Mask causing lighter patch on bamboo

Beyond the Manual
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I just engraved my first bamboo board and it’s beautiful – except when I removed the masking I used for the logo, it revealed a slightly paler patch of wood compared to the rest of the board…it’s subtle but definitely visible to someone paying attention. Is there any way to prevent or treat this? Or is the only solution to to mask the entire board so it’s at least consistent?

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Have you wiped it down at all? That might be smoke residue, a damp paper towel would probably pick it right up. Windex or alcohol might pull it up even better, but I’d start with the lightest touch (water) and ramp up if that’s not solving the problem.

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kinda looks like the masking lifted the surface sealant/treatment. What happens if you run some mineral oil or cutting board butter over the whole thing?

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So far cutting board oil seems to have done the trick…now just curious if there’s a way to prevent, but if it’s lifting a surface sealant I suppose not…a super light oiling isn’t a huge time addition so it’s not the worst thing I guess! :slight_smile:

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Anytime wood has been treated, then masked, you run the risk of removing some of the treatment layers when removing the masking, in this case, a simple retreatment of the entire surface with cutting board oil returned the finish. There’s not much you can do about this, just be prepared to refresh any finish after removing masking.

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My question is did you by chance sand the cutting board down a bit to get rid of the uv rays fron sitting on a store shelf or from the sun. Mine looked similar to that and then had a idea to sand off the design and start over and it was quite a remarkable difference in looks after it was done typicaly the company does put on a sealer at times depending on the species or company. I have had to sand stain off boards just to see what wood i was working with. Give a sanding a shot and see how much difference it makes.

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You don’t really need to mask engraves. It can leave you with gummy residue in the engraved areas, and removes detail.

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Yeah as a rule I agree and only mask engraves in two cases:

  • Vector engraving where I’m powering through the masking so much that the laser doesn’t even notice it

  • Raster engraving where I have a vector outline around the engraved area. I run a job where I barely cut through the masking and then weed it, then run the engrave after. This effectively makes it a no-masking engrave (like @geek2nurse is recommending) while also protecting the surface of the rest of the piece.

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