Odd things you have engraved?

[Phil Salvati]

This one came into the shop this week!

http://www.redearthdsigns.com/Skeeter.jpg

My wife removed this stone from a 10 pound Lhasa Apso's Kidney!

Phil

[Frank Corker]

What does it taste like?

[David Darnell]

Dang, I thought my 1/4" kidney stone was HUUUGE!

[AL Ursich]

Chicken....:D

[Dee Gallo]

All I can say is EEEWW - that is simply appalling! Saving it, wanting it engraved, doing the engraving, ack!

Sorry, must be a girly thing, but I'm gagging from just thinking about the smell of that thing burning.

[Scott Challoner]

I hope your wife is a veterinarian.:p
My dad once showed me a bag of stones he had removed from the bladder of a poodle. I swear there were 2lbs of stones in that 8lb dog.
I suppose they would have engraved OK. I think they're basically calcium.

I have a large mushroom a lady gave me to play with. It's very hard and not entirely smooth but I know people burn pictures on them.

[Linda Tetreault]

We had a "Chili Fest" this summer, my husband made the chili & I lasered the crackers with our logo, it was the talk of the event & everyone loved it.

[Darryl Hazen]

Something we did as a demonstration.

[Mark Winlund]

I engraved a bleacher bench with a pantograph once... in the 70's.

Mark

[Dave Johnson29]

This one came into the shop this week!


A bit bored.

[Bill Cunningham]

I had posted these a while ago, but it's still the most unusual thing I have done in a while..
These are Ends sawn off Elk 'drops' The natural round surface combined with the flat on the back, they were to become belt buckles.. And, thats the natural colour they etched, no colouring added.. The one on the left had slightly slower speed..
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=83538&d=1204862998

[Phil Salvati]

Yes Scott she is a Veterinarian, we get to etch some pretty odd things! Hog teeth and cattle skulls come out great! We live in a ranching area...cattle and cowboy related things move well.

Another idea I use cow horns for, aside from coat racks and bridle hooks etc., is napkin rings. If they are narrow...I polish them on a buffer to a gloss, cut in 1/2" sections..... and engrave brands on them!

The kidney stone is just a calcium deposit, so no smell.... now the leather and cattle horns smells just like working the herd on the ranch!

[Dave Johnson29]

Hog teeth and cattle skulls come out great!


Hi Phil,

Any pics of finished Hog teeth? What in Earth would someone want marked on a hog tooth? :)

[Gary and Jessica Houghton]

Not only have we lasered on tortillas, but deer antlers, too. We have a customer who makes pens out of the antlers. They stink like burnt hair when lasered, but are beautiful.

[Leigh Costello]

I can assure you the only thing that smells worse than antlers being turned or lasered is high-speed carving an emu or ostrich egg. eeww But very pretty when finished.

We did a dog show and offered lasered dog biscuits. Wonderful idea, then Purina rep saw them and really got miffed. Boiled down to a letter from Purina about trademarking. Sheesh! Just a small club and some biscuits that said things like good dog, best in show, i'm here for the treats, etc. And the lasering service was donated, as were the biscuits.

[Phil Salvati]

Dave, I didn't take pictures of the tooth or cattle skulls, unfortunately! It was one of those "quickies" while you wait jobs. I plan to run a few jaw bones tomorrow for our town halloween walk. Just have to make a trip to the coyote pile! We have put hog names, breeder logos and brands on all kinds of things.

Bill,

When you said Elk "Drops", The hunter in me first thought droppings! :D I was really taken a back! Then I read the rest of your post! They look great.

How did they get the dark color on the edges back? Usually if the sheds sit out in the elements they lose it.

[Bill Cunningham]

We did a dog show and offered lasered dog biscuits. Wonderful idea, then Purina rep saw them and really got miffed. Boiled down to a letter from Purina about trademarking. Sheesh! Just a small club and some biscuits that said things like good dog, best in show, i'm here for the treats, etc. And the lasering service was donated, as were the biscuits.

If Purina was not the 'sponsor' of the event, and you bought the dog biscuits, they were 'yours' and if you were NOT lasering their logo, or any of their trademarks onto the treats, I would have went directly out to a pet store, bought some different ones, and put up a sign that said something to the effect of "Sorry, we WILL NOT under any any conditions burn a purina dog treat".. And then, let the dog owner jump to their own conclusions.. :( But then again, I can be somewhat of a S.D.:D

[Dan Hintz]

put up a sign that said something to the effect of "Sorry, we WILL NOT under any any conditions burn a purina dog treat".. And then, let the dog owner jump to their own conclusions..
I wouldn't even be so nice as to let them make up their own conclusions. My sign would be something more along the lines of "Purina's lawyers don't like me giving away their dog biscuits for free, so I'll do any brand EXCEPT Purina!"

Although if it were me I'd tell Purina where they could stick it, and I wouldn't be diplomatic about it, either. They have no basis for a stink, so they can go suck on a biscuit.

[Ross Lowry]

Here was a clam shell I engraved with the name of the lake and the date.

[Scott Erwin]

I wouldn't even be so nice as to let them make up their own conclusions. My sign would be something more along the lines of "Purina's lawyers don't like me giving away their dog biscuits for free, so I'll do any brand EXCEPT Purina!"

Although if it were me I'd tell Purina where they could stick it, and I wouldn't be diplomatic about it, either. They have no basis for a stink, so they can go suck on a biscuit.


