Veg-tan leather engraves beautifully: the laser darkens the grain without gouging it, giving a crisp, durable mark prized in leatherwork. Provided you pick the right hide.
Choosing the hide before touching the settings
Vegetable tanning is the only one that reacts consistently and safely. Chrome tanning can release chromium compounds when heated and should be avoided. Synthetic leather (faux leather, leatherette) very often contains PVC: it must never go into a laser.
Two pieces of the same leather can react differently depending on thickness and moisture: always test on an offcut from the same batch, not from a previous one.
Settings: what really matters
Leather needs little energy. Engrave at low power and high speed to darken the surface without carving it: the aim is a brown mark, not a groove. As soon as the grain lifts or the path edges whiten, you have already gone too far.
For cutting, one pass is enough on 2 mm with a CO2; on a diode prefer two light passes — one heavy pass hardens the edge and leaves a sticky black burr.
Air assist is very useful here: it stops smoke settling back onto the grain, where it stains for good.
Risks and finishing
The smell is strong and the smoke irritant, even with veg-tan: extraction is mandatory. Thin leather can catch fire, oiled leather especially.
Clean the engraved area with an eraser or a barely damp cloth straight out of the machine, before soot sets in. Leather milk or wax applied afterwards revives the colour and seals the mark.
Every figure on LaserSettings comes with the machine, the laser source, the material and the thickness it was tested on. A setting published for a 10 W diode says nothing about a 40 W CO2, and a setting for 3 mm says nothing about 6 mm: check those four things before you copy any number.
Settings are confirmed or disputed by the members who reproduce them, so reliability comes from cross-checking rather than popularity. Photos of the result — cut edges, engraving shades, scorching — tell you more than a single number found on a forum.
Whatever the material, treat a published setting as a starting point: run a small power/speed test grid on an offcut, clean the lens, redo the focus, work with fume extraction and air assist, wear glasses rated for your wavelength and never leave the machine unattended.