Laser Engraving Leather Debossing Stamps with MDF and Acrylic
Since we’ve engraved away a lot of material to achieve our desired depth, our stamps are quite dirty. We’ll take these back to our sink and scrub away that residue.
We recommend limiting your MDF stamp’s exposure to water while cleaning. MDF is absorbent and significant amounts of water can cause it to break down. Our stamp was exposed to water only briefly and it has held up very well, but your mileage may vary. To be safe, you can opt to clean your MDF stamp with a dry or damp brush.
Once we’re done, we’ll also peel off our protective masking.
Soaking our Patches
The last bit of prep involves soaking our leather patches. This may not be necessary for every material, but with these patches we found soaking them in water prior to debossing made them much more pliable and more receptive to the stamping process. This didn’t take long though; we soaked our patches for around a minute.
Debossing
Now it’s time to put our stamps to the test.
In order to get a nice, deep impression, we’ll need to press the stamp into the leather very firmly. We’ll use several clamps to accomplish this, but a vice would also work very well. We’ll use a couple of wood blocks to protect our materials from the clamps and to evenly disperse the pressure.
We’ll apply this pressure for a brief but sustained period of time (several minutes or so should do the trick), then we’ll release the clamps and see our results.
As you can see, both the MDF and the acrylic provided excellent results with these patches. Both materials gave us a great quality mark, so feel free to experiment with the materials you use. Acrylic is a more expensive option, but using clear acrylic meant we could see through the graphics on our stamp, making it even easier to align our images with confidence. You could try using wood or Delrin, or even metal if you’re using a fiber laser.
We applied some leather conditioner to our debossed patches to help finish them off and provide a bit more contrast. If you’re working with raw leather, you could also consider using some leather dye. Really, the sky’s the limit; let your creativity shine.
Contact White Dog Engraving
To learn more about the engraving services we can offer you, contact us today by calling (972) 848-7790 or click here to connect with us online.