I was wondering if I’m just doing it wrong but is it possible to burnish burnt leather edges. I’ve made a wallet but I want the edges smooth but just can’t do it with the burnt edges. I could trim the edges but that kind of defeats the purpose of laser cutting it out. Any tips it there?
I don’t do a lot of leather but I’ve had reasonable sucess burnishing the edges. (I don’t know what I’m doing really so they could probably be better.) After cutting and engraving I clean the leather with a good conditioner and hit the edges really well which removes most of the soot and gets rid of any crispy edge. I then use this awesome stuff.
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If your edges are too burnt to burnish it sounds like either your power is too high or speed too slow (or both) It’s totally possible to burnish if it doesn’t get to crispy. Try dialing your settings back so you just cut through.
A burnishing tool used with a compound like @kittski mentioned helps speed things along. There’s a lot of hand/manual ones but I’m lazy so I like one you can put in a rotarytool/drill like this
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You’ll want to sand the edges first and then burnish. I start with an 80 grit to even things up and then switch to 220 for a finer finish. Then burnish with saddle soap and water on my cocobolo burnisher. Finish with a coat of beeswax on the burnisher again.
If you really want to know more visit https://leatherworker.net/forum/
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Thank you all for the great tips. I think my next steps are as elka suggested and that is to better refine my cut settings. I will think this while implementing other suggestions like using a conditioner or saddle soap will come next and it will help me get a nice edge. Thank you!
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