Engraving...

So I finished my SM kit, and a friend kept asking if I was going to engrave or inlay my logo into my headstock... and since I love the way my KoAloha has the logo engraved (and burned?) in the headstock, I thought I'd take a stab at it yesterday.

After scrambling around trying to find some carbon paper, I finally just traced the outline with an X-acto knife, which worked great. Then I busted out my Dremel and the StewMac router base, and went to work with a 1/32" mill. Roughing out went well, but there were a lot of areas that the 1/32" seemed like it was three times too big!

SO, I'm wondering if anyone has other techniques for really fine engraving? I thought about buying a woodburning pen to see what that could do, but figured I'd ask here first.

john

herbsandspices said:

SO, I'm wondering if anyone has other techniques for really fine engraving? I thought about buying a woodburning pen to see what that could do, but figured I'd ask here first.

Click to expand...

Personally I love the laser engraving systems, very nice and they can get some awesome detail. Thing is their massive and very costly.

If you have a steady hand then I'd go with a wood burning tool, your local craft or hobby store probably has a few. Wood burning is my favorite way to engrave wood, you get the basic outline down and then give the area a few quick blasts with an air compressor to get rid of any debris that might catch fire and leave unsightly burn patterns, sounds silly but it happens. Then you can carefully burn it in. After that you can either leave it be or fill in the burn with acrylic paint and nice, high quality paint brush, a shedding brush isn't cool.

And that's it, happy engraving!

Thanks Falcon! I like the looks of the "Razortip" burning station that Lee Valley carries... seems to be fairly versatile.
Argh... I'm supposed to be saving money these days!
john

monkeyswithladders has a very detailed write-up (and video) of his recent cigar box build in which he used a woodburning tool on the headstock. his came out great. hope that helps.

http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13573

Hi Russ, thanks for the link - looks like that's the way to go. Although my original goal was to be able to engrave through the headplate, so you can see the wood underneath it, to create some cool contrast... not sure if burning will be the best way to do it, but worth a shot!