Sorting my edgers

[zuludog]

Let me tell you about my edge bevelers; perhaps someone will find it interesting or useful

I bought a set of Craftool Pro edge bevelers - the ones with the black rubber handles - in sizes 00, 0, 1, & 2. They had good reviews by Nigel Armitage, and were on offer at the Tandy shop in Manchester

But when I came to use them I had problems; they were jamming and juddering on the leather, and hardly cutting at all. The only way I could get them to cut was to press down really hard, which made using them a real struggle.

I was puzzled and confused ( a common occurrence!) as in the videos by Nigel and Tandy they just sailed along through the leather with hardly any effort by the looks of things. I was also concerned and annoyed that I might have wasted my money, and wondered if I should resign myself to buying some more, possibly Osborne

Instead I watched Nigel's videos several times over, on YouTube and Vimeo. I played around with some scrap 3mm veg tan, and used a magnifying glass to see how the tip of the tool met up and engaged with the leather.

I realised that I had been holding the handle of the edger too high, probably at an angle of 45 degrees, or more. This meant that the little side prongs or guides were digging into the leather instead of sliding over it. It also meant that the prongs were preventing the cutting edge, right up inside the V of the edger, from reaching the leather. If I pressed down hard enough the blade would cut, but that caused the prongs to dig in more, making the jamming even worse

So I tried beveling with the edger laid almost flat; this would not cut, as I expected Then gradually raising the handle till I found the best cutting angle, without jamming. This turned out to be less than I had been using, about 30 degrees

I also gave them a good sharpening with wet & dry paper, working through the grades from 1200 --> 2500 -->  5000 --> 7000 grit. For sizes 1 & 2 I folded the paper over a steel rod about 2mm dia. For sizes 00 & 0 I sanded the edge of a lollipop stick like a knife edge, and folded the paper over that

Then I used a strop. For sizes 1 & 2 I used the strips of leather on a stropping board; for sizes 00 & 0 I pulled through with a length of cord; I made my own by plaiting some 18/3 linen thread and loading it with compound

The results are much better -almost as good as Nigel's! - so I'll stay with them;  but even so, I have to be careful not to lift the handles too high