Goat leather

I was just asked if I could engrave a goat leather bible. Anyone have experience? Settings? Thanks so much for the information, I tried to find the topic, but not information.

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Veg tanned leather is the only type recommended…so I don’t think the animal it came from makes any difference. Doubtful you would find any settings particular to goat leather, so I would just do some testing starting with the Proofgrade settings for leather.

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Yes to what @Xabbess said.

Goat is generally very thin, so start with the thin PG leather setting, and make sure your exhaust is turned all the way up because it will stink like you do not believe.

See if there is a small area on the inside you can test on - often with books there’s an area near the spine where the leather has been folded over.

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Start very low, and repeat. If the design is broken into different sections, use a small one to test until you find the setting that works best.

Even if someone had used the same material, it won’t be your piece of material, so when it really matters and you can not afford to waste it, you have to test it thoroughly before committing to an entire print.

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I’ve engraved veg tan, chrome tan, oil tan, and probably some others. There was a thread (well there have been many) about whether or not chrome tanned was a bad thing, I don’t think I was ever convinced that chrome was a problem.

The thread in question:

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I was not either.

It’s bad for you so all the good ventilation.

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It’s a funny thing, but I’ve never found the smell of lasered leather to be particularly bad.

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It’s literally the same smell as burning human, or any other mammal so I don’t mind it, but it’s always better to prepare for the worst and be pleasantly surprised :slight_smile:

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I have to wonder, how do you know? :thinking:

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Yep. Having burned a hole in my thumb with a CO2 laser I can attest to that :slightly_smiling_face:

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I’m a klutz who also loves fire…I am far too familiar!

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You’re worried about how they know. I am worried with the “I don’t mind it”??? Have your tried engraving fava beans, or a nice chianti?

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Perhaps they’re in the EMS world when non-crafting. I spent a lot of years on an ambulance squad and I don’t know that a year went by without a bad burn case.

The smell seems to trigger situational memories for me though. Around lasers I think about crafting, if it’s around a campfire I remember a couple of stupid accidents, but if it’s dark & rainy I flash back to some nasty situations. The first two I don’t mind the smell, the last one I do :slightly_frowning_face:

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