Finally fired up the Glowforge to make some Christmas presents. My nephews like bowties, so I figured I’d make them some wooden ones, because the Glowforge makes it possible. Found a couple designs online, grabbed some of the wood I ordered from everyone’s favorite ebay seller, deer56hunter, and got to work. The spalted maple took two passes because certain parts didn’t cut through on the first pass. Zebrawood took two passes because almost none of it was cut completely through. The rest worked great with one pass. Zebrawood has an unpleasant smell, but it looks great. I used proofgrade plywood, yellowheart, redheart, zebrawood, and spalted maple.
Snazzy!
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My grandpa used to say that. It seems appropriate.
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Impressed.
They look way better than I had imagined them to look.
Thanks for sharing.
Very nice! I made the upper left one too - Painted it red and glued ribbon to it, and placed it around my 96 yr old father ‘s neck. He was a good sport and wore it out to dinner.
Martha
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He looks thrilled. 
I haven’t decided what to do as far as turning them into wearable ties. I might just let the parents decide how to attach them to their children’s necks. I’m also thinking I might get out the sharpies and add some color to the lightest one.
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I used Unicorn Spit to paint it. And I used Gorilla Wood Glue to adhere the ribbon. I couldn’t figure out any other way, there’s no directions that I noticed for the tie. 
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The files I used included two little loops that you’re supposed to attach to the back and feed a ribbon through, I guess. I didn’t feel like gluing my fingers to the wood while failing to actually accomplish anything, so I gave up when the first one didn’t work out.
I tossed those little loops. I didn’t think glue would hold them for very long.
For adult use a small (3 or 5mm) pair of neodymium magnets are perfect. Glue one to the back and use the other inside the shirt collar to hold it.
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Any chance of sharing the design? I’ve got a friend I’d love to make one for.
psssst…asking is a nono…
Not my designs. I just googled to find a couple designs. Here’s one of the ones I used:
I can’t find the other one right now. I’ll see if I can track it down.
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Fun idea!
Pretty sharp!
They mention Velcro ends to an elastic band, which made me wonder why not glue velcro hook side to the tie itself then you could put it on almost any cloth surface even a t-shirt .
Would love to have at one of those “tie mandatory” resturants 
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Nice! And thanks for the ebay lead on the exotic wood sales.
Saw a fellow wearing a laser cut wood bow tie while out shopping last week but it was steam-punky in design. It could rotate around the center while wearing and all the little gears visible inside the two bows would turn around. He got it as a gift for Christmas, though, so no leads of where one might find a plan for one… or one for sale.
Hi everyone I sketched the bow tie design on the wood be it keeps telling me it will only engrave and I want it to cut instead. I drew my lines with a black sharpie. All my lines are showing up, yet the glowforge still wants to engrave. Help
You can use the Trace function to create a cutline. Instructions for how to use it to do that are here:
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Yeah I used the trace tool but it would only allow the engraving option 