (good for corners mostly) try this: Thin the paint down a bit, load the brush so that it gets the paint right into the middle of the bristles (that's where the paint should be carried by a brush, not on the outside bristles). Wipe off excess on a cloth or paper towel so it is not globbed on the bristles, and use the side of the brush, not the tip, to apply the paint... think about applying the paint by using the side of the brush at an angle like you would use to sharpen a knife. For me, a brush is best for tight spots.

Good tip here as well, I wasn't aware of the fact that I might need to roll the pencil, I'd give that a shot later..

Just to give you a reference, I'm currently working on a personalised holder for a German drivers license and registration holder

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out so far but since it doesn't burnish that well and the edges break apart all the time after burnishing this was my first attempt on edge paint ever.These edges are bevelled and sanded and then I tried to apply the edge paint. These edges are about 3-4oz in total. I peeled off most of the paint in rage last timne but you can still see what my problem is here:

Cleser to the bottom of the image you can see that the line is far from straight and really wobbly. No matter how many coats I applied I couldn't get it to be straight, it always looks like it's spilled all over the place. The top doesn't look any better:

I was so frustrated, I re-did it and used other leather that burnishes really well to get rid of that problem but I want to grow from my mistakes and get this edge paint to work for me. Sometimes there is no alternative to it. What I learned from now it seems to be an applicator issue in terms of tool and crafter  But I'm willing to learn and improve so thank you for your support guys!