The Best Wood for Laser Cutting and Engraving

Maple is near-white, extremely even and low in resin, which gives it the widest tonal range between untouched surface and engraved char of anything we stock. That range is what a raster photograph needs: without it, mid-tones collapse and the image reads as a silhouette.

It also cuts cleanly at 3 mm and holds a sharp edge, so it doubles as an inlay wood where you want pale pieces that stay pale. Expect slightly more power for cut-through than alder and slightly more visible edge char, which is why masking pays off on maple more than on any other species here.

• Best for: photo engraving, high-contrast raster art, awards and signage, inlay, pale contrast elements.
• Sizes: A4 297×210 mm, 150×300 mm and 100×300 mm at 3 mm (1/8 in).
• Masking: recommended for engraving-heavy jobs.

Maple 3 mm laser sheets

Alder is lighter and softer than maple, so it cuts through 3 mm faster, at lower power, with noticeably less edge char. If you are producing kit parts, boxes, fretwork or signage in quantity, alder is the economical default: fewer passes, less cleanup, less consumed machine time.

Its engraving contrast is good but not maple's — the base colour is a light tan with a pink cast rather than near-white, so the tonal range is narrower. For vector work and line engraving that difference is irrelevant; for photographs it is decisive.

• Best for: production cutting, kit parts, boxes, fretwork, prototyping, vector engraving.
• Sizes: A4 297×210 mm, 150×300 mm and 100×300 mm at 3 mm (1/8 in).
• Masking: optional — edge char is already low.

Alder 3 mm laser sheets

Thermally modified alder is ordinary alder that has been heat-treated in a controlled kiln — no chemicals, no stain. The heat cooks the sugars right through the board, so the colour is not a surface treatment: cut it, sand it or engrave into it and the tone is the same all the way through. That is the whole point for laser work, because an engraved pocket in stained wood shows pale wood underneath, and in thermo alder it does not.

The Medium grade lands at a warm caramel-to-tobacco brown. It keeps alder's easy cutting behaviour — heat treatment removes moisture and makes the wood slightly lighter and more brittle, so if anything it cuts marginally faster than natural alder at the same settings — and engraving goes a rich dark brown to near-black against that warm background. It is our pick when you want a finished part that already looks stained and oiled without any finishing step.

Two practical side effects of heat treatment worth knowing: the wood is more dimensionally stable and far less prone to cupping in a damp workshop, and the smoke smells noticeably different — sweeter, more like roasted coffee than green wood.

The trade-off is strength. Heat treatment makes the wood brittle, so we do not recommend thermo alder as a load-bearing or free-standing material on its own. It works best when the laser-cut pieces are glued down onto a stronger backing surface — plywood, maple, MDF or the body of the object itself — which carries the load while the thermo alder provides the colour and detail.

• Best for: finished parts with a warm tone, signage, coasters and keepsakes, contrast against pale inlay.
• Colour: uniform caramel/tobacco brown through the full thickness.
• Cutting: as easy as natural alder, slightly lower power for the same depth.
• Strength: brittle — not recommended alone; glue cut pieces to a stronger backing.
• Masking: recommended — soot is less visible than on maple but still dulls the colour.

The Intense grade is the same wood taken further up the temperature curve. The result is a dark chocolate brown that reads almost like walnut, and an engraving that goes properly black. Contrast on Intense is not as wide as on maple — the base is already dark — but it is the highest-contrast dark wood we offer, and it is far more consistent than any dark tropical species.

It is also the answer to a question we get constantly: how to get a dark laser part without dyeing, without ebony and without black hornbeam's problem of engraving invisibly. Intense engraves visibly because the char is blacker than the surrounding wood, not the same colour as it.

Because more of the sugars are gone, Intense is more brittle than Medium — the most fragile of the three alder grades. We do not recommend using it on its own for anything structural or free-standing: glue the laser-cut pieces onto a stronger backing surface (plywood, maple, MDF or the object itself) and let that carry the load. Used that way it is perfectly reliable; used alone, thin parts and hair-thin bridges will snap.

• Best for: dark finished parts, walnut-look panels, jewellery, inlay against pale woods, anything that would otherwise be dyed.
• Colour: dark chocolate brown through the full thickness.
• Engraving: black on brown — visible, unlike black hornbeam.
• Strength: fragile — not recommended alone; glue cut pieces to a stronger backing and widen fine bridges.

Same species, same engraving file, three heat levels. This is the clearest way to choose: pick the background tone you want the finished part to have, because all three behave almost identically under the beam.

If you are producing kit parts where the wood will be painted or hidden, stay with natural alder — it is the cheapest of the three. If the wood is the finish, the roasted grades save you a staining step and never blotch, because there is no stain to blotch.

One structural difference does matter: both roasted grades are brittle compared with natural alder, Intense most of all. Use them as a surface layer — glued onto plywood, maple, MDF or the object itself — rather than as a self-supporting part. Where the piece has to take load or stand on its own, use natural alder or maple underneath and keep the thermo alder as the visible face.

Natural alder 3 mm laser sheets · Order roasted alder in a custom size

Pear is the choice when the laser-cut part is the finished object rather than a component: jewellery, decorative panels, instrument rosettes, marquetry elements, presentation pieces. Its warm pinkish-brown is more attractive under a clear finish than either of the pale woods, and its extremely fine grain means small cut features stay crisp.

It sits between maple and alder for cut speed and shows moderate char. Engraved areas go a rich dark brown against the warm background — lower contrast than maple, but often better looking.

• Best for: finished decorative parts, jewellery, rosettes and inlay, marquetry elements, premium products.
• Size: 100×250 mm at 3 mm (1/8 in).

Pear 3 mm laser sheets

People ask whether they can laser Castello boxwood or black hornbeam. Technically yes, and there are legitimate reasons to — cutting a boxwood inlay to match hand-carved fittings, for example. Practically, both are dense enough to need substantially more power for a given depth, both char more visibly, and black hornbeam engraves almost invisibly because the char and the wood are the same colour.

That is why we do not stock them as laser sheets. If you need a laser-cut part in either species, order sheet stock in the thickness you want and expect to spend time on settings — or use the Custom Quote Calculator to have it milled to your exact dimensions.

Modelling sheets in all species · Custom Quote Calculator