Laser Engraving - Applying Wood Stain Before vs. After

A couple circle plaques from the Dollar Tree, a cool gnome image, more acrylic paints, another weekend.

I was engraving a gnome into a circle plaque I picked up from the crafts section at Dollar Tree when I remembered a question I had back when I was first starting my journey with laser engraving...

Should I put wood stain on the piece before or after I engrave?

Today I decided to do some experimenting and figure out which method works for me.

I'm using an Atomstack A6 Pro machine at 75% power and 3800mm/s speed.

The gnome I started with was on a piece I already had stained. This isn't the first piece I've stained before engraving and I haven't had any real issues stand out to me yet. I've engraved without stain as well but mostly before I started using it with my projects, so I have yet to really compare the differences.

I had a lot of tabs running and stuff going on during engraving.. unfortunately it caused a lag and offset the image some.😒
Oh well..

Engraving before the stain I feel really shows more of a dark burn, especially in the outlines and darker shadow sections, the contrast with the lighter shade of wood and a hotter burn without the protective layer of the stain.

Here's before I applied stain. I think it already looks good.

And here is after stain has been applied. I need to sand better before applying the stain 😅 There's definitely some uneven areas.

The stain really keeps the dark color of the burn and almost gives it a glossy effect I think.

If I were to leave the piece unpainted then I would most likely stain after I've ran the laser on it. Personally, I like the look of it slightly better but I guess it really depends on the project and what end result I'm going for.

I'm going to posting more pieces later and probably figuring out other methods I like better as I go. If there are any tricks or cool secrets you could share with me, please leave a comment!

I began the painting process with the pre-stained piece. I'm not real happy with the colors I chose but it doesn't look terrible I guess...
I'm going to use different colors and paint the other eventually. Maybe I'll post it as well?

Thank you for reading!