Buffing can only be successfully done on parts of needle-lace that are stitched with the button-hole stitches very close together. It's meant to make the lace look less like thread-work and more like carved ivory. The technique strikes me as somewhat akin to "felting" non-woven wool fibers. The heyday of buffed laces came out in the heavy seventeenth-century needle-laces such as Gros Pointe de Venise, where large segments of motifs would be padded and tightly covered over with buttonhole stitches. As fine as the threads were that were used to make the best lace, the ultimate goal was to eliminate the look of "threadiness" entirely.
Fillings and grounds, even sturdy guipure bars/brides, were not buffed. I imagine that even if the effect showed up, there was always the risk that the buffing procedure would result in broken threads.
The aficot was a smooth, round-tipped tool (of bone, ivory, or even polished stone such as agate), sometimes set in a handle, sometimes shaped like a tiny fat boomerang to allow for better reach; rubbed over the threads, it sort of mashed the fibers flat and meshed them together (at the surface, at least). It took a *lot* of rubbing to produce the effect. I've never tried the technique myself. I'm waiting till I produce a credible bit of suitable lace to finish in this way -- I'll practice then on my test samples, and decide then if I like the effect enough to exert myself further! :-D
Hope this helps! Think of this, though: if nothing else, having a real aficot, and knowing what to do with it, adds a real cachet to your "lace tools" collection! :-D
Beth --- in sunny, hot, and stinking-humid Fisher, Canberra
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