Dark Stained Wood Engravement

[alicia.sandoval]

I engraved a piece of birch that I stained a Jacobean color. Unfortunately, the engravement did not contrast well and I could barely see it. I only left the stain on the wood for 5 minutes then wiped the excess off and let it dry before engraving it.

What tips/tricks do you all have when it comes to engraving dark wood and having the engrave come out light?

Thank you so much in advance!!

[geek2nurse]

I don’t think there’s a way to make dark wood engrave light. You’re pretty much limited to dark and darker.

[deirdrebeth]

You can fill the engrave with paint

[brokendrum]

@alicia.sandoval

What tip

Stain before engrave should allow it to stand out more.
I say should, but as always, a test piece will show for sure.

[evansd2]

@geek2nurse

don’t think there’s a way to make dark wood engrave light

It can definitely be done,

Hello Stained, meet unstained!

So there has been discussion on laser-safe wood finishes and lasering finished woods. I will leave that discussion to another conversation already in the forums. Suffice it for here that caution is HIGHLY advised. Just wanted to show you what high speed, low power does on stained wood. All these were done in several passes, for various reasons. You burn away stained wood without darkening the wood underneath. [22087] [84765] [24482] [471222] [495698] Then I put a little oil and wax on it …

I’ve never tried it but it’s doable. Engraves get darker as speed goes down and/or power goes up. So faster and less power is the way to go here. It might take multiple passes to get good depth, but it’s attainable.

[beerfaced]

Stain your wood first, mask it, engrave it and then spray the engraving with paint before removing the masking.