engraving a wooden pen

[Forest Cobbler]

Have any of you engraved a wooden pen with a normal machine rather than a laser?

 

If so I'd be grateful for any advise, I've got three to do and would like to give it my best shot.

 

Thanks

[Forest Cobbler]

Having just had a quick look online I suspect that they are maple.

[Michael]

I wouldn't do them on a rotary!

Even with a 0.1mm carbide tip I think it would look to messy.

Laser only for me!!

[Forest Cobbler]

I had a feeling that would be the answer.

 

Thanks

[Web_Engraver]

I  engrave drum stick on a IS200, high spindle speed & slow movement.

 

Phil

[Forest Cobbler]

Stupid question I know, but did you use a diamond or a cutter?

 

Would a spindle speed of 20000 be high enough?

 

Thanks

[Web_Engraver]

I used sharp / fine cutter, not sure if the finish would be good enough for a pen though

[Craig Gardner]

I only laser wooden pens

 

Craig

[Forest Cobbler]

Well, having discovered that these pens are cheap as chips off ebay I had a few practice runs on various wooden objects, glue brush handles, suede brush handles, that type of thing, and came to the decision that a rotating diamond was the way to go. Even my thinnest, sharpest cutter would chew the wood up, whereas the diamond just compressed it down and didn't look too bad at all. Don't think I'd want to put more than a single name on one though.

 

I wiped a tiny bit of gold rub'n'buff in, just to make it stand out a bit more, because that is definitely a downside to not using a laser. 

 

It turned out that my biggest issue was not marking the soft wood with the jig.

 

[Forest Cobbler]

Thanks for all the advice by the way.