Leather for buffing?

Hi All I have some big pieces of thick leather(hide) and I was
wondering if I can give them any use instead of throw them away,
Somebody told me that they could be used for buffing. Any advice
would be appreciated. Marco

Hello Marcos, one use I would use for those pieces of leather is to
rebuild the inside of the wooden ring clamps. I rebuild mine often.
It gives life and longevity to those specialized clamps. I see “ring
polishing technicians” use them for holding rings while polishing
mounts on the tapered spindles. that action will save your finger
tips from burning while holding the “very hot” rings.
Gerry, the cyber-setter!

Marco,

Indeed, hard leather is one of the more popular mediums for
polishing stones. If the pieces you have are 6" square or more, they
can be cut into 6, 8 or 10" discs, glued to a flat lap or back plate
and used with cerium Ox or one of the alumina polishes. This is
great for the all kinds of stones. If the pieces are long and narrow
(about 1-2") they can be used to polish by hand or wrapped around a
small rubber drum for use on a flex shaft to polish concave free
forms.

In short, leather is very useful and, short of buying it from a
supplier, good thick stuff can be hard to find. Any lapidary will
give it a home.

Cheers from Don at The Charles Belle Studio in SOFL where simple
elegance IS fine jewelry.@coralnut

I mostly do metal and stones for findings for my leather goods. My
scrap bin is the source of the leather bits I use for making shaped
polishing tools for odd spaces, buffing strips, and small leather
buffs for my Foredom.

 Ron Charlotte -- Gainesville, FL
 @Ron_Charlotte1 OR afn03234@afn.org

marco - here’s my input on you having a piece of leather: hooray for
you! i also lucked on almost an entire treated hide with a smooth
side and a rough side for pennies. here’s how i turned them into
polishing laps

  1. with an x-acto knife & #11 blade i immediately marked & cut
    umpteen rounds to fit my quicklaps & marked almost all the smooth
    side ones with a grit # for my diamond water-soluble paste. the rest
    i marked on the rough side for the finer grit/finish paste.

  2. after applying the proper grit paste to each & smooshing around
    all over to even up the application i let them dry.

  3. after the discs dried i turned them over & applied
    ’repositionable’ adhesive in a bull’s eye on back.

  4. when thoroughly dry i stacked them 2 deep, sticky side to sticky
    side & i slip them into slots on one of old wire 45 rpm record
    holders hung sideways (they don’t slump if stored horizontally).

these will zip through my opal cabs to mirror finishes in no time.
they also work quite well on all my other polishing jobs. try it -

ive