Help with edges

[Landry]

Hello fellow leather enthusiasts my name is Landry. I just started learning leather craft about 3 months ago. I wish I would have started doing leather craft much sooner in my life but I’ve just been doing other things. I have seen several posts on this site and gotten some great information. I figured it was time for me to introduce myself and show off my project. This is not my first project that one is in the trash. I had found a free template for a bifold wallet online and it did not have a test page so when I printed it out from my phone it was not to 100% scale and by the time I finished it well it was good practice and only cheap grade b leather. Also I had bought some cheaper tools but I wish I had bought what I have now which is mid range and very nice quality some from KemovanCraft highly recommend. This bifold wallet I am making is a prototype at the moment. I wanted to do something that was different but not so far off that it didn’t work. You know don’t fix it if it’s not broken. But also why buy this wallet vs every other that looks about the same. In the process of my research and development drawing the pattern I learned something that I think some people overlook. Maybe it’s just me I’m pretty picky about details. I wanted this curved shaped corner and I found that the stitching would not look right so I spent a lot of time getting the right curve for my 4mm punches. I am testing out things before I use the good leather I bought. The first picture is another project I was trying out. The leather was cut died and then I burnished using a hand slicker with water, clear tokenole and beeswax. I really like how the edges turned out but on my second project the edges are pretty bad. I decided to try out black tokenole and I just got a summit edge burnishing machine from rocky mountain leather hoping it would help improve my edges. I know there are differing opinions about burnishing. I got a nice smooth finish with the water, I am using a medium speed on my machine I put the black on and the burnisher basically takes it off and it did spit some on my leather so I tried different speeds and added more coats of tokenole then I added beeswax and that kind of made it less smooth it's not very black and just doesn't look nice. I watched several videos and I think maybe use the machine for the water, wax and a rag for the tokenole. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but I am kind of down at the moment as I was very exited to to get started on this new wallet. I'm trying to take my time and I was thinking the burnishing tool would be a quick time saver but I had to tell myself there is no quality in rushing things. Any advice would be appreciated I’m a very friendly person and I look forward to conversing with you on here Thanks.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Landry

[battlemunky]

What I've found best is stepping up in grit through sandpaper and then slicking with your favorite slicking agent. Lately I've pretty much been using 120 grit to get the general shape up to 600 grit to polish then wet the edge and slicking with Fiebings glycerin saddle soap bar as an agent. Gets pretty good results for me. If I'm going to dye I do so before I wet and use the glycerin bar.

[Tugadude]

Landry, welcome to the forum!  By the way, I also have a large collection of playing cards, so we have two things in common.

Check out this thread, it is chock-full of good advice on finishing edges:

I have a number of methods and I choose the one that makes sense for what I'm doing.  For example, for the tops of card pockets in wallets I use Gum Tragacanth and a wooden hand burnisher.  But when it comes to the edges of the wallet itself I will change it up and use sandpaper followed by the wooden burnisher and sometimes will finish it all with some beeswax.  There are as many ways to do edges as leatherworkers probably.  You can raise it to the level of art or you can be satisfied with a "workmanlike" level of finish.  Some even go for raw, unfinished edges.  So there's a lot of variety.

This example always blows me away.

[battlemunky]

If you are on Instagram checkout a user named lesbianedc and their edges are as close to mirror as I've seen. I think they said they use alcohol dye and tokonole after a ton of sanding.

Great point @Tugadude, about it being dependent on which edge you are working on. It matters.

[Landry]

5 hours ago, Tugadude said:

Landry, welcome to the forum!  By the way, I also have a large collection of playing cards, so we have two things in common.

I saw that same edge somewhere and It looks amazing I think it will take a while before I get to that point for sure. Pretty cool that we has something else in common. Thanks for the input everyone

 

5 hours ago, battlemunky said:

What I've found best is stepping up in grit through sandpaper and then slicking with your favorite slicking agent. Lately I've pretty much been using 120 grit to get the general shape up to 600 grit to polish then wet the edge and slicking with Fiebings glycerin saddle soap bar as an agent. Gets pretty good results for me. If I'm going to dye I do so before I wet and use the glycerin bar.

I did some sanding before I started burnishing but I think I need to do more also I saw somewhere that you need to let the gum trag dry before you slick I'm not sure about tokenole but I'm going to experiment some more and see. Thanks again.

[Hardrada]

Machines like the Regad and Summit are meant to be used or at least give best results with heatable paint like Verniss or Uniters, in some cases followed by wax. They're not really meant to work with Tokonole, gum trag, or, I'd say, Edge Kote.

Still, you may want to experiment with heat settings. They change based on the leather:

 

Edited December 22, 2020 by Hardrada

[Landry]

37 minutes ago, Hardrada said:

Machines like the Regad and Summit are meant to be used or at least give best results with heatable paint like Verniss or Uniters, in some cases followed by wax. They're not really meant to work with Tokonole, gum trag, or, I'd say, Edge Kote.

Still, you may want to experiment with heat settings. They change based on the leather:

 

I don't have the heat machine just the electric burnishing Dremel like one. 

[Hardrada]

1 minute ago, Landry said:

I don't have the heat machine just the electric burnishing Dremel like one. 

Ohh! Gotcha.

Then you should be OK. FWIW, I'd still buy a wooden slicker to get the feel of it, then you can move onto your machine and keep the slicker as a backup.

