Thanks to the awesome people here, I got my keychains started (thanks for the jig help @deirdrebeth!!). I used regular masking tape to tape them down because the masking I usually use wasn’t strong enough (the “rail” on the jig didn’t quite work right so it was my workaround).
I had no idea the tape would ruin the finish on the leather. Ugh - I wanna cry. Is there any way I can salvage them? Some type of leather lotion or something? It rubs out just a little with my finger, but still leaves a discolored/lighter area. I obviously don’t work with leather usually ~ hard lesson to learn (& I don’t have enough replacements to just do them over ).
P.S. Pretty much the way my week’s gone ~ is it a full moon or something?!
I’m scared to offer you advice since I’m not a leatherworker…but maybe very light sanding and a leather conditioner like Lexol? We use Lexol on our car seats.
Also wondering about the char inside the engraving, as I noticed some smearing onto the surrounding leather. For wood, I usually use a toothbrush or cloth. But for leather I’m not sure? You can’t exactly sand out the discoloring like you can with wood.
I actually thought of that too! lol Maybe I’ll try one and see what happens…Gotta think outside the box, right? (These are going to be 2-sided though - so it would be lots of work for 25 of them. )
Nice that you work/worked with leather; so you are a good person to ask. This leather has a soft almost sueded feel to it, so it’s more forgiving (which is why I could rub out some of the pattern left by the tape). And the color is more distressed which helps too.
What would you suggest for the char residue? I don’t want it getting black all over the rest of the leather.
100% you should tape the whole thing.
Then with a toothbrush scrub out the engraved area.
Then dab the whole thing with a wet sponge or baby wipe until you don’t get residue.
Then use a leather conditioner (coconut oil works just fine).
The goal would be to do the same things to each part so the final look matches all over.
The leather conditioner will make everything very dark at first, but it’ll dry overnight and lighten back up quite a bit.
The few pieces of leather I’ve done on the GF I have just patted it with baby wipes before removing the masking. I have shaky hands nowadays and am not good at following lines. This has worked for me for the most part, but I’m not real fussy about char - I think it’s part of the laser look as long as it’s not coming off on people’s hands or clothing. A light oil or conditioner helps with that.
Ugh - I wanna cry. 
Is there any way I can salvage them? Some type of leather lotion or something? It rubs out just a little with my finger, but still leaves a discolored/lighter area. I obviously don’t work with leather usually ~ hard lesson to learn (& I don’t have enough replacements to just do them over 
).
)
This leather has a soft almost sueded feel to it, so it’s more forgiving (which is why I could rub out some of the pattern left by the tape). And the color is more distressed which helps too.