Laser engraving leather question

[Stevie DeFord]

Can someone tell me how people do things like this: http://etsy.me/H6Fg3R
Kinda confused since I just figure it would burn darker(i'm new to laser engraving)
Thanks

[Dan Hintz]

You'd have to experiment. Leather will "burn" a darker color, but your example looks more like they bleached the dye (that would be fast and low power).

[Ryan Pridgeon]

They are masking the leather prior to the burn and then color filling afterwards. It does almost look like it was heat embossed not lasered. Leather does, generally, get darker when burned. We do a lot of leather and when we're going to do color fill we burn deep and then seal the leather.

[Stevie DeFord]

If you scroll down its says "100% genuine leather wallet laser-engraved with your name" but are you talking about putting something like tape on, it laser it then take the part i want colored off and spray paint it or something like that.. sorry if that's a stupid question

[Scott Shepherd]

It's not that complex (painting it). It's surface dyed leather, they engrave deep enough to expose the natural color of the leather. No paint filling needed.

[Stevie DeFord]

ok thanks :)

[Mike Null]

Leathers vary considerably. This is especially true of leathers with vivid colors. As Steve says they are surface dyed and you just engrave through the color.

A caution, such leathers are frequently very thin. With these leathers laser engraving may make them brittle and they'll crack very easily.

You cannot assume that the color of the leather will be pale--it may well be dark and you'll be unable to get a contrast with engraving.

Color filling leather is somewhat risky. I refuse to do it.

[Stevie DeFord]

How would I find the right surface dyed leather that would burn pale? Just experiment?

[Matt McCoy]

Hey Stevie: That's my wallet that you linked to and I would be happy to share my settings.

40 W laser

Power: 20
Speed: 50

There is no masking or fill involved.

You will probably have to experiment to get the result you're looking for.

Hope this helps.

-Matt

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

How would I find the right surface dyed leather that would burn pale? Just experiment?

Exactly. Different leather from different tanners all behave different. I once engraved a scrap piece of pink leather just to see what it would do and it engraved an awful green shade.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Hey Stevie: That's my wallet that you linked to and I would be happy to share my settings.

40 W laser

Power: 20
Speed: 50

There is no masking or fill involved.

You will probably have to experiment to get the result you're looking for.

Hope this helps.

-Matt

That's jolly decent of you Matt sharing a commercial method from your own product.

top stuff :)

cheers

Dave

[Dan Hintz]

That's jolly decent of you Matt sharing a commercial method from your own product.

Not to mention Stevie managed to pull in a new member :)

[Stevie DeFord]

Thanks, (i sent you a message on etsy so just ignore that) very generous of you to help me. I'm going to try it tomorrow!

[Bill Cunningham]

I usually tell customers that there is no telling what colour the etching will be until the beam hits it. Black leather is the worst for colour change. I did 5 high quality Danier black leather wallets for a bunch of groomsmen, They all turned a light grey except 1 which turned almost bright white.. The etch colour depends on the tanning method, the dye used, the genetics of the animal, and what it probably had for breakfast on the worst day of it's life.

[Bruce Volden]

I usually tell customers that there is no telling what colour the etching will be until the beam hits it. Black leather is the worst for colour change. I did 5 high quality Danier black leather wallets for a bunch of groomsmen, They all turned a light grey except 1 which turned almost bright white.. The etch colour depends on the tanning method, the dye used, the genetics of the animal, and what it probably had for breakfast on the worst day of it's life.

It will smell like it too.

[Martin Boekers]

I have done a handful of "daytimers" a real pain as most are "bonded leather" (Cheaper :) ) there is a fine line between a good engraving and one "burned through." It does get brittle to. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonded_leather

[Matt McCoy]

Hey Stevie,

I got your PM, but I wanted to reply here in case someone else had the same question -- hope that's OK.

The wallets you linked to are made of a thin leather that are surface-dyed. With all of our materials -- and some projects -- we have a spreadsheet of the various settings for both raster engraving and vector cutting. While this gives us reasonably predictive results, there are exceptions due to the nature of the materials we use and required a lot of experimentation to get the desired results in a quick turnaround time.