Gold foil stamping questions

[sonataworks]

Hi guys,

Does anyone have experience with gold foil stamping? I purchased an old Kingsley machine and I've been having some issues.

I've been embossing the leather first before applying the gold foil stamp because I want the foil to be nested into the leather. However, I find that the gold foil sometimes spills over onto the leather that isn't embossed (e.g. the spaces between letters). Is there any easy way to get the gold foil off on these precise spots?

Also, is this problem caused because my temperature is too high, or because the pressure on the foil is too hard? I've been pressing a lot harder because with my first few attempts, the foil wasn't properly adhering to the leather, or only partially.

Any tips would be great, thank you!

[sonataworks]

Bump

[Dwight]

The Bible book store I got my last one from . . . used a machine such as you describe.

They simply loaded in the name . . . warmed it up . . . pressed it onto the Bible . . . and the name was there.

Still there some 35 years later.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Woodyrock]

I have a Kinsley machine, which I have used for several decades.  A lot of spill over, you are pressing to hard, or too long. The spill over should easily  come off with a  soft grey eraser, which used to come with the machines but they are just art erasers.  BTW most of my foil is old enough to vote, and still works fine. I do not know anything about the new machines but with the Kinsley you can print on anything that will fit.

[Matt S]

I've not had much success foiling deep, but found when foiling "shallow" that the dwell time is crucial to controlling bleed/spillover. While I like to dwell 2-3 seconds when debossing blind (to get a good deep, dark, permanent impression) with my foil I find that it only needs a half second of dwell to activate the adhesive. Any longer and I get bleed. The other thing is getting the temperature correct for your foil. Mine likes about 80 degrees C, which is about the same temp I use to deboss veg tanned leathers but significantly lower than that which works well for chrome tanned leathers. Experimentation and recording results, I find, bring about better and repeatable results.