Can you laser engrave leather? Absolutely.

Unlike common engraving materials, leather’s vintage texture makes it uniquely appealing. While traditional leathercraft relied on hand carving or pyrography, desktop laser engraver now unlock new possibilities for adding personalized designs, logos, and intricate patterns to leather laser engraving.

In this blog post, we will delve into:

1. Best Type of Leather for Laser Engraving

2. How does leather laser engraving work?

3. Pick Your Laser Engraver for Leather

4. How to laser engrave leather?

5. Ideas on Laser Engraved Leather

6. FAQs for Laser Engraving Leather

1. Best Type of Leather for Laser Engraving

The ideal leather depends on your desired effect, precision, and application:

Vegetable-Tanned Leather

This is often considered the best leather for laser engraving. Here's why:

• High compatibility: It reacts very well to laser engraving, allowing for clear, intricate patterns with high contrast.
• Natural finish: It retains its natural texture, making it ideal for detailed designs and complex patterns.
• Common use: It's frequently used in crafting leather goods like bags, wallets, belts, and saddles. It's a top choice for artisan or custom-made products that require precise and fine engravings.

Full-Grain Leather

Full-grain leather is another excellent option for laser engraving:

• High detail: It retains the natural imperfections and texture of the hide, allowing for deep, detailed engravings.
• Premium finish: The laser engravings on full-grain leather often have a deep, bold contrast, making it a popular choice for luxury items.

Top-Grain Leather

While it's not quite as high-quality as full-grain, top-grain leather still performs well with laser engraving:

• Smooth finish: It's typically polished and processed, so it requires lower power and faster speeds for engraving.
• Versatility: It's used for a variety of goods like fashion accessories. Its clean, polished surface makes for a more delicate engraving.

Suede and Nubuck

Both suede and nubuck (a type of frosted leather) are suitable for laser engraving, but they are more often used for thermal transfer engraving:

• Soft texture: These are softer finishes, so they tend to create a gentler engraving.
• Comfort-driven applications: They're ideal for use in footwear and apparel where comfort is a priority. However, keep in mind that nubuck offers finer detail than suede.

If you're looking for premium and durable engravings, these should be your go-to options.

2. How does leather laser engraving work?

Like laser marking on other materials, a focused beam interacts with the leather surface. Key settings difference: Leather laser engraving requires lower power (e.g., ~40% on a 20W laser engraver) and higher speed to avoid excessive burning while creating clear marks.

3. Pick Your Laser Engraver for Leather - EM-Smart Dual

Fiber laser engraving machine, famous for its higher engraving speed and laser power, is more suitable for deep laser engraving on leather material. While diode laser engraver can handle with non-metal materials, especiallly for leather. 

EM-Smart Dual is the lastest dual laser engraver with 20W fiber laser & diode laser. Let along leather laser engraving, this machine can deal with deep engraving and laser cutting on leather. With 230*230mm laser working area, bulk engraving can be achieved with ease.

For most leather craftsmen, some precise leather carving can be done better through handmade. EM-Smart Dual can speed up this processing and be your handy assistant. 10,000mm/s engraving speed can done with 0.002mm laser precision. 

What's more, EM-Smart Dual supports rotary engraving with rotary attachment tools. Any curved items, like rugby, can be engraved smoothly.

4. How to laser engrave leather?

Frankly speaking, all kinds of laser marking works have the similar processing. Four main steps for your leather laser engraving work: Design - Settings - Engraving - Storing. 

4.1. Design

Importing laser engraving files or design your own, both ways run well for laser engraving on leather. For people who would like complicated patterns or saving more time, download the free laser cutter files from some laser cutter files website, like EM-Smart's "Resource-Downloads" section, or you can pick your ideal one from this blog:

44 Selected Vector Sites for Free Laser Cutter Files

For users who have more creative laser engraving ideas or unqiue designs, get your own patterns in LightBurn or vector graphic webs like Freepik. 

Parameters Recommended (20W laser engraver machine):

4.3. Engraving/Cutting

Choose what kind of laser source you shall use for engraving. Fiber laser for deep marking, while diode one takes part in precise engraving and laser cutting. 
During the engraving processing, laser safety glasses are needed, for blue diode laser has stronger laser light compared with fiber. If you don't want to wear the googles, close the laser engraver enclosure. 

*Video below is only for better showcase.

4.4. Storage & Maintenance

Store finished pieces in cool, dry, ventilated areas away from sunlight. Use desiccant packs for long-term storage and maintain with regular leather conditioner applications to prevent cracking.

If possible, regularly use leather care oil or cream for maintenance, apply evenly and gently rub to help it penetrate.

5. Ideas on Laser Engraved Leather

Leather keychains is one of the trending ornaments in daily life, also some common leather made decors, like bags, cases, wallets, ect. can be done with a desktop laser engraver. 

6. FAQs for Laser Engraving Leather

6.1. Can PU leather be laser engraved?

Technically possible but not recommended. PU leather, also names artificial leather, the surface feels similar to leather, but the breath ability and wear resistance are not as good as leather, easy to fade. When laser engraving, special attention needs to be paid to the laser setting to avoid burning or toxic fumes. 

6.2. How to clean laser engraved leather?

Gently brush them off using a soft, clean brush (e.g., makeup brush, professional leather brush). If stubborn stains exist, dip a small amount of mild leather cleaner, first test on an inconspicuous area, confirm no damage occurs before wiping, and finally wipe with a soft cloth or damp towel.

6.3. How to remove burn marks from laser cut leather?

It is common to see some burning marks on laser engraved leather, and it is easy to deal with this problem. Wipe the burning part with a damp paper towel.