Material & Surface Engraving Styles

These are the styles that make one material impersonate another — burl and spalted figure on plain hardwood, damascus layering on flat steel, shagreen and pebbled hide on a smooth polymer panel. They are judged by a harder standard than ornament: a viewer knows what wood grain and stone veining look like, so the pattern has to be irregular in the way the real thing is irregular, never a repeating tile. Most of them are full-coverage fills rather than compositions, which makes them the natural choice for backgrounds, inlay panels and any part where the material itself is the subject.

Materials these styles are tuned for: jewelry, knives, leather, metal, slate, stone, tumblers, wood.

25 styles in this family

Alligator Hide — Graded rectangular gator scutes with deep crease channels. Best for leather, knives, metal. Use this style in The Fabricator
Bamboo Culm — Split bamboo canes with staggered ring nodes. Best for wood, tumblers, slate. Use this style in The Fabricator
Brushed Metal — Directional satin brush striations running along the shape. Best for metal, tumblers, knives. Use this style in The Fabricator
Burl Wood — Clustered burl eyes with wood grain streaming around them - figured veneer look Best for wood, metal. Use this style in The Fabricator
Damascus Steel — Flowing, organic Damascus steel wavy patterns with layered fold lines. Liquid metal texture, swirling and rippling. High contrast. Best for metal, wood. Use this style in The Fabricator
Distressed Leather — Worn creases, scuffs and scars across open hide. Best for leather, wood, tumblers. Use this style in The Fabricator
Granite Speckle — Dense three-grade angular mineral speckle. Best for stone, tumblers, metal. Use this style in The Fabricator
Hammered Metal — Overlapping planished hammer facets. Best for metal, tumblers, jewelry. Use this style in The Fabricator
Living Bark — Twisting fibre bark cords with knot eyes and moss - living tree wood texture Best for wood, leather, metal. Use this style in The Fabricator
Mammoth Ivory — Schreger lattice crossed by bold bark-line cracks. Best for knives, wood, jewelry. Use this style in The Fabricator
Marble Veining — Branching marble vein rivers running over clean open stone. Best for stone, tumblers, metal. Use this style in The Fabricator
Mother of Pearl — Nested nacre ripples swirling from off-centre origins. Best for jewelry, metal, knives. Use this style in The Fabricator
Ostrich Quill — Dense scatter of raised ostrich follicle domes. Best for leather, wood, metal. Use this style in The Fabricator
Pebbled Leather — All-over pebbled grain cells in a branching crease network. Best for leather, wood, tumblers. Use this style in The Fabricator
PH Wood — Fine straight wood grain and canvas micarta - tight layered fibre striations for knife scales and handles Best for wood, metal, leather. Use this style in The Fabricator
Polished Horn — Flowing horn bands with feathered fibre edges. Best for knives, wood, tumblers. Use this style in The Fabricator
Rough Tree Bark — Deep-fissured tree bark plates with chipped flaking edges - rough wood texture Best for wood, leather, metal. Use this style in The Fabricator
Rusted Patina — Patchy corrosion blooms with pitted fringes. Best for metal, wood, slate. Use this style in The Fabricator
Slate Stone — Split slate plates with deep black cleavage gaps. Best for stone, slate, wood. Use this style in The Fabricator
Spalted Wood — Fine grain crossed by bold black spalting zone lines. Best for wood, knives, tumblers. Use this style in The Fabricator
Stingray Shagreen — Packed pearl beads with a spine band of larger beads. Best for leather, knives, metal. Use this style in The Fabricator
Tortoise Shell — Solid blotches with flame-streaked fringes on open ground. Best for jewelry, wood, tumblers. Use this style in The Fabricator
Weathered Barnwood — Reclaimed barn wood planks with split checks, nail holes and knot holes Best for wood, leather. Use this style in The Fabricator
Weathered Bone — Sun-bleached bone with branching stress cracks and pitting. Best for knives, wood, metal. Use this style in The Fabricator
Wood Relief — Carved wood-grain texture — smooth flowing grain lines swirling around knot eyes and tightening into cathedral arch figures, tiling edge to edge. Best for metal, wood. Use this style in The Fabricator

Using these styles

Open the Fabricator, load the outline of the part you are engraving, and choose a style from this family. The pattern is generated to fill your outline rather than pasted over it, so the result fits the part instead of being cropped to it. Run a test on matching scrap before committing a production piece — density that reads perfectly on coated metal can close up on open-grain wood, and the fix is usually speed or an extra pass rather than more power.