Cutting Leather With Laser Questions

[Ferg]

Electrathon,

 

I agree with you.

It has been 63 years since I first picked up a leather tool or leather to make something. I laced everything I made, never dreamed of a sewing machine although I had a friend in the parachute loft sew heavy leather soles on slippers or moccasins I made.

I love to sew/stitch by hand, arthritis does not allow much of that anymore. I love my three sewing machines although they can drive you bonkers some times. Folks on this forum do  fabulous work by hand and with machinery. I have a knife for my large CNC machine that I can cut patterns or the leather pieces for a project. That will give you goose bumps to watch. lol  Evolution pertains to all walks of life. If you  like doing the craft the old ways, have at it. Personally, I like a mixture of all.

Ferg

[electrathon]

Ferg,

It is good to have you, as one of the senior members of leatherworking, understand this.  It is amazing how many don't. 

My Dad started doing leather back in high school in the 1950's.  He does great work.  Has not really learned anything new about leather since then.  He even gave me his old patterns that he has saved (big pile, yea).  A little while ago he saw some of my work and asked me to teach him how I tool.  His main comment was that he had never seen some of the tools that I have.  I have much respect for the talent and ability that my Dad has, much of my talent came from him (and my Grandfather too).   I was honored to be a part of the circle of teaching and learning.

Aaron

[Colt W Knight]

21 hours ago, electrathon said:

I believe the cut off date is whatever keeps the old timers from having to learn new technology.  Every person that makes the comment that you should not use new technology is using what was new technology when they learned it (50 years or so ago).  At that time in history the same argument could have been used that they were bastardizing the craft by not doing it how it was done 100 years ago, or 200 years or so on.  There is a reason that the masters that do work today have superior work than the masters did in 1940.

Yup, I don't know how doing stuff the same way as they have been doing inspiresome creativity. There are some members on this forum that are just cranky old guys who think only their way is the right way. 

[LumpenDoodle2]

Wonder if the folk who used to cut leather with flints criticised the ones using those new fangled bronze knives.

Nothing wrong with purely hand made using old techniques , hand made with modern tools, or machine made.   As long as you don't try to claim otherwise to a customer.

[AyeJay]

I get  a bit of a kick out of using new technology within a traditional framework. I love seeing Japanese fashion labels using tech fabrics on traditionally styles garments, denim brands making super heavy denim on modern looms with traditional details, shoe brands using fancy sole technology for a little extra comfort. It's your own line to draw. Should we discuss techniques and take advice online? That's pretty new-fangled. Did they cut credit card slots in wallets 100 years ago? Do what keeps you happy I guess, just don't stress on the crew who choose to do it some other way. Putting too many rules on things only stifles creativity, that's how I look at it. Without creativity you're essentially a human laser cutter, just churning out copies... I'm just typing my thoughts now

I have a mate with an industrial laser cutter in his shed (I have no idea why). I'm heading over next weekend to give it a go. I've used it for work related things in the past, cutting signage, but never done any leather so keen to see how it goes. I'll post some photos to show how it went

[Kristina]

On 3/13/2016 at 1:33 AM, pillpusher said:

Hey everyone,

I work in a maker-space and have access to laser cutters. I was planning on making acrylic templates for some of my designs, but I am also wondering about using the laser to cut the leather pieces out directly.

I know that the laser chars the edges but are they still able to be finished and burnished? Is the smell really that bad? I mostly use vegetable tanned leather of Horween Chromexcel, horeside, etc.

Thanks

1

Hi Pillpusher,

I cut loads of leather with a laser and have been doing so since 2011. I mainly cut small pieces; I'm a jewelry designer.  At our maker space, we have a 45-watt laser and it can effectively cut up to a 6-7 oz veg tan hide. Before I laser cut the veg tan, I soak it in water which helps it lay flat and also helps with reducing burning and charring. Instead of beveling the edges of my piece with a bevelling tool, I wait until it's dry and use a sanding drum on my flex shaft. Since the edges are a bit "crispy" from the laser, I also sand the entire edge a little bit to rough up the fibers; this makes it so that when I burnish the edges with my burnishing tool, there's a bit more to burnish and I get a nice rounded edge. You can see the edges in the photo I attached. There's definitely a smell when the laser cuts the leather, but I and everyone else at my maker space have gotten used to it since there are loads of others cutting leather too. I've tried all kinds of leather but the ones I've had the most success with are veg tanned, deer, elk, pig, goat, and suede - leather that typically hasn't been treated with any waxes. I will say that when I cut my suede pieces, I have to clean the edges very well since the charring will transfer to garments. I'm assuming you've already learned a ton since your original entry was back in 2016. Cheers!