I got one of these:

http://www.proedgeburnishers.com/hand-burnishers.html

Again, results will depend on the leather. Some leathers, like chrome tan, are just not burnishable, all you can do is paint the edges or fold them.

[Landry]

1 hour ago, Hardrada said:

Ohh! Gotcha.

Then you should be OK. FWIW, I'd still buy a wooden slicker to get the feel of it, then you can move onto your machine and keep the slicker as a backup.

I got one of these:

http://www.proedgeburnishers.com/hand-burnishers.html

Again, results will depend on the leather. Some leathers, like chrome tan, are just not burnishable, all you can do is paint the edges or fold them.

I have a wood slicker I just saw this machine and thought I would try it out. I'm using natural veg tan to test on. I purchased Badalassi Carlo Minerva Smooth "Vacchetta" Veg Tanned Leather to build my wallet. Thanks

[Landry]

So I'm still experimenting and on thing I found is the leather I'm using to prototype was cheap from Springfield but it's extremely dry I put neatsfoot on the edge and that seems to help. Maybe I should die my edges if I want something other than natural I practiced using the black tokenole and it gets on the front of my leather easy. I did one edge that turned out ok but I used the black tokenole more like an edge paint I let it dry and then I sanded it down with 1500 grit, kept applying dry and sand until I got a nice finish. I forgot I had a bar of Columbus wax but it's not much better than the beeswax. This is all I have at the moment after reading bobs edge finishing technic I will try some saddle soap but at the moment I cant purchase anything else. I will update you on my progress definitely trying to take my time on the edges Thanks again for the input. 

[Danne]

This is how I do it, when I burnish edges. But I prefer to paint my edges with edge paint.

1. Make sure you don’t use too much glue, use water based or solvent based contact cement and a thin layer. If you need, you can prime with a thin layer, and add another. But NEVER a thick layer of glue. Press together really firm.

2. Let dry (time depends on glue) if you don’t let the glue cure, you will push in the glue when you burnish and get a very visible glue line.

3 Flush cut or sand edge flat.

4. Bevel edge.

5. Wet the edge with water (use a brush) to raise the fibres for later sanding, and let dry.

6. (Optional) Crease

7. (Optional) dye edge, I didn’t do this on the test piece here.

8. Wet edge with water and burnish with canvas or other heavier fabric.

9. Sand with 800 grit.

10. Put a burnishing agent on the edge, I prefer Tokonole. And burnish.

11. Burnish with canvas or other heavier fabric.

12. "Burnish" with 1200 grit sand paper (wet and dry) and keep burnish until your sand paper ”clogs up” don’t move it to fresh sand paper. When your sandpaper start to clog up you will burnish, you hear it on the sound from the friction.

13. Keep doing step 10-12 until all imperfections are gone.

14. Melt paraffin wax on the edge.

15. Burnish with a soft cloth (Like t-shirt)

The edge is smooth as glass, unfortunately I can’t take any good photos that really show how smooth the edge is.

[Landry]

4 hours ago, Danne said:

This is how I do it, when I burnish edges. But I prefer to paint my edges with edge paint.

1. Make sure you don’t use too much glue, use water based or solvent based contact cement and a thin layer. If you need, you can prime with a thin layer, and add another. But NEVER a thick layer of glue. Press together really firm.

2. Let dry (time depends on glue) if you don’t let the glue cure, you will push in the glue when you burnish and get a very visible glue line.

3 Flush cut or sand edge flat.

4. Bevel edge.

5. Wet the edge with water (use a brush) to raise the fibres for later sanding, and let dry.

6. (Optional) Crease

7. (Optional) dye edge, I didn’t do this on the test piece here.

8. Wet edge with water and burnish with canvas or other heavier fabric.

9. Sand with 800 grit.

10. Put a burnishing agent on the edge, I prefer Tokonole. And burnish.

11. Burnish with canvas or other heavier fabric.

12. "Burnish" with 1200 grit sand paper (wet and dry) and keep burnish until your sand paper ”clogs up” don’t move it to fresh sand paper. When your sandpaper start to clog up you will burnish, you hear it on the sound from the friction.

13. Keep doing step 10-12 until all imperfections are gone.

14. Melt paraffin wax on the edge.

15. Burnish with a soft cloth (Like t-shirt)

The edge is smooth as glass, unfortunately I can’t take any good photos that really show how smooth the edge is.

Thanks this is very helpful information and yes the picture shows how glass like your edges are. Very nice I will try this and see how it goes what do you use to die your edges?

[Danne]

36 minutes ago, Landry said:

Thanks this is very helpful information and yes the picture shows how glass like your edges are. Very nice I will try this and see how it goes what do you use to die your edges?

The few times I have burnished edges, I have used Fiebings oil dye (don't mix it up with Fiebings edge kote, which is in my opinion a edge paint that is not that durable)

You might want to burnish the edge with water one time before you dye the edge. It depends on if you crease the edge or not, and what type of creaser you use. The creaser iron I used here round off and "seal" the edge transition which make it possible to dye the edge before burnish. But if your edge is just sanded your dye might seep up into the surface of the leather if you don't burnish the edge first. 

If you want to try painting edges I have a tutorial for this here. There are a couple of popular brands for edge paint, but I have only used Fenice and Uniters and I use the same technique with both of the brands. 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Danne