Hey there!
This is my first time posting - I’ve been making tons of wallets and koozies. I’m curious if I can laser cut deer hide with the hair/fur on one side or if it will catch fire or something?
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I feel like this has come up before, so it might be worth searching the forum to see if there are other threads too, but here’s my thinking: There’s definitely an elevated fire risk compared to plain leather, probably dependent on a few factors like how long and how thick the fur is.
If I were going to try it, I would probably sandwich the leather between two layers of material. if masking would stick to it, I’d probably do that. (they’d be my layers)
If nothing else I would cut it fur-side-down to keep bits of cut fur from flying around the inside of the machine.
I bet it’ll work, it’s just something I’d watch very closely for fire risk, and I’d probably be less likely to try it on something with really fine fur like rabbit and stick with more like hair-on cow or deerhide.
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Got it, that sounds like a good idea to me. I’m hoping I can just use masking because other wise it sounds like it would get all burnt up…
Well, that’s hard to say? The air assist might keep the flames down to a dull roar and give you no trouble. As long as you don’t have loose hair on the top surface I think the risk of runaway fire torching your whole pelt is pretty low.
Even putting down a layer of cardstock underneath the hide and being sure it’s very flat against it would probably protect you from flyaways and flashback damage. Masking would probably be the best bet, but the risk is that it might stick so hard to the hair that taking it off could end up making your hide look weird or something?
There’s just one way to be sure – test it out!
As for settings for something like that, well, I have a favorite method… (cue broken record sounds)
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From an aesthetic perspective you may not want to since the laser can only cut straight down. Fur on skins are usually cut “off the table” with a knife from the back/flesh side to avoid cutting the hairs themselves and giving your skin an unwanted funny haircut.
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I was wondering if the leather could be cut with just enough power to go through the leather but not damage the fur. I also think that the burning fur would take the smell issue of cutting leather to a whole new level…
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I think this is probably the answer. It’s pretty easy to get a kiss cut out of leather - I often run a 2nd faster/lighter cut over the first one to get through all the little tiny pieces of skin that stay connected after cutting leather.
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Would love to see your wallets and koozies! 
Maybe a kiss cut plus some sort of water based gel to protect the fur… Just brainstorming, no experience speaking.
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