While I was prepping for my baby shower, I thought it would be so cute to customize a wood cake serving set using my Glowforge. I love the look of this engraved wooden knife and look forward to using it for Elizabeth’s birthdays going forward. The best part – it was quick and easy to do!
For the full production of this project, check out the video at the end of the post!
BEFORE WE GET STARTED, FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN SAVE UP TO $500 ON A NEW GLOWFORGE HERE!
items used
- Wood cake serving set
- Glowforge machine – get yours here!
- Font: Kaylee Latif (or font of your choice)
- Material to prop up the knife
- Silhouette Studio Business Edition to export as SVG.
Design Setup in Silhouette Studio
Open Silhouette Studio and type out your name and message using your favorite font. I used Kaylee Latif for this project and several other baby-related items. (Consistency, amrite?)
If you are doing multiple lines of fonts or items, arrange them how you would like in your workspace. When using a script font, make sure to weld the overlapping lines and convert it into a compound path or group it together. Save the design as an SVG file (don’t forget that you need Business Edition for SVG export).
Setting up your engrave in Glowforge
Open your Glowforge software and upload the saved SVG file. Put your knife into the machine. If the knife is thicker than half an inch, remove the crumb tray for clearance. You may need to prop up the knife with boards and adjust the height for the laser to engrave properly.
Remember – the item you’re engraving can be a maximum of two inches from the bottom of your machine, but a minimum of 1.5 inches from the bottom. When we use thinner things, the crumb tray props our item within that space. If we take out the crumb tray, we need to use something to bring the item back within that half inch safe zone!
Hit the three dots in the top toolbar of Glowforge and choose set focus. Click on the knife to adjust the camera’s focus properly. Once you have that done, you can set up the placement, size and your engrave settings for the word.
My settings (be sure to test yourself!)
- Speed: 1000
- Power: 85
- Lines Per Inch: 270
the final product!
Now you have your custom wood knife! I can’t wait to engrave this with Elizabeth’s birth date and other stats. One of my favorite parts of this pregnancy has been thinking of different items and traditions we want for our kids. I am so excited to be able to bring out this knife for her birthday each year. This engraved knife is perfect for those special occasions that will continue to be commemorated (ummm, hello weddings?!).
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