Engraving and Printing Tips
Most of us have some problem getting names and other data on a round shafted cane so here are some solutions to the problem. If you have a name to put on a shaft and have a computer and printer this method by Denny Bell, Racine Wood carvers works well. First go to a word program and set up center justification, font size and style - I use a 26 or 36 size with Engravers MT Bold for style. Typing in caps I hit the enter button after each letter to obtain a vertical line of letters, short data like Unit ID, Service, DOI, Place of Injury etc. can be printed with smaller letters - size 18 and printed horizontally, keeping the length of the horizontal line short enough to be read without turning the cane, this may require several lines of the smaller script. Print out your data, trim the letter column to a manageable size and tape tightly onto the shaft or - use a spray-on adhesive and spray the back of the name list, then, when dry, apply to the shaft, do not spray the shaft. Be sure to carefully align the name and data with the center line of the cane shaft. Wood burn through the paper with a sharp skew wood burner pen, always starting at the center of a letter then working to the outside - this is especially important if you do not glue the paper onto the shaft. After the data are outlined, take the paper off, clean up any residue with acetone if you used the glue method. Fill in the letters with a writing tip to make a solid letter. The use of an adhesive tip comes from Charlie Wolf - NW Arkansas Carvers. To engrave the letters use the same process to get the letters onto the shaft then with a high speed motor and a small carbide tool carve through the paper onto the wood, be carful not to cut to deep, after the carbide use a small diamond ball to clean up the work. Look the job over carefully and clean up any big bumps etc, apply a paint to the engraved letters, this works especially well with a pre-finished cane. This method comes from Audrey Kirk, Pelican Woodcarvers, Baton Rouge ,LA. I recommend that the cane not be finished until all wood burning is done, you can get into a real mess with some of the finishes used and if you sand the job down and try to reapply a finish other than shellac or lacquer the repair will almost always be apparent - see the books on finishing by: Bob Flexner, (he has a new one out). Then, of course, there is always the brass name plate that can be professionally engraved and applied to the shaft. Also available is a Laser engraving service which does a wonderful looking job but the set up can be very expensive - some clubs have found a good samaritan who will do the laser work for free. There is no end to the potential for decoration with a laser machine. Applying Decoupage One method of getting the requested insignia and shoulder patches requested onto a cane is to decoupage it, this consists of gluing a small printed emblem onto the cane- a description of the process can be found by googling up the word decoupage. The method described on the web will work but I use a product recommended by other artists and found at Wal Mart called “Mod Podge” I think that Denny Bell and Harold Joseph use the product. Harold Joseph, a member of the Michigan Woodcarvers Association, has used this method with great successes on the Michigan canes. What Harold does is to first find the requested items on the web by using a search engine to locate Military insignias/Army insignia etc. (Wikipedia is also a great source) you may have to look through a bunch of vendors to find a good printable replica of the specific insignia you need (the military ranks are also available). After you locate and print out a usable and sized replica it should be trimmed of all excess paper and laid out in the order you wish, located and glued on the shaft - before you glue be sure to remove any pencil alignment marks you may have used.  Harold then draws a border some distance away from the items to join the front and back items together in a cohesive unit. This leaves a space between the two sides that is shaded with a woodburner with each item surrounded by a clear space for a border with the space between the clear borders darkened and textured. This produces a very nice effect. Note: the picture at the top of the page shows how this will look. Caution! when applying the Mod Podge over the emblems I have noticed a bleed off of some of the darker colors onto the surrounding wood. This must be removed before continuing . A preventative measure may be to spray each emblem before glue up with a light coat of a lacquer based “Fixative” on the top surface Wood Burning the Emblems Some carvers may prefer outline the insignia/patches by the lettering method described above and either fill in with a shader tip or to paint in with acrylics the required colors. Also, a very effective method is to print and outline then carve in a relief of the requested badge or medal then paint and or woodburn (shade) the object. I have tried all of the methods listed above and feel comfortable with all of them but I think the carved emblem, when it can be used, is the better product if executed with care. Note: I have had to carve off one purple heart that just would not work and glue on a very small carved Washington - it worked, but I do not relish the thought of trying that again.

Printing on Veneer By Gary Bos, California Carvers Guild


PRINTING ON VENEER

I have found, printing the image of a medal or commendation on to veneer to

be very satisfying.

I have tried a variety of veneers and found one that works very well. The

veneer I use is made of 100% real wood that is sliced and adhered to a paper

backing. The paper backing adds stability and flexibility to the wood. The

combination of this special veneer along with the instructions that comes with it

enable you to use an ink jet printer to print on this real wood veneer. You can use a

standard ink jet printer, with no special inks to print on the veneer in full color.

The name of the company from which I order the veneer is as follows:

Cards of Wood

7754 Pine Island Dr.

Belmont, MI 49306 USA

(616) 887 – 8680 (800) 284 – 9896 Fax (616) 887 – 1667

Web site: www.cardsofwood.com

E-mail address: Mike 37@ cardsofwood.com

The veneer comes in 8 _ X 11 inch sheets. The veneer is cut so the grain of the

wood is the same direction as your printer rollers allowing for smooth transition

through the printer.

If you choose not to do your own printing, “Cards of Wood”, will do the

printing for you, providing you supply the necessary artwork. The images I use I

find on the computer. When you are happy with the size and shape of your images,

download them to a CD, and that becomes your necessary artwork.

Note: I would like to recommend that you tell him that you are carving canes

for veterans.

Capturing images from the computer is not difficult, however, you do need a

graphics program in order to manipulate your image.

http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/index.php is a free graphics program found on

the computer. They do ask for a donation if the program serves your purpose. The

help tab is a series of videos showing how to use the program.

Once you have the desired configuration of your image, I print that image on

a single sheet of paper. You may have to rotate the image 90° so that it will be the

right direction on the veneer and will feed through the computer correctly. The

printer I use allows me to include indexing marks. I now cut a small piece of veneer

the size of the indexing marks around the image. Carefully tap the veneer over the

image making sure that the tape does not interfere with the printing. This is where

the grain of the veneer must run the same direction as the feed rollers. I run the

sheet through the printer again and this time the image is printed on the veneer. I

choose to leave the image attached to the paper so I can spray it with a very light

coat of Deft. I do this to keep from smudging the image while working with it.

Note: By cutting the veneer to the size of the image, I save from having a lot

of waste.

I now cut the image from the veneer using a sharp knife or a pair of scissors.

Elmer's multi – purpose glue works very well for me. I apply the glue to the back of

the image using a small paintbrush to limit any glue squeezing out of the edge. The

adhesive qualities of the glue to the wood holds the image quite nicely to the curved

surface. However, you are still able to move the image for alignment purposes. Once

I have the image properly located, I put a small piece of wax paper over the top of

the image and use blue painters tape to hold the image while it dries

I find this process works very well and it's not too time-consuming.

Note: the only time I have found printing on veneer to be unacceptable is when the

background of the image is solid black. I cannot keep the ink from bleeding into

areas of the veneer where it's not wanted.

Note: The printer I use, is a Canon,”MP560 “purchased at Office Depot. It was on

sale for under 100 dollars.

                     Printing on the cane shaft