Thanks, @rhenley. I’m definitely not an expert on lasering leather–though I look forward to doing the work to become one!
Here’s what I currently understand about @Drea’s specific question about soft temper leathers: there is no good, definitive answer, because there are so many complicating factors (tannage chemicals, leather weight, finish chemicals, colorants). I do know that lasering service providers like LaserBean say that most soft leathers shrivel up to some degree when cut.
I’m planning to take the question one product at a time, one step at a time. For instance, I have one of Tandy Leather’s veg-tan, chrome-free Studio Sides. It’s thin enough–2.5 to 3 oz. (1 to 1.2 mm)–to sew on a heavy duty home sewing machine (mine is a Singer Heavy Duty) and has a softish hand and drape that’s suitable for outerwear, pants, hobo purses, etc. When my GF shipping notice arrives, I plan to call Tandy’s HQ and ask for an MSDS on the leather or any other information I can get about the tannage, colorant, and finish chemicals, and if it seems laser safe, I’ll cut a sample and post the results to the GF community, with photos. I’ll do that with other leathers I have, case by case. My guess is that we’re not going to find a lot of good options for soft tempers, and that for most of them, I’ll mostly use the laser to do a light etch of patterns on the surface that I’ll then hand-cut.