Rustic wood engraved with text

[Sandy Henry]

Customer needs several 8x12" pc. of wood engraved with text. Wants rustic look. Some will hang indoors, some outdoors. Any suggestions on best type of wood? I'd like nice contrast & weather resistant (I don't want to paint or treat the material) Thanks!

[Dee Gallo]

Check out James Terry's thread: DPI and PPI with respect to power, speed and output


He did a nice piece using natural bark edges, simple and effective.

cheers, dee

[Randy Walker]

Hi Sandy
Western red cedar and cypress woods work great indoors or outdoors. They have a very nice rustic look if you get them rough sawn or you can use a wire brush to rough up the grain.

Randy Walker

[Janet Liddiard]

The WUS 120 product from Laserbits came to mind when I read your post. The wood is not finished, but it's very rustic looking. Just a thought...

[Sandy Henry]

I think my customer can provide cedar. I'll give it a try. Thanks for your help. Sandy

[Russ Shoe]

We did a "Man Cave" sign few months ago...was a piece of barn wood. came out great, very rustic, used a font in corel, "livingwell" I think. We had some caveman drawing on it, a caveman havin a beer...It was fun to do.

[Brian Terry]

You can get rounds with the bark on them at Michaels or google Basswood rounds I tried to attatch a picture. I don't like the way the faces came out. I have to work on it. I am new to the photo editing part.

[Bill Cunningham]

You can get rounds with the bark on them at Michaels or google Basswood rounds I tried to attatch a picture. I don't like the way the faces came out. I have to work on it. I am new to the photo editing part.

That looks pretty good Brian.. I would have lightened the woman's face down to the same level as the kids, and the mans face just a little (he looks like the outdoors type so he probably does have a decent tan) The burn color looks fine.. Was that the cherry wood setting in P.G. ? it usually works the best for almost everything..

[Brian Terry]

Yes it was the cherry wood setting. I can't seem to figure out how to get the faces clearer. I have played with brightness, contrast, tone curves but can't seem to get it just right. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Bill Cunningham]

If your using Corel Photopaint you can use the effects tool and experiment with the brightness tools across the top, and lighten or darken selected areas of the photo (Edit undo is your friend when trying these). It's a matter if trial and error. After a while you will be able to judge how light, how bright, how much contrast and intensity you require to get the effect you need. Under the adjust menu, the brightness/contrast/intensity control can do a lot of the pre-work for you and in special cases where you only have to lighten or darken a small selected area, the effects tool will handle that.. Experiment and test, like the main CorelDraw, it's not something you will learn overnight but it will come in time..

[Brian Terry]

Thanks Bill I appreciate you taking the time to help. I will experiment.

[Tom Bull]

Brian, are you sure the dpi, ppi settings are same in every step of your processing of the photo from start to finish? You can also scan (acquire) the piece of wood into Corel and use the image to draw the oval shape you work your photo into so it matches the shape of the wood.

[Brian Terry]

Yes the DPI settings were kept the same. I have been playing with the effects tool and I think that it will improve my cleanup. Thanks for all the suggestions. I hope I'll be able to help one day.

[Ed Mihalack]

I use good ole pine boards, with Deft walnut penetrating oil to protect it. The big box lumber store has it. Distress the pine first with a chain and puncture the wood with numerous scratch awl holes to provide a worm hole look. Then Deft it. Looks great and ages nicely outside.
Ed

[Jeff Chumbley]

I bought those Basswood rounds at Wally World in the arts and crafts dept awhile back. I don't know if they currently carry them. I think they use them for woodburning projects...