I'm with Dan & Bill on this....Think of the bigger picture...Purina is owned by Nestle...the chocolate company..."Nestle's make the very best....Choc-o-late" (You know you have sung that before...) They are also the makers of: Hot Pockets, Lean Cuisine (Frozen Dinners-Weight/Light), Carnation Breakfast, Taster's Choice Instant Coffee, Stouffers (TV Dinners), not to mention all of the Dog and Cat food stuff....

If they have a problem with engraving on THEIR product which you purchased/received as a donation (not theirs anymore, transference of ownership when purchased/gifted) If they think they can tell you what to do with your purchase of their product, then we should be able to tell them what to do with their profits....then you/we should not support them either....kinda like a lumber company telling you not to use their wood for making coffins, only can be used to make entertainment centers...not gonna happen.

[Bill Cunningham]

Dave, I didn't take pictures of the tooth or cattle skulls, unfortunately! It was one of those "quickies" while you wait jobs. I plan to run a few jaw bones tomorrow for our town halloween walk. Just have to make a trip to the coyote pile! We have put hog names, breeder logos and brands on all kinds of things.

Bill,

When you said Elk "Drops", The hunter in me first thought droppings! :D I was really taken a back! Then I read the rest of your post! They look great.

How did they get the dark color on the edges back? Usually if the sheds sit out in the elements they lose it.

I think these were fairly fresh droppings :D He found them while hiking, so the color probably didn't get time to fade.. Before he sent them to me, I told him to put a few coats of wax on the domed part to seal them up in case they had to have colour added. I did not elaborate on the wax, and later found out when he sent them to me that he had taken what I has said literally, and used parrafin wax. He then put them in a oven to bake it in, and buffed them up.. Seems weird, but it worked pretty nicely. This may be why the etched colour came out so nice, and the rim colour stayed natural.... As for Hogs teeth, I just remembered I have a few Moose teeth I picked up, and maybe a nice portrait of Bullwinkle would suit..;)

[Jesse Anderson]

Since i have had my laser at a retail store location.... I have had at least 4 people ask me to engrave bongs and pipe's... They always hint around the idea poking around to see if i am cool with it... One guy called me and said he wanted to engrave a "Smoked Piece of Glass"" But that he could not transport it..I was not picking up on his figure of speech.. So i ask why he could not just bring the smoked glass in and get it engraved ? Then i asked is it like super super fragile ? They guys says well if you do not understand then i do not want u doing it...Then i was like sure bring the thin in and make sure u bring a lighter.

[Bruce Boone]

265936Here's my latest.

[Mark Ross]

The Purina thing comes down to them placing their trademark on the biscuit and then when you laser, it is modification of a registered trademark which is an absolute no-no. We get requests all the time to engrave things like the Harley Davison logo, which we politely refuse to do. The funniest thing is when you get a cease and desist from a parent company, when you have a signed agreement with one of its children companies allowing use of logos. That one always kills me. We don't get it much, typically when some mega corporation gobbles up a new company and they don't realize we have agreements in place. Blame the stupid lawyers.

Hey...lets engrave some lawyers!

[Steve Busey]

Brownies!
266031

[Matt Turner (physics)]

400 digits of pi on an apple pie

266039

[Bill Cunningham]

Since i have had my laser at a retail store location.... I have had at least 4 people ask me to engrave bongs and pipe's... They always hint around the idea poking around to see if i am cool with it... One guy called me and said he wanted to engrave a "Smoked Piece of Glass"" But that he could not transport it..I was not picking up on his figure of speech.. So i ask why he could not just bring the smoked glass in and get it engraved ? Then i asked is it like super super fragile ? They guys says well if you do not understand then i do not want u doing it...Then i was like sure bring the thin in and make sure u bring a lighter.

"Paraphernalia" is not illegal in Canada. You can buy anything from bongs to roach clips in local fleamarkets. But any bongs brought into me, were made from borosilicate glass and not directly engravable. You can apply a mask, then sandblast but trying to get a good etch on that stuff with the laser is a waste of time..

[Martin Boekers]

Pumpkins, oranges, toast, steaks as long as it doesn't contain Chlorides many things have found their way to the laser. :)

[Jesse Anderson]

Canada is lax compared to South Dakota.. In South Dakota you can get charged with a crime for having Nano gram amount of drugs in your system. I am not into that scene but here in South Dakota they have this law called possession by ingestion. Meaning if u have 100 nano grams of a certain chemical in your blood stream it is the same as having a larger quantity of the same substance in your pocket... One of the few state's if not the only state that has this law. So when it comes to "Paraphernalia" even if its never been used... It is a touchy area.. I would rather risk a potential copy right law for a customer than get a "Paraphernalia" charge... But still customers always bring in the weirdest things...

[Scott Shepherd]

brought into me, were made from borosilicate glass and not directly engravable.

Just tell them it's engraved, they'll never know :p "What, you can't see it? It's right there, plain as day".

[Dave Sheldrake]

UK is pretty lax to class B narcotics, possession outside the body = a crime, ingested (other than for storage / transportation) = not a crime.

Paraphernalia so long as it has never been used (does not contain traces of an illegal substance) you can have as much as you like, pipes, bongs,crack pipes, papers, clips...anything like that is legal here.

( I have never and will never use or support the use of illegal substances) but if somebody want's to fill their house with fluorescent green bongs? I'm good with that, if they want to pump God knows what into their own bodies? I really don't much care so long as their habit doesn't affect the innocent or those around me (my kids etc).

I occasionally smoke Cigarettes and I never drink alcohol, if others wish to...that's cool. The right to choose was provided by far better men than most of us will ever be.

best wishes

Dave