I have been fiddling for quiet a while with framing a print that my brother-in-law bought for me Christmas before last. The plan is to have the German Iron cross in two diagonal corners of the frame, and the British Roundel in the other two (the print shows the Flying Circus rolling in to attack some British Sopwiths).

To keep the old-time feel, I cut triangles of wood and pointed the grain of each toward the centers of the iron cross, forming a square, then bleached it almost white, but with the wood grain definitive; similar with the iron cross, it's dark but not pure black, in 4 segments with the "V"'s meeting in the center, so it will have an aged, faded feel to it.

But every effort to do something similar for the roundel has not been acceptable to me. Wood just does not like to be cut in a circle (without custom hole saws). So my punt is that I've scanned the wood grain, and I want to digitally "stain" the roundels onto it with GIMP (it's all I have, and it's a bit obscure, I use it even more rarely than I fly...). Then I'll print it onto photo paper and glue it down. Like I said, a punt, but I gotta get this thing off my workbench.

Is this tough to do? Thanks for any help, don't put too much time into it. I think I'd have to make a separate layer and make it somewhat transparent?

Thanks again!

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HD, what type of wood are you working with and how thick is it? I've been a woodworker for decades and I can say from experience that you most certainly can cut it into beautiful circles. Lay out the circles with a compass or a template and cut them with a coping saw, (which you can usually find for a few dollars if you don't already have one). If you have access to a band saw you can make up a quick pin jig and cut perfect circles very quickly, just keep your fingers out of the blade. And for thinner wood you can simply sand it round once you've cut it close to the circle you've laid out using the aforementioned compass or template.

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Or how about wood burning?
Youtube tutorial of a woman doing a celtic knot design. Lots of curves.

My mother tried her hand at it and didn't like it, but it could work for you.

Thank you both, gents.

The problem is the size. A 1.75" diameter roundel is most super tiny in the middle, and to cut 3 nested circles I've found to be quite difficult. What is that ratio? 1:3:5 I think, which makes the center circle like 0.35" diameter.

I have a two coping saws, one with a six inch throat and one with a 12" throat - you see something like that at a flea market and you have to grab it just for the pure novelty! I'll likely never use it. As well I have a reasonable scroll saw and a tiny band saw (having a little trouble getting the blade to track on that one). These are all part of my Museum of Unused Woodworking Tools, which also includes a really nice table saw and a 1939 Walker-Turner lathe. I don't have any time for woodworking any more than WOFFing, but I've squeezed out a bit here and there to get that frame made over the past 15 months...

Plus I have a reasonable drill press.

For materials, I have very thin basswood sheet - like 1/16", some precut craft circles that turned out to be not too circular (a little heavier), and some very thin self-adhesive wood that I tried cutting with an X-acto or a fresh utility knife blade. The self adhesive wood advises that you can run it through your inkjet printer, which I tried, but it bled in the grain direction.

Thanks for the woodburning link, Maeran. That would be ok if I could get the circles traced with a template. Which may be my out - I just remembered I have an old plastic circle template at work. I'd better get that beauty home.

Still, individual "donuts" for each band of the roundel may be a step too far. It's tough working that small.

What sort of woodworking do you like to do, Lou?

& Thanks both, for your help & ideas.

Here's a picture of the Iron Cross. The backing is glued down, the 4 pieces making up the cross are not - may need a little final shaping for a tight glue-up. It's this wood-grained, kinda worn & faded look I'm aiming for.

I'm just going to pop this up in case anyone has any other ideas and to show off my iron cross. That's a 2" square.