NZ Premium quality Leather Gifts uniquely personalised with embossing

Personalised Leather – The Art of Embossing

There is something very special about receiving a beautiful leather gift embossed with your own name, initials or a date that means something to you.

Uniquely personalised leather has been at the heart of Sparrowhawk Leather since I began making leathergoods in 2014.

As a traditional leather artisan, I still hand emboss the full-grain vegetable-tanned russet leather I use for my made-to-order wallets, journal covers and other handcrafted pieces. I strike each one individual metal letter, one at a time, before I hand rub the leather with dye, assemble the pieces and hand stitch to finish the item.

Sparrowhawk Leather’s small-batch made “Hawk” leathergoods can also be personalised, but these are embossed quite differently. Because this leather is full grain tannery dyed aniline leather, and the portfolios, wallets, travel folder and journal covers are already made when I take them to my specialist Auckland embossers. Here traditional metal type, heat, pressure and specialist machinery are used to add your chosen initials, name or special date.

The finished result may look beautifully simple. Achieving it isn't always quite so straightforward.

Different leathers react very differently to heat and pressure debossing. Adding gold or silver foil is different again. The construction of the leather item also matters, as does the type of embossing machinery — and even the choice of fonts and letter sizes isn't as straightforward as you might imagine.

So, if you've ever wondered how your personalised leather gift is embossed, why hand embossing and machine embossing cost different amounts, why only certain fonts and sizes are available, or why Sparrowhawk Leather only embosses the leather we know, here's a little look behind the scenes at the art of leather embossing.

Embossing

What is leather embossing?

Alphabetic & numeric embossing is the process of pressing individual metal letter stamps into or onto leather to permanently mark it.

The best and easiest results are achieved when embossing is applied to a flat, single layer of leather with no lining — a component of the finished product before the item has been assembled and stitched.

Embossing is a high-precision skill, and all sorts of things can go wrong. If embossing is done during the making stage, little is lost if the result isn't perfect. The faulty leather component can be discarded and the process repeated on a new piece of leather.

Once the item has been completely made, however, it's a very different story.

Gold, Silver or Plain? Different Types of Leather Embossing.

Gold & Silver Foil Embossing

A metallic-looking "foil" — usually gold or silver, although other colours are available — is placed between heated metal type and the leather to "print" the lettering onto its surface.

On common coated chrome-tanned leathers, only brief contact with the heated type is required to transfer the foil. The heat activates the adhesive in the foil, allowing it to bond to the leather's polyurethane or acrylic-based surface coating without necessarily requiring a deep impression.

A coated, chrome tanned leather handbag with no pressure gold foil embossing
NOT MADE OR EMBOSSED BY SPARROWHAWK LEATHER (Sparrowhawk Leather does not work with coated chrome tanned leathers). 

 

The premium full-grain vegetable-tanned leathers Sparrowhawk uses are quite different. They do not have the synthetic pigmented surface coating found on many mass-produced leathers. To achieve a crisp foil impression on these leathers requires specialist machinery capable of applying controlled heat and considerable pressure.

Traditional Debossing – Without Foil

Debossing is where pressure is applied to the metal stamps to create a permanent indentation in the leather.

For the full-grain, undyed russet leather used by Fiona for her hand-dyed wallets, journal covers and pilot logbook covers, years of experience striking individual metal leather stamps with a rawhide mallet achieves a crisp impression. The letters on the stamps are reversed so as to appear the right way when embossed.

This hand embossing must be done before the hand-rubbed dyeing process. Fiona will sometimes then accentuate details within the embossing using a fine paintbrush.

For the tannery-dyed, aniline vegetable-tanned leather used in Sparrowhawk's pre-made Hawk range, high heat plus high pressure from specialist embossing machinery is required to achieve a clear, lasting impression.

Debossing can be less successful on chrome-tanned, heavily coated leathers. These leathers can "spring back" after pressure is removed, leaving a shallower impression. Too much heat or pressure can also affect the surface coating — making it shiny, flattening the surrounding grain or changing its appearance.

At Sparrowhawk Leather, we don't make our products from these heavily pigmented, coated leathers. Our focus is the highest quality full-grain leather.

Why Sparrowhawk Leather only embosses leather we know

The short answer?

We didn't make your item.

We don't know exactly what leather has been used, how it will react to different temperatures or pressure, or what lies beneath its surface finish.

Your item is also already made. There may be several layers beneath the area to be embossed.

Can we lie it perfectly flat on the embossing machine? What temperature should we use? How much pressure will produce a crisp impression without damaging the leather?

