Leather "edge" tooling

[jcn59]

I'm thinking about making a crank-driven rotary device to "tool" the eges of leather belts and other projects.   Did any of you ever make such a device?

[torpedoman]

yes i used a oak piece rounded with a v notch in it spun with a vice mounted drill to burnish off the edges.

[jcn59]

Thanks!  I'll post some pics when I get my device started.

[oldandslow]

I thought the leather working part of GBO was dead and gone. I'm still using my old burnisher whittled out of a piece of hickory. It works very well but requires a lot of elbow grease. I have been thinking about machining something to use in a Dremel as most of my elbow and shoulder grease has dried up.    I want to see what you come up with.

[jcn59]

This is just a crank-driven gear that feeds the leather between the gear and the embossing roll.  The embossing roll is a ten dollar item from Tandy.

[oldandslow]

That's cool. Looks like it does a very good job. Is the bearing adjustable so you can use different thicknesses of leather?

[jcn59]

I drilled & tapped extra holes to put the bearing different distances from the gear but that didn't give me the fine adjustment so next I'll try an eccentric.

[oldandslow]

Leather isn't available in really precision thicknesses is it?  I bet the eccentric idea will work.

The weather has cooled off considerably here and my old bones don't get along with the cold very well. I'll be staying inside some now and need something to pass the time. I have a couple of new holsters planned and a knife sheath or two. If you don't mind I might steal your idea and see what I can come up with. I have a lathe and milling-drilling machine so that will give me another project to keep from being too bored.

[jcn59]

That teeny 1/4" wide roll cost ten bucks, and the 1.5" wide metal embossing roll from Tandy is 80 bucks.  I see someone is selling wide embossing rolls made out of "fiberglas reinforced nylon" for about 30 bucks.  I guess we could make our own out of brass with a spin-indexer and a mill, huh?

I want to see pics of your embossing device.  Mine was just a prototype.

[jcn59]

Here's the eccentric to adjust for leather thickness.  How do others put a "border" on their leather projects?

[kid buckskin]

i use fiber borde to burish, not olny easy to shape to the curve you want but its cheep to get more, i use dremal and a small mandral
get a holesaw perferably 1- 1.5 in with a small center hole, mount the fiber borde and use a file to shape also it helps to use candle wax it seals your work as you go

[jcn59]

Kid,

Could you explain more....Fiberboard?  Is that like the stuff we used to call "masonite"?   About a quarter inch thick?  Do you put an arbor on the fiberboard and run it in the Dremel?  How fast?  How do you put the wax on the edge?  Before you finish, like rub it on the leather, then burnish.  Maybe dumb questions.......

[kid buckskin]

Yes sir masonite whould work its a little harder to shape I found this by accident I had to deadbolt my bedroom door and the little left overs from the door where the bolt passes thru and engauges the jam
I use a dremal and a mandal w/ the screw,mount the burnishroll on the manderal turn on the dremal using a file shape the roll with the file I use a half round to make a radius and center the role. now that you got it ready to go just turn it on and turn slow aply candle wax to the roll in will melt on to the roll now your ready to burnish turn med speed you'll get the hang of what needs to happen to get the results you want

[kid buckskin]

Sorry I forgot one thing my rolls are about halfa inch wide.wide is good easer to control
I haven't tried any outher rolls but I've heard that hard wood works nylon,rubber even felt