Soooooo Sharp

Let’s face it, ladies and gents - your hipster (boy)friend doesn’t want pastel walls and daisies decorating his bathroom walls. He wants something that will match the trendy rough and tough, lumberjack-worthy beard he’s rocking.

Like these old, early 1900’s shaving utensil patents engraved on Proofgrade Walnut Ply.

The Walnut ply (and hardwood) just arrived the other day. This stuff is gorgeous! More so than the photos illustrate. And the engravings were fun to do. The smallest text (on the middle image) is about .035" - or 2.5pt text and reads quite clearly.

I engraved and cut and then thought - how are you going to hang these? The rope stuff is pretty trendy right now. Sawtooths, D-rings, etc. all require hardware and even though this is the thick walnut ply, it’s still not a lot to pound hanging hardware into.

So I hit Illustrator, made a couple of small, rounded rectangles, combined some paths and what not and came up with this. In retrospect, the head hole is 3/8", which is really too large for this light weight and size - but, they still hang well… and your guy is probably going to put them on the wall with a 16d nail anyways.

The nice thing about the larger than necessary rectangle shapes is that they actually act as a standoff against the wall and give a floating effect. When they are attached to walls — not oak trees.

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Really like that stand off effect! Nice work!

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And I have to give a shoutout to the Glowforge catalog. I really didn’t have anything great to clamp the 2 keyhole sections together while gluing, so I cut out a few sets of the carpenters squeeze clamps in the catalog - worked like a charm.

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That’s brilliant. I made plaques for my parents and couldn’t figure out a way to hang them (they’re just on the mantle for now). Totally stealing your idea.

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Did you engrave the opposite side to make proper keyholes?
I always do my key holes using two pieces of 1/8 layered up.
You also might want to add a piece lower down to add some stability you’ll just have to check and see how it hangs.

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No engraving - that takes too long. :slight_smile: I cut a slot in the back piece that matches the head size on the front piece (3/8”) and then the thinner slot acts as a proper guide.

It hangs even off of the wall, giving the stand-off effect. The cuts are large enough in relation to the overall size to hang well. I should have cut it with thinner ply but I went the lazy route with what was in the machine. :slight_smile:

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Not that it takes long to make them, but here’s an SVG of what I put together.

KeyHoleHangers

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Thanks! That’ll save me a bit of time. Much appreciated!

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Awesome! I’ve been really wanting to try the Nike Air patent in 3D using EVA foam, clear acrylic, and leather using a wood backer like this. I need to move it up the list.

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It looks great! And thanks for the standoff files.

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Love the idea of using the old patents! You’re so right…guys are just about impossible to design for. :smile:

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I like the multiple media idea! That’ll look great, I bet!

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I’ve been putting keyholes in stuff for a while now but I like your design as it will be great for grabbing small scraps and using them. I keep fairly small scrap just because of things like this.

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It was the easiest 1am solution I could come up with :slight_smile:

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Those are the best. All my best work comes between 1 and 3 am.

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Studies have shown that fatigue is actually beneficial towards creativity and problem solving. Being inebriated to a point also does this. Hold my beer and watch this, y’all.

They actually have a scientific name for the condition or state but I can’t remember at the moment. Bet I’ll remember it at 1am tonight. :wink:

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Thanks so much for the standoff/hanger file. I will certainly make use of that. Very kind of you.

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Patents are a novel idea! They do look great on your oak tree, but I’m guessing you didn’t make the standoffs for nothing :slight_smile:

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Thanks, this was super helpful today…was whipping out a quick print for a birthday gift and needed a nail bracket. Didn’t have any real thin wood, so engraved the oval to about half thickness on medium maple and then did the cuts. Of the keyhole part.

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Nice! Glad it was helpful! It’s so quick and easy. It’ll be my go to for little things like this. Which reminds me that I should post it in free laser designs.

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