Engraving wood hiking staffs

[Jim A. Walters]

I am looking to engrave some wood hiking staffs. I have found someone that has Dogwood, Sassafras, and Hawthorne staffs already finished. Has anyone engraved any of these woods? What would the contrast be like, and which would be better to engrave? I am new to engraving these, and have a short delivery window. If you want to see the poles, search for an eBay store named Wilderness Walkers.

[Joe Pelonio]

Those are unusual woods and I doubt that many people have tried to laser them. You may have to buy one of each, because the finish on them will make a difference. A light wood color with dark finish will engrave nicely, but a light color with light finish will also if you use more power to darken the engraving. The tricky one is dark wood with dark finish, might have to fill it with a lighter color for it to show up.

[Bruce Volden]

Jim


I have engraved many different woods, from my experience "wood is wood". It will engrave and can be color filled etc., that being said, my question is~~Will you be doing quantities?? If so it looks to me like positioning the engraving will be a much bigger challenge than anything else! These canes/walking sticks are all different in size and shapes, there is still money to be made there 'tho:)


Bruce

[Jim A. Walters]

I am looking at doing 13 staffs. These are awards for some scouts and scouters from our troop. We are still figuring out what type of engraving we want to do. I was thinking of each persons name vertically, and a small graphic with the troop number and date near the top. It might be difficult to align, but it beats the magnifying glass and sun :cool:

[Joe Pelonio]

I would say that for Boy Scouts don't worry about the contrast, as you would with a coprorate award. Those kids will be real happy with them
however they come out. My son leaves Saturday for the summer where he works at Camp Parsons as medic, and I've seen signs there that have been carved and not paint filled, with very little contrast, hard to read and they are signs. For personalization of walking sticks it's not nearly as important.

[Jim A. Walters]

Half of these are leader awards. I am concerned they feel they received their money's worth for the awards. I am suprised the committee agreed to spend so much money on awards. Once I have the different woods engraved, I will post pictures.
We have 65 boys in the troop and about 40 registered leaders. It is a very active troop!