Hello,
I am about to make a few sports awards and wanted input on what type wood would be good for this order. I can’t find a 10" thick hexagon shaped piece so will probably have to engrave, then cut out my hexagon and router the edged (maybe).
Regards,
Jack
Do you have a visual sample of something similar to what you are trying to create? 10" thick is not something I have seen before in an award plaque. I have only seen them in 1/2" - 1 1/2" thick width is not a problem but thinkness will be unless you go to a lumber yard and get large pieces to cut yourself.
Cheers
Sas
Sasquatch,
I apologize, I meant using a 10" round and 3/4" thick. Probably a 1" x 10/12" plank of wood. Engrave about 1/4" from the edge or so, chopsaw the angles of the hexagon, then router the edge a bit, polyurethane at the end. Mainly asking about wood type. Probably a premium pine as to not get too expensive. I am using an Ortur LM2Pro 10w.
Regards,
Jack
Add a light perimeter mark to guide your saw / sand / whatever secondary operations: take the line and nobody will ever know it was there, while marveling at your precision. 
Yep. I thought about that. Just haven’t added the line yet. So maybe Select Pine.
Pine would not be my first choice. Harder woods are much better.
I use Hickory.
I agree with @ferg about the pine.
Wood generally burns darker or lighter depending on the resin or sap content. If the resin content is high then the laser beam will burn the resin and drive it into the wood resulting in a dark burn. If the resin content is low the laser beam will vaporize the wood leaving only a minimal burn. Alder and Cherry wood usually have a high resin/sap content.
Quick tip regarding resin/sap content. Let’s say you find a good quality wood that laser engraves with a nice dark burn. One day out of the blue the same wood is not engraving as dark as it use to, instead it seems lighter. Nothing has changed, your using the same settings, same wood vendor, same everything. One possibility of the sudden change in burn color is that the tree was cut down in the fall or winter month’s.
Huh? If you do a study on trees you will find that most tree’s drop their sap down to the bottom of the trunk in the fall to prepare for the winter month’s ahead. In the spring the sap redistributes in the upper portion of the tree. So what all that this means for the laser engraver is that if the tree is cut down in the fall or winter and the upper portion of the tree was used for the plaque, the resin content will most likely be lower.
So how can you know if the plaque has a low resin content?
PROFESSIONAL TTIP
The best way to determine the resin content is to run a test on the back side of the plaque to be engraved. A great way to run a test without ruining the piece is by laser engraving your company logo on the back. By doing this you can accomplish two tasks, first your determining the darkness of the burn and second you are branding your product. An alternate method to determine if the plaque has a low resin content, is if the plaque is lighter in color than that wood species normally shows, it may be lower in resin. Although this method of checking the resin content is usually accurate I highly recommend doing the burn test pattern on the back.
Stripes, great on Zebras but not on award plaques/ photo engravings
What’s the first thing that catches your eye when looking at a Zebra? The stripes! Wood has a very similar effect on the eyes. This is because our eyes are naturally drawn to to character/grain of the wood. For furniture a heavy grain/streaking is usually desired but for photo/plaque engraving it’s a distraction and will quickly rob the plaque/photograph of detail. When laser engraving you want to choose a wood that has a smooth consistent grain with minimal streaking. So what is a smooth consistent grain? A wood with nominal alternating light and dark streaks( bamboo is also notorious for this)
The wood we use for laser engraving
For our application of laser engrvaing we have found that Alder wood works best. It offers a high contrast engraving with consistant results. In many cases it’s better to be seen and not heard and in the case of Alder wood it fits this bill. For the most part it has a subtle grain which can be seen but is not distracting from the content being engraved.
Wood is a very challenging material for photograph engraving however once you are dialed in you can produce very consistent results. Selection of the wood is ONE key factor in producing a quality engraving with detail and contrast. The other key factors are image processing and the print settings for the laser engraver. These are just as important as wood selection and usually requires a significant amount of testing.
Cheers 
Sas
Back in the day… (another lifetime ago) when I worked in an engraving shop, nearly all the solid wood award plaques were done in alder. It is a relatively inexpensive “hardwood” with a nice tight grain, will easily accept various stains and finishes, from simple rubbed oil to a high-gloss polyurethane or acrylic lacquer. It’s easy to mill yourself, if you have a source of rough alder lumber.
Cherry is also a beautiful wood for engraving, but… it’s moderately expensive and is guaranteed to darken with age. The darkening may not be a bad thing, but some customers end up less than happy when the plaque doesn’t look like what they received 5 years previous.
Thank you for taking the time ro reply. I always enjoy reading tips from “veterans in the trenches” like yourself.
The wisdom gained is worth ten times the knowledge that can be gained by reading a book. That is one of the many reasons I like to belong to forums of like minded individuals.
Again thank you for sharing your experience with me. It means a lot to me personally.
Cheers
Looks great nice job! I am also a beekeeper so i am partial to the hexagons. 
Cheers
Where is a good source for clear alder in wide dimensions?
Looks like you have a very good source about 45 minutes away from you in Houston
PRO TIP
If other users want to find lumber in their area the tool to use is Google and in the search field enter:
Alder lumber near me
Walnut lumber near me
Lumber yard
Click on the business and when Google gives you more info use it to your advantage: phone #, GPS, Website
Good luck