Most importantly, we can't do a trial run.

Without knowing the optimum temperature and pressure, there is a real risk the embossing will be substandard — or the leather itself will be permanently marked.

Then your item is ruined.

We won't take that risk.

Gold and Silver Foil – From Traditional Gold leaf to Modern Leather Embossing

It's easy to imagine today's gold embossing foil as a very thin sheet of gold — because historically, that's essentially what it was.

From around the 15th and 16th centuries, skilled bookbinders decorated fine leather bindings using real gold leaf. The leather was prepared with an adhesive, the impossibly thin gold leaf laid over it, and heated metal tools pressed onto the surface.

The process required enormous skill and care. If the metal tool was too cold, the gold wouldn't adhere properly. Too hot, and the leather could be scorched or the impression spoiled.

Today's "gold foil" is quite different.

It is actually a multi-layer hot-stamping transfer film rather than a thin sheet of gold. The metallic appearance usually comes from an extraordinarily thin layer of aluminium, together with coloured and protective layers and its own heat-activated adhesive.

For many mass-produced leather products, particularly handbags, wallets and folders, the leather used is chrome tanned and has a pigmented protective surface finish. This commonly contains polyurethane, acrylic or other resins.

Touch foil embossing works particularly well on many of these leathers because the heat-activated adhesive in the foil can bond to that surface coating. The embosser doesn't necessarily need to create a substantial physical indentation. Relatively light, brief contact may be enough to leave the foil sitting cleanly on the surface.

What does “Genuine Leather" mean for embossing?

When you bring an item to an embosser, he or she is dealing with an unknown.

The label may say "Genuine Leather", but that tells the embosser surprisingly little about the leather, its finish or its construction.

Even when the item is unquestionably leather, the embosser doesn't know the exact composition or thickness of its surface finish. Two apparently similar chrome-tanned coated leathers can react completely differently at the same embossing temperature.

When products are foil embossed as part of their manufacturing process, the manufacturer knows the leather being used and, through testing, has established the correct temperature, pressure and dwell time.

With somebody else's completed leather item, we don't have that information.

The foil may not stick. The edges of the lettering may blur. The surrounding leather may become shiny or permanently marked.

And again, we can't practise on your finished handbag, wallet or folder to find out.

Sparrowhawk Leather will therefore only emboss items Fiona hand makes as part of her making process, or Hawk leather products where our specialist embossers know the leather and are experienced with the construction of each product.

Hand embossing vs Machine Embossing – What’s the Difference

Both methods create beautiful personalised leather pieces, but the way Sparrowhawk Leather achieves the finished result – and the work involved – is very different.

Hand Embossing Our Made to Order Sparrowhawk Leather pieces

With a made-to-order Sparrowhawk piece, embossing is part of making your item.

Using over a decade’s experience, leather artisan Fiona, hand embosses the undyed, hand-cut single leather component before dyeing and assembly. This traditional method is particularly suited to personalised wallets, journal covers and other pieces made individually for their owner.

There is no machinery to set up — just a rawhide mallet, individual metal letter stamps and years of practice.

Before embossing your item, Fiona will always practice on a small piece of scrap from the same hide to assess how the particular leather responds and the level of force required when striking the stamp.

If the hand embossing isn't perfect, she can discard that component, hand cut another and start again.

Of course, the larger the component — such as the outside of an A4 journal cover — the more valuable the piece of leather being discarded. Where possible, however, Fiona can recut that leather into smaller components for other pieces being made from the same hide.

If you have received one of Fiona's hand-dyed Sparrowhawk Leather pieces, you will probably recognise the little leather "swatch" containing her practice embossing that came with it.

Machine Embossing Our Small Batch Pre-Made Hawk Leather Goods

With a pre-made Hawk piece, personalisation happens after the leather items has been made.

Portfolios, notebook covers, wallets and other Hawk leather gifts can be personalised by our specialist embossers using traditional metal type,  their specialist heat-and-pressure embossing machinery and decades of experience.

For your particular embossing, the individual metal letters must first be "typeset" into a metal frame in the correct order and spacing — remembering that the type itself is the mirror image of what will ultimately appear on the leather.

The machine must be set to the appropriate temperature and pressure for that particular leather and the thickness and construction of the product. The machinery has to reach the required temperature, and the finished product must then be carefully positioned so the embossing appears in exactly the right place. Our embosser must then judge the dwell time before ……

All this set-up is required whether we are embossing three initials or a longer name.

And there is another important difference.

They have to get it right first time.

