Burnishing Leather

[craigo]

Hi to all of you leatherworkers, I have one question. Do you burnish leather before or after dying, if before does leather still take dyes ok considering you use a burnishing compound such as gum arabic or similar? Thanks in advance for your help in answering this question. I couldn't get an answer for the Tandy sales people here in Australia.

Cheers, C

[Tugadude]

I assume you're referring to edges?  If so, then I would dye the edge then burnish.  If you slick the edges, in my opinion you are inhibiting the ability of the leather to accept the dye.  It might be a fraction, but it has to have an effect.

A secondary question is whether you burnish while the edges are wet or dry.  Some people use gum tragacanth or saddle soap on the edges and burnish immediately.  Some wait until the edge is dried and then burnish.  I burnish the edges while they are still wet.  Works for me.

[craigo]

29 minutes ago, Tugadude said:

I assume you're referring to edges?  If so, then I would dye the edge then burnish.  If you slick the edges, in my opinion you are inhibiting the ability of the leather to accept the dye.  It might be a fraction, but it has to have an effect.

A secondary question is whether you burnish while the edges are wet or dry.  Some people use gum tragacanth or saddle soap on the edges and burnish immediately.  Some wait until the edge is dried and then burnish.  I burnish the edges while they are still wet.  Works for me.

Sounds good to me, I also like to 'flatten'  the fibres but don't usually dye backs of belts etc, thanks for for useful insight : )