Thread: leather bench hones

I am trying to make my own leather bench hones. i am glueing semi grain smooth leather to red oak that i have sand smooth and level. i have a water proof white glue it get hard and does not give any and i was trying to find out if i should have the smooth side of the leather up or the back side and just sand it a little more smoothly then the full sude that it has now. i tried to post some pictures of it here there should be 3 of them. i could not get them to show up but they are in this zip file.

also i was looking for some boron carbide if any one knows where to get that and that is 11k-10k right

I voted for smooth side up, but it really depends what you want to do:

-for refreshing an edge, aka prolonged hone avoidance, smooth side is better.

-for refining an edge, aka smoothing out an already sharp edge, some guys like the "suede" side. Heck, some folks even use hard felt with paste on it for this.


IMHO, I like the smooth side for everything... dragging my edge across the fuzzy stuff unnerves me.

You can use the leather either way but it looks like you're using Chrome tanned leather and I would humbly suggest you use Vegetable tanned leather instead.

I use Barges cement to glue my leather to the hones, I use the leather smooth side up but find it too bumpy and uneven so I flatten it on a large disk sander after it has set for a while. Barges is a contact cement used by leather workers/shoe makers. Disk sanding gives me a micro suede surface that is perfectly flat, durable and holds Chromium oxide powder or other abrasives very well but does not require the large amount needed when pasting the flesh side of the leather.

As for the boron abrasive, sorry... I only knew Hand American as a source and as far as I know, they no longer sell it.

Hope this helps

Christian

i am almost tollaly sure that this is vegetable tanned leather and the smooth side up i tried it on a few peices before this batch i had that same bumpy thing i did sand it down a lot it realy takes the sanding but when i got it to look good and pasted the hone to had very high drag and was hard to strop on i was afaird i would be useing too much presure so i posted this to try to see what would be the best. i found places to buy leather bench hones made for you like for woodcraft and they all looked like they were back up and i did got to a store and they are back up on all the ones they had. and how can you tell if it is chrome and vegetable tanned leather i have some other leather types and finished grades

here is some pictures of some different leather types and colors i have also some have a lot of grain in the smooth side. there are about 3 grades 1 very smooth like the red color semi smooth like in my first pictures and full open grain is what they called it like the white there is also semi and full in greys and blacks all the others i don;t know if they are chrome or vegetable tanned.

in the pictures you can't really tell it but the last one is really white so you would not be able to see diamond or alumia on it but chromium oxide would show up good

Generally, if the leather is stiff and hard it's usually Veg tanned, if it's soft and supple (and frequently dyed, though veg tan can be too) it's most likely Chrome tanned. Please note, I'm no leather expert, but I play one on TV. Actually, I just ask for it at the local leather shop.

If your leather is soft (think garment leather) then it will indeed have tons of drag compared to veg tanned leather.

What are you using in the way of abrasive paste/powder right now? If it's one of those grease sticks used for buffing metal on buffing wheels, don't use a lot, just lightly scribble on the leather like you were using a crayon and only put enough on so that you can see it but not an actual layer. Dry Chromium Oxide powder won't increase the drag much.... the excess will just fall off anyway. If you used one of the paste types then again, only a very small amount and work it into the leather and allow it to dry before use.

You don't HAVE to use leather, I've used pieces of mat board (beg some from a local picture framing shop) and it works well too, though it will wear out sooner than leather... then again, it's usually free for the asking so the price is right!

Christian

I use leather belts that I have made into strops, with the rough side up, sanded smooth first with 150 grit and then with 240 grit wet and dry abrasive sheets. They work a treat for me, certainly giving a smooth shave.

Source for pastes:

McMaster also sells leather strips...


Mcmaster Carr