Using a bamboo cutting board
Need to make this darker. Way too lite.
Using 1000 /90 / 340 / 1 pass
Please help. Thank you
4 Likes
Slow it down, and/or increase the power.
… and test before you commit to an entire job.
5 Likes
Thank you I will try
Since the “color” is the result of the laser charring/burning away the bamboo (as is the case for any organic material), you should consider what’s best for the application.
You may be able to apply a darker stain or oil (food safe) that will absorb into the etched areas faster than the original surface finish & thus turn it darker, or if you don’t want that etched side to be used & not worried about food safe, you may be able to even apply paint or wax or color filler and wipe it off the top surface (or sand it even and reseal it all–but most woods & similar do bleed, so if possible, always good to have “scrap” material to practice techniques on to decide what gets the best result before risking ruining your big project.
To be fair, I can read that clearly in the picture which is much smaller than real life, so maybe it’s not as light as you think it is?
Or the picture looks darker than reality 
I agree with the other comments that you could slow it down a bit, but if I were doing this and wanted it to stand out more, I would consider a slightly thicker font and increase the stroke of the lines.
There are limitations given the size of the lines it is engraving.
I love the idea and now I need to go check the freshness of my eggs! 
Bear in mind that some materials will not darken as much as others. Cork, for instance turns very dark at much lower power levels than bamboo or oak. Maple will turn a golden brown, but other woods will darken much more. There is a post here which addresses this slightly. Read down to where I ask about why they used the process they did.
Bamboo is quite hard, and may not darken as much as you want it to without some kind of treatment.
Yep, bamboo cutting boards end up having variability in the engraves due to the density of the various parts of the bamboo trunk(?). I usually mask them, engrave and shoot with a coat of Minwax Polyshades Mission Oak. It creates an even dark stain with a polyurethane finish (which is food safe btw).
