Hot Stamping

A wonderful aspect about buying a leather object is that you can personalize it. It can be:
- A mark of ownership, by doing one's initials or first name
- A short phrase to express your feelings for a special someone
- Words to live by
- A date to commemorate an event
- And these days, you can even use emojis to express yourself

The possibility is endless; however, not all ready-made items can be personalized, as it depends on many factors, one of which is a flat surface. An even, flat surface of the item will guarantee that the debossing (the indentation, or the impression) will be evenly applied and accurate. And if foil is used, then an even application of the foil will be guaranteed.

Dream Factory's Hot Stamping Machine

To ensure a good debossing, hot stamping is usually done before assembling the pieces together. When, then, should it be done? That is a good question. Doing it too early in the process, when you still have many steps to do before assembly may increase the risk of damaging the impression. If you decide to do this early, anyway, make sure to cover it with paper and masking tape, to protect the impression while you work on other steps.

So many choices in the hot stamping in terms of the fonts used, as well as in terms of the foil color used. There is the traditional Gold and Silver; but now more colors have joined the fun, such as Red, Fuchsia, Green, Blue, and plenty more.

Depending on the type of leather used in the project, you can also have a naked or bare impression, where no foil is used, and the result is just the impression on the leather. Smooth leather is best for this type of debossing, because the impression will be legible. Naked impression may also work on grain leather, but testing it first on a scrap leather of the same type that you use for the project will be best to determine whether naked impression is what you would like to do. No-foil stamping on a grain leather sometimes may make it very difficult to read. 

KwikPrint Model 86

So, there you go, a little bit about hot stamping. If you are interested in seeing hot stamping machines, there are two that I know of well: One is the classic KwikPrint from Jacksonville, Florida, and the other is Dream Factory from Korea.