Enhancing engraved part of leather

[BulletAK]

Hi all,

I am newbie here as well as with engraving. 

I have just done a engraving on my full grain leather wallet however I want to make the engraved part standout. The black burned leather is just getting light as I clean it with wipes.

Any way I can enhance the engraving to make it stand out ? Any black color or something that I can apply that should enhance the engraved part but it shouldnt effect the non-engraved part?

Picture attached. 

PS. In the attached picture, I haven't cleaned it after laser engraving yet with wet wipes as the black burned part spreads over when I move my finger on it. To get rid of it, I clean it with just wet wipes but that literally dulls the engraving (black part). That's why I need it make the engraving stand out.

Many thanks for any help.

[BulletAK]

bump

[Scoutmom103]

I don't have experience with lasers.  I wonder if the cloths used to wipe over the foil after hot embossing might work.  

[Matt S]

Hi @BulletAK, welcome to the forum. I've been playing around with my laser engraver and found that leather with a top-coat (which yours appears to be) don't have the most detailed or permanent effect. This is because they have a layer of something similar to acrylic paint applied to them during manufacture -- this is the top surface of "leather" that you see. Very common in the world of large-volume commercial wallets as it reduces costs and increases consistency.

The "black" is soot. On your leather it'll be a mixture of burned top-coat and chrome-tanned leather so I'm sure it has a distinctive scent. I installed an air-assist on my laser to remove the soot from the laser-affected zone as soon as it formed -- wiping it away afterwards stained the leather. This also reduced the residual smell on the leather. Maybe a blast with compressed or canned air would remove yours in a tidier way than wipping?

No helpful suggestions I'm afraid, as my laser is almost permanently employed elsewhere ATM. Just thought I'd share my limited experiences.

[chrisash]

No experience of laser print on leather,but could you just leave alone and spray a sealant over it, od maybe  a vacuum cleaner to remove the loose particles and then a spray sealant

[BulletAK]

1 hour ago, Matt S said:

Hi @BulletAK, welcome to the forum. I've been playing around with my laser engraver and found that leather with a top-coat (which yours appears to be) don't have the most detailed or permanent effect. This is because they have a layer of something similar to acrylic paint applied to them during manufacture -- this is the top surface of "leather" that you see. Very common in the world of large-volume commercial wallets as it reduces costs and increases consistency.

The "black" is soot. On your leather it'll be a mixture of burned top-coat and chrome-tanned leather so I'm sure it has a distinctive scent. I installed an air-assist on my laser to remove the soot from the laser-affected zone as soon as it formed -- wiping it away afterwards stained the leather. This also reduced the residual smell on the leather. Maybe a blast with compressed or canned air would remove yours in a tidier way than wipping?

No helpful suggestions I'm afraid, as my laser is almost permanently employed elsewhere ATM. Just thought I'd share my limited experiences.

Thanks Matt for your valuable input.

Umm yeah, you are right. Wiping off with a wipe quite dulls the engraving area and doesnt look good at all. I will try to install a air-assist.

Any idea which one should I look for? I have a mini laser engraver.

Thanks for your help.

1 hour ago, chrisash said:

No experience of laser print on leather,but could you just leave alone and spray a sealant over it, od maybe  a vacuum cleaner to remove the loose particles and then a spray sealant

any recommendations for sealant? As I haven't used any yet so don't have idea.

Thanks for your input though. 

Edited December 19, 2019 by BulletAK

[chrisash]

Resolene etc, most leather shops have a assortment of sealers

[RockyAussie]

Regarding the sealant put over the soot directly .....I tried several with no success. Any painting requires a good base to adhere to and soot just aint one of them. It just keeps soaking it up and up. What you could try is clean it out and use one of the antique lacquers to replace the dark area you want. Then go ahead with a sealer to finish it off. 

[BulletAK]

On 12/26/2019 at 5:45 PM, RockyAussie said:

Regarding the sealant put over the soot directly .....I tried several with no success. Any painting requires a good base to adhere to and soot just aint one of them. It just keeps soaking it up and up. What you could try is clean it out and use one of the antique lacquers to replace the dark area you want. Then go ahead with a sealer to finish it off. 

Thanks. Can you suggest any antique lacquers? 

[Lfrog]

Some tips which may help, they may not too.

 

Use a higher resolution image 300dpi plus is best. Less power is better on leather otherwise you have no mid tones in the image. Choice of leather makes a huge difference and the dye, colouring method.

Dont know what controller you have or control software, but stucci is a better choice for images in your preferences menu. To clean after lasering use a stiff brush and again depending on leather ie already sealed, its good to go, or resolene, but I would resolene before engraving, I suppose it will depend on your machine and what it can do.

[Lfrog]

Some sample veg tan coasters laser engraved.Not sure if I brushed the soot of them, but I seal these with resolene. Good extraction and engraving bottom up helps too.