[Rockoboy]

Hi there Kristina, That's a really good looking piece there. I am guessing it might be a wristband? Do you have anymore pics of your work?

[ArtisanWorks]

I train people to use the laser cutter/engravers at my makerspace. Leather lasers wonderfully. One cautionary note though: Don't cut chrome-tanned leather as this will release toxic chemicals into the atmosphere—hurting you and the machine. If you don't know what it is, don't cut it. It's that serious. (If you want to cut these types of leather, consider getting a drag-knife setup like a Cricut/Silhouette or CNC Router.)

As to the discussion on technology vs. handmade, I see the laser as a simple evolution of the head knife or scissors. It gives me more time to concentrate on the design of the piece, tooling, and finishing. 
 

[Rockoboy]

On ‎11‎/‎09‎/‎2018 at 10:29 AM, ArtisanWorks said:

As to the discussion on technology vs. handmade, I see the laser as a simple evolution of the head knife or scissors. It gives me more time to concentrate on the design of the piece, tooling, and finishing. 

I totally agree. I think innovations are a good thing. On the other hand, if you don't like innovations, don't use them.

[Ard Righ Art]

On 9/10/2018 at 10:29 PM, ArtisanWorks said:

As to the discussion on technology vs. handmade, I see the laser as a simple evolution of the head knife or scissors. It gives me more time to concentrate on the design of the piece, tooling, and finishing. 
 

Jumping into an old thread. I met some guys at a makerspace using a CNC machine to rough out a 15th c. violin pattern.  The maker commented that in the old days, the master would have had a shop full of apprentices slaving away bringing the instrument to the point it could be brought to him for finishing. He was merely replacing the shop full apprentices with a machine.

One impetus in this evolution was a discussion with a guy who was selling bracelets by the truckload at a festival. He stated that he used to be a hand-tool only person like myself, but found that limited his time to only so much production per year, capping his income at [a figure that would make me happy]. Now he has a shop full of people who roll them off a belt embossing machine, cut them and snap them, and is able to make [well over 3x said amount].

Wow. I am a businessman, but I just don't want to go that route. 

After a lot of thought and experimentation, I have come to the point where I am content with using the laser to replace my swivel knife, and tooling from there.  I have played with using it to cut out the patterns and add stitching holes, but with the machines available to me it has been faster to make a score and then cut by hand, so far. For instance, using the laser can cut the patterns for 18 bracelets at a time, but a strap cutter set to my index marks is still faster for cutting the bracelets apart from each other.  I also found that casing the leather, at least lightly, cuts down on char and smell, but it does add a variable to the cutting properties.

Other tidbits - I need to see if Corel's centerline trace function would save me a lot of time over using Adobe (expensive) or Inkscape's (free) edge trace functions, which require deleting the double line obtained by the fact that their functions see both sides of a line as separate lines.

I have finally gotten settings that will cut or deeply score the edges, and hit about the right depth for subsequent tooling. Between the savings of time in layout, measurement, placing the pattern just so, tracing, and cutting with a swivel, I estimate I am knocking off about 40% of my time for an end result that is still clearly tooled. 

I can do it either way. My high end pieces are still hand done from start to finish. I have lots of interesting conversations with others when they ask the inevitable, "did you do all this by hand?" question. Very few people have been utterly dismissive, so far. If they are tempted, I grab a piece done both ways, and ask if the difference is worth the extra price. Though to be sure, I am not discounting the laser production as much as they would like, as it is a capital expense that has to be recouped.

Here is a laser then tooled piece from about a year ago. Someone pointed out I had been lazy with the bevel marks and could have gone deeper with it as well.  I need to make some contemporary photos to see if anyone thinks I have gotten better on that.