Edge Rollers Are Your Friend

Hello to the inaugural post of what I hope to be a weekly thing, “Tool Thursday.” I’ll choose a tool I’ve found to be useful and go over why I use it, what I used to use, or just talk about one of my tools I’m enjoying currently. Maybe I’ll even talk about tools that aren’t worth your time, if I find myself with those.

In leatherworking, there is always another tool. Even the process of carving and adding detail to the leather itself is called “tooling!” While I find my swivel knife, bevel, and favorite backgrounder to be about all I need in that category, finishing the leather is another game entirely.

You want the edges to be rounded, clean, and uniformly covered. While there are a whole bunch of tools to get that done, I’m going to talk about my new best friend, my edge roller. Formally titled the “Craftool Pro Edge Dye Roller Pen,” the edge roller applies edge paint or dye along an already rounded edge easily, leaving a clean, sharp look with little fuss.

Grip the handle, dip the tip, and roll it along the edge. No more fussing with tiny brushes or worrying you’re gonna slip up. It applies it perfectly and evenly as long as you’ve got paint or dye on your tip and your surface is burnished.

Learning what the correct amount to have on your tip and how to keep it from dripping is about the only curve to using this tool. That’ll take you one project, if even that long. There are YouTube videos if you think it can’t possibly be that easy after wrangling with brushes. I promise, it is.

The cost is kind of probative, but it goes on sale a couple times a year. I’m not sure how it’ll hold up, but I’m hoping to get many years of use.

Clean up is just as easy as use, rinse it under water. If you let some paint get dried on, I’ve found an old toothbrush to do the trick.

I’m so glad I picked one of these things up!

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