Laser Engraved Wood, Made to Order

I engrave and print on wood to order, one piece or a hundred, from my shop in Hamilton, Ohio. If you have a name, a date, a set of coordinates, a logo, a photo, or a sentence that matters to somebody, it can go onto hardwood. There is no minimum. A single gift is a real order.

Turnaround is 5 to 7 business days. Quotes and a digital proof come back within one business day, and nothing goes on the laser until you approve the proof.

Start a custom order

Two different ways to put a design on wood

People usually say "engraved" for both of these, but they are different processes with different results, and picking the right one matters.

Laser engraving burns away the surface to expose a darker layer of the wood itself. The color you get is the wood reacting, not ink sitting on top, which is why an engraved piece still looks and feels like wood and will never peel or scratch off. It is monochrome by nature. Contrast comes from the species: maple engraves to a crisp dark brown against a pale background, walnut gives a subtler tone-on-tone look. Fine text and thin line work hold up best on tight-grained woods like maple and cherry.

UV printing lays down full color and cures it hard, so a photograph, a multi-color logo, or artwork with gradients can go onto wood without losing the grain underneath. This is how the photo pieces and the color magnets are made. Engraving cannot do color. Printing cannot give you that burned-into-the-wood depth. Some pieces use both.

I run a 100-watt CO2 laser with a rotary attachment for round objects, a smaller diode and infrared laser for fine work and metal marking, and a UV printer for full color. If you are not sure which process suits your project, describe what you want and I will tell you which one I would use and why.

What I engrave on

Hardwood is the core of it. Currently in rotation: maple, cherry, walnut, hickory, oak including reclaimed, baltic birch, red cedar, olivewood, purpleheart, padauk, zebrawood, canarywood, tigerwood, wenge, bolivian rosewood, redheart, and orangeheart. Each one engraves differently, and The Woods covers how each behaves.

Beyond wood, I engrave leather and leatherette, slate, powder-coated drinkware and tumblers, anodized aluminum tags, cast acrylic, and glassware. Round items go on the rotary.

Some things I will not engrave, and it is worth saying plainly: PVC, vinyl, and anything with an unidentified coating. Those release fumes that are genuinely unsafe to cut, so if you send a blank and I cannot identify the coating, I will tell you rather than guess. Cast acrylic engraves cleanly; extruded acrylic does not.

What people actually order

• Engraved wood coasters, in sets or as singles, with a cork backing
• Custom wood keychains on a premium metal split ring
• Wood magnets, UV printed in full color
• Engraved wood bookmarks, slim enough to lay flat in a paperback
• Bottle openers and personalized wood jewelry
• Wall art from coordinates, star charts, and satellite imagery
• Photos printed directly onto wood panels

Ordering in quantity for a wedding, a team, a fundraiser, or a shop? That has its own page with tiers and minimums: Bulk and Custom Engraving.

Sending me artwork

For engraving, vector files work best: .ai, .svg, or .pdf, with text converted to outlines. For UV printing, send raster art at 300 dpi at final output size, and let me know if it is going on a dark wood, because that needs a white base layer under the color.

If all you have is a phone photo of a logo or a kid's drawing on a napkin, send it anyway. Cleaning artwork up is part of the job and there is no charge for standard prep. If something is complex enough to need real redraw time, I will quote that upfront rather than surprising you with it.

How it is finished

Every piece is hand-sanded and sealed with a food-safe oil and beeswax finish, which soaks into the grain instead of sitting on top of it. It is water resistant, not waterproof, and it can be refreshed at home years later with a bit of mineral oil or wood butter. Details are on Materials and Finishes.

Orders ship in plantable seed paper packaging, and every order plants 2 trees, recovers 6 ocean-bound plastic bottles, and protects 20 bees through my Greenspark partnership.

Getting started

Tell me the item, the quantity even if it is one, what you want on it, and when you need it. I will come back within one business day with a price and a proof.

Request a quote or book live on-site engraving for an event.