Engraving on wood
We can engrave any different type of wood. Wood engraving has become really popular for a variety of different uses. CO2 laser engraving technology means you can get a repeatable engravings simply and fairly quickly. That is why engraving on wood is fantastic for corporate gifts and getting your branding onto your products.
Wood engraving for brand awareness
If you have your restaurant logo engraved onto your wood serving boards for example, it adds a perception of quality. Not only that but from a marketing point of view, when people take photos of their food to upload to Instagram, they are also showcasing your brand. This is particularly beneficial where people may not tag their location so otherwise you could miss out on the opportunity for others to see your work. The same also applies for your slate serving boards, you can find out more about that here.
We have noticed a surge in wood use in Point of Sale (POS) and other Shop Signage. This is because there has been a rise in people trying to achieve a rustic or industrial result. I'm sure we can all think of somewhere that we have been (although not perhaps recently as we have been in lockdown), where we have seen decor that we just wouldn't have seen a few years ago.
As we said, we can engrave any different type of wood, but results do vary.
Things to be aware of when engraving on wood
Wood has a natural grain! It is part of its charm, in our opinion. It does mean though, that if you want to engrave your logo or message on an exact location on the wood piece. Depending which type of wood you go for, you may have and increased level of waste. This is because some pieces in your batch may have a large knot in exactly the wrong place for your logo, making the engraving less visible. Sometimes you may prefer to reject that piece, depending on the look you are going for.
As we mention above, because it is a natural product you get variations in the finish of the wood. This has a knock on effect on the engraving finish too. We have tried to include a good range of pictures to demonstrate this.
What solutions are there for variations?
As a guide, where the wood is lighter, you will have a lighter engraving mark and vice versa for darker sections. There are options for choosing wood with a low knot count. You can also consider using a wood veneer, which could also reduce material costs. Not to mention reduce waste due to less variation in the product.
What about darkness of engraving on wood?
It is important that you talk to your engraver about the look you are hoping to achieve in advance of your job commencing. We always suggest engraving a sample of the same type of wood. You can use an offcut rather than a finished piece if you have something appropriate. We can then test your material with a few different settings to ensure we are engraving your order to get you the results you are looking for.
Particularly with wood engraving there is such as scope of finishes achievable it is impossible to know that we are all on the same page otherwise. We have had people request a really dark, engraving that looks burnt around the edges. Also we have had people who want a deep wood engraving but with absolutely no burnt effect. We've also had people who want a very light effect with minimal depth, and everything in between.
On one occasion we had a customer who'd bought some beard combs in China and they were supposed to have their logo on both sides. When they received them the logo was only one one side, so they asked us to do the other side. The engraving on the other side wasn't as good quality as the one we would usually produce so we had to drop the DPI on our engraver settings considerably to ensure the logos looked more similar. Then it turned out that the combs weren't actually uniform either so that made it even more of a challenge. The customer was happy with the job though and it rescued what he thought would be a long delay in getting them remade and shipped again.
Natural Wood Engraving
This wood engraving is a fine example of a wedding present. A customer brought in a slice of wood and proceeded to tell us that it was from his niece's wedding. She'd used it as a cake stand and he had asked if he could take it afterwards. The reason was that he wanted to create a beautiful, thoughtful gift for them both to remember their special day.
He had painstakingly marked out where the numerals needed to be. This was because he wanted it to be effective as a sundial so had made sure all markings would be accurate once engraved. He thoroughly tested the positioning of the sun at each time. We then matched this up exactly prior to engraving. Also, we discussed the possibility of having a picture from the wedding engraved onto the wood too. We all settled on this being the perfect picture to use.
It was great to be involved in this job and to see the effort he had gone to for his niece. Subsequently, I was delighted when we received this picture showing the finished engraved wood sundial.
Engraved Wood Gifts
We laser engraved this chopping board as a Christmas present for a lady with a new house. It was from John Lewis and she was really pleased with the result. This is a great example of the different effect you get when you laser engrave wood as the colour of the wood is different in different blocks. This certainly makes laser engraved wood a truly unique gift.
We also engraved the wooden egg cups as gifts. This time for Easter. They were really popular and a good alternative to the sugary sort of eggs we all know and love.
Talk to us
If you'd like you talk to us about your wood engraving ideas please get in touch. We can help you for that one off special gift or large scale corporate orders. We have plenty of space in our workshop to ensure your products are well looked after before, during and after engraving.
