Engraving leather bible or notebook

[Terri Heskett]

How do you get engraving to show up on darker, textured leather like a bible or notebook? I thought about color-fill but none of the paints I've looked at say anything about leather. Has anyone done color-fill on leather if so what's the best product to use?

Terri
Epilog 45 watt

[Mike Null]

Terri

Welcome to SMC. Maybe others can be of help but I've tried without much success. I masked the leather, engraved gently (it's usually thin) and brushed on a gold craft paint. There was a little smearing of the paint when I removed the mask and I was able to clean that without much problem but the result was less than I'd hoped for and I haven't attempted any more.

[Joe Hillmann]

With leather I usually don't engrave it any more, instead I laser a stamp out of delrin and then stamp it into the the leather. But that is usually for higher end restoration projects where they are willing to pay whatever it costs or for people who want a custom stamp for marking there work.

[Michael Hunter]

Wax based products work well on leather (rub-n-buff, guilder's paste etc.).

Masking helps stop the colour getting into the grain outside the actual engraving.
If masking is not possible, then a thick coat of wax polish applied before engraving fills the natural grain and makes it possible to wipe off the excess colour.

[Bill Cunningham]

I usually tell the customer I can engrave it, but until the beam hits the leather, there is no way to tell what colour the etch will be.. If the leather is brown the etch is usually a shade of brown, but if the leather is black, I've had engraving turn out everything from white to dark almost invisible brown.. Black is a total crapshoot

[bruce edwards]

Here's a bible I engraved with my 40 watt Epilog last month. Just experimenting with leather. Damn it stinks! hehe
231923

[Khalid Nazim]

I am engraving/cutting the leather first and then staining it - etsydotcom/listing/98687678/moleskine-notebook-leather-cover

[Mike Null]

Khalid

It appears to me that you have engraved the piece then stained the whole thing not just the engraved portion. If that is correct it is not the same as color fill.

[Steve Clarkson]

And I didn't think moleskin was safe to engrave.......

[Khalid Nazim]

Mike you are right. I engraved and then stained.the whole cover. Its not color filling.
This is a leather cover for a moleskine journal/notebook- I am not engraving moleskine notebook directly. This could be bible cover as well.

[Doug Novic]

All in all, I have had great results with leather and really bad results with leather. I agree with Bill, it is a crap shoot so I no longer do it for paying customers.

Rather be safe than destroy a customer's belongings.

[Mike Null]

Doug

You are right but I've found that vegetable tanned leather always works well. It's the other stuff that I balk about doing.

I do Moleskine too, but explain that the new stuff from China does not engrave like the old stuff from Italy so you have the option of marking it so that the mark remains black or engraving through the black to a whitish backing which doesn't look good.


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[Bill Cunningham]

And I didn't think moleskin was safe to engrave.......

moleskin is not leather, it's actually a fabric..(they don't really skin moles to get it):D

[Terri Heskett]

Thank you. I tried putting the wax polish on then engraving and then I used the guilders paste. It came out great thanks for the advise. My customer loved it.

234067

Wax based products work well on leather (rub-n-buff, guilder's paste etc.).

Masking helps stop the colour getting into the grain outside the actual engraving.
If masking is not possible, then a thick coat of wax polish applied before engraving fills the natural grain and makes it possible to wipe off the excess colour.

[Joe Pelonio]

moleskin is not leather, it's actually a fabric..(they don't really skin moles to get it):D
Although that would be a great idea.

I have done several leather journals for gifts and always had happy customers, but always warned them that the results are unpredictable. The smell is strong but kind of quaint, like branding time on the ranch.

[Mike Null]

Terri

Nice results.