Months before my GF arrived my husband purchased for me some gorgeous leather in a variety of colors. I had not yet read about the various types of leather tanning, but now that I have, I realize that my beautiful leather stash is not veg tanned. I did the float test. Yet I could not resist trying it out on the GF. So I opened all the windows and doors that I could and donned my gas mask and lasered my leather. These are the results.
You could always incorporate it into other projects so it doesnât go to waste and you donât have to worry about lasering it. Like, just adding a leather strap to things wouldnât require you to laser cut it. Or maybe even mix laser-safe leather with the not-safe stuff. Since you have a bunch of vibrant colors, it might be really cool to add natural colored leather for contrast. Then anything that really needs to be lasered could be the safe stuff.
Please continue to cut your leather, and enjoy your creative experience.
I know your post has a degree of tonguee-in cheek, thank goodness, but, and here is a rant warning.
This is a wonderful friendly forum, but I have never come across so much fear of the unknown in my 79 years.
What happened to common sense ?
I could go on, but I think a screwdriver might be in order.
And I donât mean the one in the workshop.
EDIT itâs probably because I just read of the danger of lasering chromed leather - âchromium gasâ
I do agree there definitely seems to be a lot of fear of the unknown. When I was younger we wouldâve just done it to see what happened. Iâm sure much of what we did was âunsafeâ.
Beautiful leather and great project! What a sweet hubby for getting it for you. I wouldnât be able to resist it either and would have cut a little bit too Iâm glad youâre being a bit cautious though, itâs so tempting to ignore bad stuff we canât see.
Iâm not here to sing the praises of hexavalent chromium, nor government recommended levels of potentially harmful chemicals, but the amount released by what can be expected from some leather projects appears to be well below OSHAâs actionable level. Nice stitching by the way.
Still confused how it went from products of chromium combustion to products of chlorine combustion.
Iâm no expert but did do some work in implementing some hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] processes and procedures in the EPC industry.
My understanding of it is that the chrome-tanned leather process is trivalent chromium - not hexavalent chromium. Chromium III is significantly less toxic than Cr(VI).
Itâs my understanding, not a chemist, that when chrome tanned leather is burned as cooking fuel in the slums that surround Indian tanneries, it is at least one byproduct and is causing additional health issues for those unfortunate people.
I do risk analysis documents and am allowed to group together numerous individual risks and then only evaluate the worst one. Sometimes I break them out, especially when the rate of occurrence is drastically different, but not always. Thatâs what I did here. Also, trying to avoid janetâs beautiful work getting booted to beyond the manual.
@janet_schrock, your work is stunning! I love what youâve done with the catalog designs, and how youâve made them your own.
Since this discussion includes procedures we donât recommend, Iâm going to move it to Beyond the Manual. As a side note, weâve achieved very similar results by using dyes on vegetable tanned leather in house, and long-term would love to offer solutions for colored Proofgrade leather - itâs in the PG teamâs hopper!
You could also sell us the dyes that youâve determined work well with the existing leather. Itâs not as cool as a rainbow of Proofgrade colors, but I bet many would not shy away from an extra step.
Iâm glad youâre being a bit cautious though, itâs so tempting to ignore bad stuff we canât see.
