Hand Made Canoe Paddle: Laser Branding Solid Oak
Recently CNCROi.com got the opportunity to laser brand a solid oak hand-made canoe paddle and the results came out spectacular!
As I was CNC laser branding this hand-made canoe paddle, I realized that thanks to our ShopBot PRSAlpha, we can actually fabricate custom canoe paddles too!
Having a 96″ x 60″ platform means CNCROi.com can make endless custom wooden items to just about any spec!
The canoe paddle we had the opportunity to CNC laser engrave was hand-made using a solid piece of Oak, its beautiful and I can’t imagine the amount of hard work and dedication that went into fabricating it… it makes me thankful for all the CNC machines we have here at CNCROi.com!
As the customer already added varnish and other sealing agents onto this hand-made canoe paddle, I had to mask it as any amount of sanding would ruin the finish, this is why I prefer to work off raw wood rather than finished, as it gives me a lot more flexibility when it comes to finishing options.
That being said, this is not the first time a customer gave CNCROi.com a finished piece of timber to work from so many precautions were put into this work to make sure the best results were created on this hand-made Oak canoe paddle were perfect the first time around as there was no possibility of improving things after the laser branding process was finished.
If you are wondering how CNCROi.com acquired many of the skills required to engrave a non-flat hand-made canoe paddle, it comes from our modeling background, there is so much thought and precision required to make a model like this Ferris Wheel to actually have it work, gears and all, that literally anything else CNCROi.com is child’s play.
The reason why CNCROi.com is re-branding this solid Oak canoe paddle twice is to make the engraving a bit darker, it was really hard to properly film or photograph this canoe paddle in the shop due to the shine the customer applied to the surface of the finished paddle but this did make a noticeable difference.
Having a very accurate and precise industrial wide-format Austrian CNC laser means we can pass over an area previously engraved a million times and always do so with absolute precision!
Going back to CNCROi.com‘s modeling experience, here’s a boat we made recently that was made using the same laser as was engraving this canoe paddle.
The finished results look totally amazing, even with the masking on, you can see how consistent the darkness of the charcoal was and how it follows the grain, as soon as I took the masking off, this amount of contrasts again, went down dramatically, because the camera had a tough time focusing on the engraving vs the grain pattern and shine on the solid Oak canoe paddle.
Of course, CNCROi.com didn’t just laser engrave the Oak paddle blade but also the handle with a few names, again, the results looked amazing and unlike screen printing or any other type of “printing”, this will never come off, fade or crack over time as it’s engraved INTO the paddle.
Once the masking is removed, you can see how well the quote the customer wanted us to engrave came out on this Oak canoe paddle which they themselves were talented enough to make by hand! Quote provided by the customer.
May your waters stay calm after you’ve set your paddle in to the stream of line.
CNCROi.com has a lot of experience and equipment in our shop to handle wooden projects, Oak, Maple, Pine… you name it, we’ve worked with it!
Here’s one more picture of this canoe engraved to customer’s requirements before we move onto a bigger job, engraving the world!
I originally engraved the world years ago when I first got our Trotec Speedy 400 flexx, it’s a simple design but I thought it was just a fun thing to do and thousands of videos later, that passion for having fun with these machines, whether it’s waterjet, router or laser really hasn’t faded a bit!
I’ve engraved the world more than once, it’s a wonderful picture, instantly recognizable and a great default image to put onto just about anything.
Whether its wooden pallets or just piece of wood I have lying around, if it doesn’t have the CNCROi.com logo engraved or etched into it, it’s the planet CNCROi.com was founded upon.
CNCROi.com works on a variety of materials, in this blog post, it’s been focused on wood but we can also do the same on other materials including Corian.
Having CNC router really helps us to greatly expand what we can make, having a full wood and metal working shop expands things exponentially in just about any direction too.
For this world map, the machine we used is the same one we used for this hand-made Oak canoe paddle, just four years removed, the machine still works great and the results are just as accurate and precise right from the plane as they are today in our 3rd shop.
After a little sanding and the masking removed, you can see how well the world looks after it’s been engraved by CNCROi.com!
Whether you want a custom canoe paddle made and engraved or our home planet onto any material including metal, contact CNCROi.com to make it happen just for you!