Leatherette is one of the best-selling blanks in our shop, and it’s easy to see why. It looks and feels like real leather, it costs a fraction of the price, and when you engrave it, the top layer burns away to reveal a contrasting core color underneath. That two-layer construction is what gives you those sharp, high-contrast designs on wallets, patches, notebooks, keychains and more — no paint fill, no second process.
Get your settings right and leatherette is the most forgiving material you’ll run. Get them wrong and you’ll melt edges, scorch the surface, or end up with a design you can barely see. Here’s what we’ve learned about dialing it in.
First, a Safety Rule That Matters
Only engrave leatherette that is made to be lasered. Laser-safe leatherette is PU-based and formulated to engrave cleanly. Cheap PVC-based faux leather releases chlorine gas when it hits a laser beam — that damages your machine and it’s bad for you. If a supplier can’t tell you their leatherette is laser safe, don’t put it in your machine. Every Luxette™ sheet we sell is laser safe, and that’s the first thing you should confirm with any leatherette you buy.
Starting Settings by Laser Type
Every machine is a little different, so treat these as starting points, not gospel. Run a test grid on a scrap piece before you touch a sellable blank.
CO2 Laser (50–60W)
- Power: 15–25%
- Speed: 300–500 mm/s
- Resolution: 300 DPI
- Passes: 1
- Air assist: low or off
Diode Laser (10–20W, xTool, Ortur, Atomstack style)
- Power: 30–45%
- Speed: 4,000–6,000 mm/min
- Passes: 1
Fiber Laser (60W MOPA) — our tested setting
This is the exact setup we run on our leatherette Trifold Women’s Wallets:
- Speed: 700
- Frequency: 20
- Q-Pulse: 200
- Lines: 508
- Cross hatch: on
The Two Rules of Leatherette
Rule one: lower power and higher speed beats slow and hot. Too much heat is the number one mistake with leatherette. It doesn’t engrave deeper and darker — it melts. You’ll get sticky residue, rounded edges on fine detail, and a design that looks dirty instead of crisp. If your test looks melted, drop the power before you touch anything else.
Rule two: change one thing at a time. If a test comes out too light, slow the speed down about 20% OR raise the power 5–10%. Never both at once, or you’ll never know which change fixed it.
Too light usually means you haven’t burned through the top layer yet. Too dark and fuzzy means you’re cooking it. The sweet spot is when the core color shows through clean and bright with edges you could cut paper on.
Tips That Make the Difference
- Keep it flat. Leatherette sheets curl. Magnets, weights or a hold-down frame keep the whole sheet at the same focal distance, which means even engraving edge to edge.
- Mind your contrast. The engraved color is the core color — on our black leatherette, that’s a white layer that shows through. On the gray and light brown, it’s black. Pick your color pairs on purpose: the design is only as readable as the contrast between the two layers.
- Mask for a cleaner finish. A layer of transfer/masking tape before you engrave keeps smoke from staining the surface around your design. Peel it after and the edges stay clean.
- Clean it right. A quick wipe with a mild cleaner (LA’s Totally Awesome is the shop favorite) or a damp cloth takes off residue. Skip the harsh solvents — they’ll dull the finish.
- Ventilate. Leatherette smokes. Run your exhaust every time.
- Save your presets. Once a color is dialed in, save it by name — “Luxette Black/White v1” — because the next batch of the same color will run the same. Your future self will thank you during the Christmas rush.
Cutting Leatherette Sheets
If you’re cutting patches or shapes from sheet stock on a CO2, start around 40–60% power at 15–30 mm/s for standard sheet thickness and work from there with a test cut. Clean cuts beat fast cuts — a second light pass is cheaper than a sheet of melted edges.
Stock Up on Sheets That Are Made for This
Our Lancaster Luxette™ Leatherette Sheets come in dozens of engravable colors in the Reserve Collection, in three versions — with adhesive backing, with foam, and with no foam — so you can match the sheet to the job. Browse the full Luxette™ Leatherette collection for wallets, notebooks, keychains and more blanks built on the same laser-safe material.
Dial in one test grid, save the preset, and leatherette will pay for itself faster than almost anything else on your shelf.
Premium Blanks, Proven Results.
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