EMBOSSING (Fr. embosser, from cot, in + bosse, hump, bump, OHG. bo.::o, tuft, from bown, Ger, bossen, to beat). The art of producing fig ures in relief upon various substances, including paper, leather. wood, and metals. This is usually effected by pressing the substances into a die. the kind of die and mode of applying being modified by the nature of the design and of the material to be embossed. (For the stamping of sheet metal. see DIES AND DIE SINKING.) Embossing of metal, however. may also be done by hand by beating up the metal from the under side, in which ease the process is called repoussJ work.
Paper and cardboard are embossed with dies in a similar manner, but the dies are frequently of brass, sometimes of copper electrically depos ited and suitably backed. The counter-die is commonly made of soft metal, card, or millboard. pressed into the metal intaglio die until a sharp impression is produced. The paper or card is well damped, and a fly-press is generally used. The leather or cloth for bookbinding is embossed in this manner, the counter-die being usually made by gluing several pieces of millboard to gether. and gluing them to the upper bed of the press, then stamping these into the lower die until a perfect impression is obtained. The em bossing-press drs4.mated for impressing the medal lion upon postage envelopes is a very elaborate and beautiful machine, which inks the die itself, and with the aid of two operatives to place and remove the envelopes embosses sixty envelopes in a minute. When large surfaces of textile fabrics. such as table-covers. etc., have to be embossed, the fabric is eompressed between rollers, one be ing of metal upon which the device is sunk like a die: the counter-roller or bed-cylinder is of paper covered with felt: this yields sufficiently to allow the fabric to he pressed into the die eylinder. A third smooth metal roller is com
monly used to press out again the impression made upon the bed-eylinder: this acts upon the bed-cylinder on the from which the fabric emerges. Paper is sometimes embossed in this manner; and the flatting roller may lie dispensed with if the cylinders are sufficiently accurate in their diameters for the pattern always to fall on the same place at each successive revolution. Leather embossed in high relief for ornamental purposes is imes sttimped with dies of type met al or electrically deposited copper, the leather having first been softened in water. Several methods have been invented for embossing wood. Sometimes hot molds are pressed upon the wet wood, %chilli burn in the pattern. the charcoal being afterwards removed. in some machines ei•gra vett rollers arc used instead of stamps, the wood being .teamed and passed between the rolls 'bile In et. In :mailer 'nettled the wood is pressed rubbed with h n blunt instrument, the surface yields. and a depression of some depth is made: if the wood be now sodked in miter the depressed portion will rise to its original level. Only the .nrfnce in those ports that ore to be finally in relief is 1111•111•11 The rest of the surface is phoned even o ith the depressi ,,,, s and the mood this eN11,4•4 the Olin parts to swell Wyk to their original level and stout] out in relief against the planed surface. Embossing in needlework is effected by embroidering over figures padded with wool felt or other material.