Got great feedback for my last question. Now do I need to cover my leather with anything for engraving? Again, thanks in advance
Also best settings please…3-4 oz and 5-6 oz.
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The term you’re looking for is masking, if you search for “leather masking” you’ll find a ton of threads.
You might also like this one, definitely check out #2 and #6, but I bet you’ll find them all useful:
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Use the PG leather settings for engraves, they work beautifully and no testing required. For cuts I use the PG leather settings and then carefully see if the piece cut completely, if it didn’t shut the lid and run the cut a 2nd time (you can even speed it up a bit). Works every time.
I find that I end up cleaning and then conditioning the pieces no matter what so I mask pretty rarely, but it’s totally doable if you’re doing a cut and want an absolutely clean surface - don’t do it for an engrave, it just gets ugly 
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I just ran a test. No masking. Manual setting Engrave 1000 43 225. Came out clean as a whistle
I will check out the PG setting as well.
Thanks. This thing is just stinkin’ Rad!!
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Interesting - no marring at all? No smoke residue?
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None. Couldn’t be any cleaner. Stoked about it.
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same here. I primarily use veg tan leather from Tandy and i almost never use masking. I just scrub the char and smoke residue off the edges and continue with my work. Just picked up some 7-8oz for a set of armor. Gotta get the new setting dialed in for this thicker stuff.
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I’ll be the weird person and say that the 
settings for engraving leather may or may not be ideal for you. The settings assume that you need to punch cleanly through a layer of masking and remove any masking residue for the engrave - it results in an engrave that may be deeper than you want. Think about your different grades of leather and the layers they correspond to -
If you’re using a nice full grain leather, the top surface of the leather is the expensive bit that you’re paying for. Personally, I try to preserve as much of that as I can unless I’m doing a project where I’m painting in the engraved area, and I frequently engrave without masking.
I don’t remember the exact settings I used for this project but in general it was both faster and lower power than the default engrave settings -
There is no “one true answer” - you may find different settings are a better fit for different projects (i.e. with light colored dyes, you may be able to use less power than something you’re intending to dye a darker hue.)
When in doubt, experiment, see what you like for your own works. There are plenty of different “right answers” for you to discover
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