Engraving OLD Reclaimed Barn wood

[Chris Edens]

Has anyone engraved old reclaimed barn wood? It's the in thing now for people to put it up and use it for decor. As a favor, a friend of mine needs a piece of it engraved. I am not sure how it is going to turn out and I only have one shot at it. I am going to engrave it on my Speedy 400 120W so it gets a nice deep engraving.

I am just concerned that no matter how deep I engrave it will not be visible. I googled to see if anyone has done this and turned up few examples.

[Keith Winter]

Have him cut a tiny piece off that you can test on.

[Chris Edens]

Yes that would be ideal. Essentially it can't be cut or it won't look "old and rustic" anymore. Yes, they only gave me one piece.

[Jay Selway]

I've done some engraving on reclaimed wood. Any idea what species of wood it is? For example, I did some reclaimed oak that looked kind of crappy, but also have done reclaimed pine, fir and maple that looks great.

If you want the engraving extra dark, back the focus out .2". You'll burn it much darker. I'd also have the client know that since it's a material you don't typically use, you can't be held responsible for quality of the engraving.

That being said, you should be fine. Old wood burns just like new wood.

You've got a 120w laser, so I'd just crank the power up and slow down the speed as well.

[Bob Davis - Sturgis SD]

I've only had my laser for a couple months, but we've already engraved a lot of barnwood. We sand one side, add about 3 coats of water based poly clear, mask the board, engrave, then Laser Dark.

Bob



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[Keith Winter]

That's sharp looking Bob!

[Keith Winter]

Yes that would be ideal. Essentially it can't be cut or it won't look "old and rustic" anymore. Yes, they only gave me one piece.

If it will be hung on a wall, another trick you can do to find the setting: We sometimes do a very tiny mark on the backside around 1/8" long near the edge to determine settings. If that's not possible then you'll have to go with best guess. Great thing about wood is if your settings are too light you can typically just run it again :D

Your customer should be aware if they are only providing you one piece and nothing to work with for a sample, you cannot be responsible for the quality of the engraving. I always ask for a test piece, and let them know if they don't have a test piece it's possible that it might not come out at all or as they expect because we've never worked with the material before but we'll do our best. They won't be happy if it gets messed up, but covers you if everything goes wrong...

[Paul hardy]

I did a project for the anniversary of a design firm in FL from some reclaimed cedar fence boards. This was 3 boards cut and glued. You just have to do some work on the cut edges to roughen them up. Biggest problem I had was that the wood was extremely dry, so the engraved area was very rough. For this project, that was a bonus. If you want a really smooth engraved area, you might have to work a little harder depending on the wood.

If you cut the edges, there are some mixtures you can use to 'age' the wood. For oak, soak steel wool in white vinegar for a few days. Brush that onto the newly cut edges and it will turn a very similar grey to weathered oak. You can also use tea depending on your wood and the color you need. Dark paste wax works very well for making the newer area (paint or engraved) look older. I'll have to see if I have any pics at home of the result w/ weathered oak.

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[Joe Hillmann]

You can mask it off with masking tape. Engrave through the tape than use several VERY LIGHT coats of black spray paint (VERY LIGHT so the paint doesn't bleed into the grain of the wood.

[Bob Davis - Sturgis SD]

I like that a lot Paul. I'm going to try a leather inlay with barnwood sometime this week.

Bob