Decorate the things you make and sharpen. Lay a knife blade, an axe head or a wrench on a sheet of paper and take a photo: the tool finds the paper, flattens the photo so a millimetre is the same everywhere, and traces the object at its true size. Then fill the shape with scrollwork, vines, knotwork, damascus or a geometric pattern that grows along it, add a name or a logo, and download it for your laser or carve it with a V-bit.
How to use it
- 1. Lay the object flat on a sheet of Letter or A4 paper, light it evenly and take a photo from straight above. Or bring its outline as an SVG or DXF, or start from one of our samples.
- 2. Check the size: the paper's corners are found by themselves (drag them if they're off), or tap the two ends of something you know and type its length. Type an exact width or height if you like.
- 3. Fix the path over the photo: drag a node, tap the line to add one, delete one, smooth it, or move it in or out by a millimetre or two.
- 4. Pick a pattern, a border, your words and a logo, then pick the material and download.
What you can make
- • Scrollwork on a hunting knife blade with the owner's name
- • Knotwork or a rope border on an axe or hatchet head
- • A pattern on a wrench, a dog tag, a bottle opener or a part you cut yourself
- • Engraved decoration on wooden handles, leather sheaths and coated tools
Make it your own
Every pattern is drawn fresh by the tool to follow your shape: scrollwork grows along the middle of the blade and curls into the space it has, flow lines follow the outline, and knotwork bends with the shape and turns back at its edge. Remix grows it again, Random tries another pattern. Keep an area clear for a maker's mark, or put the pattern only where you want it. Words and logos push the pattern away by the gap you set.
Download for LightBurn with the filled parts and the lines on their own layers and starting settings for your laser, or the SVG or DXF for EzCad, xTool and Glowforge. The outline can be cut out, engraved as a line, or left out when you're decorating a real knife. A holding jig file cuts the object's shape out of scrap so the engraving lines up on the real blade.
Questions
How accurate is the size from a photo?
With the object on a sheet of Letter or A4 paper, the tool finds the paper's corners, undoes the angle of the photo and measures from the paper: in our tests the outline comes back within half a percent. Shoot from a little further back and zoom in, since a thick object such as an axe head reads a little big from close up, and you can always correct it by measuring one length.
Does it work with a fiber laser?
Yes. Knives, axes and tools are metal, and a fiber or MOPA laser marks bare steel. EzCad3 opens the SVG or the DXF: hatch the filled parts and run the lines as lines. LightBurn users with a fiber get the layers ready to go.
Can I use a diode or CO2 laser on a knife?
On bare steel you need a marking spray with a diode or CO2 laser. Coated, black oxide and anodized metal mark without it, and wood and leather handles engrave as they are.
How do I line it up on the real knife?
Download the holding jig: it cuts the knife's shape out of a piece of scrap at the same place as the engraving in the file. Leave the jig on the bed, drop the blade in, and run the engraving without moving anything.
Can I carve it instead?
Yes. Send the decoration to the V-Bit Carving Studio and carve it in wood with a V-bit, at its real size.
Can I sell what I make?
Yes, sell what you make; just don't resell the files as templates or design packs. Every pattern and sample is drawn by the tool's own code.
Want it to do something it doesn't do yet? Send us the idea. We build features on request, often within days.
Try next: V-Bit Carving Studio, Image to Outline.