Debossing Leather

[Mike Null]

Recently I made a die for debossing leather. Pictured below is the rawhide after debossing.

I made the die from 1/4" acrylic with the image inverted and engraved to a depth of just over 1/16".

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[Martin Boekers]

Nice Mike, How much detail do you think it will hold? How are you pressing it?

[David Somers]

Nice Mike!

That is certainly less expensive that having a metal die made.

Dave

[Mike Null]

Marty--good to hear from you again. That is the piece of leather made from the die I made. As you can see the detail was quite good. He pressed it with a homemade press using a hydraulic jack.

Dave--the comparable metal die was $300. I charged $30 but after i made it realized I hadn't quoted enough and advised the customer that future pieces would be about $40.

[Tony Lenkic]

Mike, very nice work as usual.

Do you know if customer softens the leather prior to pressing.

[Martin Boekers]

It's been a challenge to say the least... work is flowing faster than it's been for me, but being short handed makes it difficult to stay ahead of deadlines..

Actually I want to try this with Air Force Shields on leather key fobs.... This could bring production costs down if I just have to press it instead of lasering it...

[Chris DeGerolamo]

Wetting leather before embossing will yield a better mark. The trick is to know by how much.

[Mike Null]

Chris

You're right, these were wetted before pressing. The leather was thick and if not wetted before pressing they would have left virtually no image. I experimented but had only a drill press to use as a press. You can guess that wasn't going to work.

Tony, thank you. As I understand it, with rawhide you can wet it or use a heated die. With leather that has been finished you can only use the heated die.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

I use a 1/2 ton arbor press, works just fine. 50/60 bucks maybe at your big box discount tool shop.

[Mike Audleman]

I use a 1/2 ton arbor press, works just fine. 50/60 bucks maybe at your big box discount tool shop.

Less than $40 at Harbor Freight.
http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=arbor+press

[Mike Null]

Chris

This die was 3" in diameter. I'd be surprised if a 1/2 ton press would work with the design of that logo. If so, i think one of those may be in my future.

[Chuck Stone]

Mike.. I did it with two Irwin clamps (but I used the high pressure ones, not the $5 specials)
between two sheets of Corian. I made a positive and a negative using the 3D mode on the
laser, so the pos and negative 'plates' fit together like a hand and glove.
I did wet the leather, and then left it clamped for about 20 minutes, tightening every
now and them. But the piece was about 2" x 6" or so.

Definitely not the way to do it for production! I just wanted to see if I could do it.
(never touched leather before, so it was all new)

[Mike Null]

Chuck

That's very impressive. It looks similar to a belt I hand tooled years ago.

[Chris DeGerolamo]

Chris

This die was 3" in diameter. I'd be surprised if a 1/2 ton press would work with the design of that logo. If so, i think one of those may be in my future.

I use a piece of granite to "extend the footprint of force". It will bow a bit under force but it does work. It would stand to reason a piece of metal would work as well, likely better than stone.

[Chuck Stone]

Chuck

That's very impressive. It looks similar to a belt I hand tooled years ago.

I'm not talented enough to do tooling, just enough to copy. I found a pattern online
and copied it into Corel, duplicated etc.. It was just something I wanted to try.
BUT it tells me that the arbor press might just work. If I had one I'd test it for
you. Plenty of scrap Corian around here ;-)