This isn't an unassembled component that can simply be recut if something goes wrong. It is an expensive, completed leather product.

That specialist machinery, set-up time, experience and risk are why machine embossing a pre-made Hawk item costs more than Fiona hand embossing a Sparrowhawk piece while she is making it.

Choosing a Font and Size for your Personalised Leather gift

Why can’t we offer a choice of dozens of fonts in different sizes?

Traditional Hand Embossing Stamps

It is a substantial investment for a manufacturer to design, tool and manufacture a complete set of 26 individual alphabetic embossing stamps — let alone another ten numeric stamps.

The metal must be robust enough for even the thinnest part of a raised letter to withstand years of being forcibly struck into leather with a mallet.

Every letter also needs to be absolutely consistent in height and thickness so that one looks uniform beside another. Accurate, centred placement on each stamp is vital to help the leatherworker align and space each letter evenly before it is struck.

There are relatively few contemporary leatherworkers using undyed vegetable-tanned russet leather and traditional individual hand stamps, so there simply isn't a large commercial market for manufacturers to produce dozens of fonts and sizes.

Since 2014, Fiona has found only one manufacturer producing alphabetic and numeric hand embossing stamps of a quality she is happy to use on Sparrowhawk Leather's handmade items.

There are two classic, unfussy alphabetic styles available to her: a 6mm sans serif (modern) font and a 6mm serif (traditional) font. Numeric stamps are available in a similarly limited choice of sizes.

Sans Serif (Modern) font       Serif (traditional) font

Highlight Embossing (indentations are left undyed)

   

Blind Embossing (indentations are filled in with dye)

Specialist Machine Embossing Type

Machine embossing has similar limitations for a different reason.

Each specialist heat-and-pressure embossing machine uses metal type designed to fit its own typesetting frames. The type must also withstand the heat and considerable pressure required to achieve crisp, lasting impressions in vegetable-tanned aniline leather.

Our specialist embossers' machine has its own collection of beautiful precision-made type, including two alphabetic fonts, one sans serif and one serif, and numerals in a wider, but still limited, range of sizes.

Sans Serif (Modern) font       Serif (traditional) font

 

Sparrowhawk Leather has worked with our machine-embosser colleagues, drawing on our combined experience, to choose the stamp sizes and formats that give the best result on each Hawk product.

That's why the embossing options shown for each product have been specifically selected for that item.

Will leather embossing last? 

One of the lovely things about personalising a quality leather item is that the initials, date or name become part of the piece as the leather ages and develops its unique patina.

Debossing Without Foil

On Sparrowhawk Leather's hand-stamped, hand-dyed vegetable-tanned russet leather products, the impression should retain its depth for many years of use.

The exception can be gentlemen's wallets which are regularly "stored" in a back pocket. Over time they tend to become polished by use, so the impression may become a little shallower — but it remains legible and simply becomes part of the patina so treasured by its owner.

On our machine-stamped Hawk vegetable-tanned aniline leather products, the crisp debossed impression should likewise remain clearly legible after years of handling and use.

Debossing With Foil

At Sparrowhawk Leather, foil embossing is limited to our charcoal foiled, non-personalised Hawk products, where specialist machinery can apply the controlled heat and pressure needed to achieve a deep impression and reliable foil transfer on our vegetable-tanned leather.

Importantly, we don't simply want the foil sitting on top of the leather.

By placing it within a deeper impression, the lettering has some protection from everyday handling and rubbing, helping the foil remain attractive for longer.

Hawk by Sparrowhawk Leather - Unpersonalised with Charcoal Foil Embossing 

Hawk Wrap Closure A5 Notebook Cover - Full Grain Whisky Calf Leather

 

Personalised Leather - A Little Detail That Matters

After more than a decade of embossing leather, I've learnt that the little details matter — the leather, its finish, its thickness, the construction of the item, the temperature, the pressure and, sometimes, simply knowing when not to emboss something.

That's why we only personalise leather we know.

With my made-to-order Sparrowhawk pieces, I emboss the leather while I'm making your item. With our pre-made Hawk pieces, we've worked with our specialist embossers to establish exactly which fonts, sizes and embossing methods give the best result on each product.

Whether it’s a wallet carrying someone’s initials, a journal cover with a name, or a beautiful leather portfolio commemorating a special achievement, those few embossed letters can turn a high quality leather piece into something that belongs uniquely to its owner.

It may mean we can't offer every font, every size or emboss every leather item we're asked to.

But when you're permanently putting someone's name, initials or a special date onto something intended to last for years, it's worth getting it right.

Fiona Ritchie, Leather Artisan