How to line leather

[JackPeter]

Hi everyone,

This Is my first post here on the site, but I've used it for awhile now. 

When it comes to lining leather, whether it's pig skin, lamb skin, etc., how is it that I burnish the edges without the lining mushrooming or crumpling when I go to bevel? I've read that you should cut the lining smaller than the leather piece it'll be attached to... but I've also read that to get a full contact with lining to glue it down to the leather, than cut down to the needed size. So, I'm not too sure. Any advice helps.

Thanks 

[Danne]

First, both the exterior leather and lining have to be vegetable tanned to be possible to burnish with good results. (Some combination tanned leather do burnish decent if it's a thin lining between layers of vegetable tanned leather.) 

Now I rarely burnish edges, but if you look in my post history I have both a tutorial for edge painting (which is suitable if you use chrome/mineral tanned leather) I also have a post where I show how I burnish leather (But there are better guides for burnishing, it's not something I do very often)

But a couple of things that are important.

1. Don't put on to much glue, or you will have a very visible glue line.

2. Make sure your glue is dried before you burnish, or you will push in the edge.

I'm not really sure what you mean with cutting the lining smaller than the exterior. For example a wallet exterior will have a shorter lining than exterior. But in that case you have to choices. Either you cut your exterior to the finished dimension and glue it around a curve, and trim the lining against the exterior edge. Or you make everything oversized and glue it around a curve and lay it flat and cut it against your pattern. If you don't do this and it's a tight fold like on a wallet, lining leather will wrinkle at the fold (Not always, if the leather is very thin both exterior and lining, and depending on the type of leather it can work without gluing around a curve. And some leather wrinkles more than other when folded, like box calf wrinkles a lot when folded.

[Hardrada]

Another trick I've seen is to cut the pieces a wee bit (say ~1/8 - 1/16" larger) to make a "gluing allowance" which you then trim to the final size after gluing, in order to remove the bubbles, however small, of glue that tend to form at the edges, so that you can then burnish without issue.

[mike02130]

Skip the beveler.  Put your piece flat on a table edge and burnish with water or what have you and work the edge and the corner that you would normally bevel.  Flip it over and do the other side.  You could maybe use sandpaper.  When lining, cut the lining larger and attach then trim it too size.  Usually when one lines something they use edge paint rather than burnishing.  Of course it depends on what you are making and with what leather.

[TonyV]

The mushrooming often comes from using too much pressure on the edges while burnishing.  The burnishing should come from friction, not pressure.  Take some scraps and practice using lighter, faster strokes with your burnishing tool until you can see how it works for you.

[Lobo]

Probably the easiest way to deal with this issue is using a drum sander to dress the edges after assembly and stitching, then bevel edges, then burnish normally. I dampened the leather prior to sanding, which allows the wet fibers to fall on the bench instead of polluting the air where I am working. After sanding the outer edges are splayed out a bit, ready for the beveling tool to cut them away cleanly.

Lots of methods for burnishing, and it could start a long discussion on what others do, how they do it, and why. My method evolved over time and experience. After sanding the finished edge smooth and beveling I applied dye to even out the coloring, then rubbed the edges with a mixture of waxes (50% paraffin, 50% beeswax), then burnished on a very hard felt wheel turning at about 1700RPM. Friction melts the wax and forces it into the leather fibers, and the polishing effect leaves the edge as slick and pretty as anything you can imagine. The entire process takes only a few minutes per piece. I can do 15 or more per hour easily.

The waxed and burnished edges not only look great, they are very resistant to moisture and abrasion. When long-term use starts to cause a little bit of wear the holster can be burnished again and look as good as new.