Some Questions We're Frequently Asked

Also, don't hesitate to reach out to us via phone or email at anytime, even to ask one of these questions again- hear it from the horse's mouth.

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Where are you located?

We do all of our work out of our backyard shop in Keswick Ontario. We offer pickup and accept mail and returns at 291 Kenwood Ave, Keswick ON, L4P 2X6.

Where do you ship?

We primarily ship to Canada and the United States, but we make our best effort to ship everywhere in the world. Enter your address at checkout to see if we offer shipping.

Do you accept returns?

We have a 30-day return policy, which means you have 30 days after receiving your item to request a return.

To be eligible for a return, your item must be in the same condition that you received it, unworn or unused, with tags, and in its original packaging. You’ll also need the receipt or proof of purchase.

We have a process in place where we do not engrave your products until we have approval of your custom design. We do not accept returns for custom products including any custom design work such as but not limited to photos, graphics, names, dates, or other text. We will also not accept returns on sale items or gift cards.

Read our full refund policy here.

Do you offer a bulk rate or discount?

Definitely. If you're interested in bulk rates, reach out to Talon at talon@mike-w-hammer.com to talk about what we have to offer.

How long do custom engraved orders take to complete?

Once your designer has received approval for engraving it can take anywhere from 5-10 business days to get an order engraved, finished, and shipped.

What if my photo doesn't turn out well?

As long as your photo looks good to you, we can make it look good on our engraving. Even if it takes several tries for us on our end to get it right, we always ensure our engravings come out beautifully.

Who is Mike?

Mike is one owner of Mike W. Hammer. He makes all the wood products while his son Talon, the other owner, does the design work and engravings.

Q: Do you engrave on both sides of your food-safe products?

A: No! We only engrave the UNDERSIDE of these products. We don't want anyone ever getting food in our engravings because they'll NEVER get it out and it will rot and destroy all our hard work and their beautiful product.

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Do you use a CNC machine?

No. All of our products are laser engraved. We use an XTool D1 Pro 20W laser which engraves up to 1/100th of a millimetre. We can engrave anything from high-resolution photos to simple vector illustrations and text.

What wood do you make your products from?

Our wine caddies are made from premium pine, our wall art, basswood, and our hanging trays, hard maple. Our other products like lazy susans and cutting boards are made from various hardwoods, mostly domestic and some foreign exotic woods.

Where do you get your wood?

We get our wood from Century Mill in Stouffville Ontario.

Are your products food-safe?

Our hanging trays, cutting boards, charcuterie trays, and lazy susans are all finished using a food-safe board oil. We use Walrus Cutting Board Oil (not made with real walruses). These products are food safe. See our health and safety information brochure for information on maintaining these products.

Our other products are finished with three coats of a spray-on, water-based polyurethane, which is not intended for use with food.

Do you use a protective finish?

Yes! On our food-safe products like charcuterie trays and cutting boards, we use Walrus Oil, a 100% organic board oil. For our other products, like wall art and wine caddies, we finish with three layers of a spray-on polyurethane with a fine-sanding after the second coat to ensure a velvety-smooth hard finish that is wipeable and UV, water, and dust resistant.

Can I put your products in the dishwasher?

We don't recommend you put our products in the dishwasher as it will cause excessive, unnecessary wear and tear, significantly shortening the lifespan of your product. For maintaining our trays and cutting boards (or any of our other food-safe products), refer here to our health and safety information brochure.

To clean our other products, like wine caddies or wall art, first simply try a clean microfiber cloth, then water, and maybe soap- if you really need it. Avoid using harsh chemicals or abrasive cleaners that can damage the polyurethane finish. You might use anything you would use on a wooden tabletop.

Should I still place an order if I'm not sure I have the right photo or information yet?

You can definitely place an order even if you're not sure you have the right photo or other necessary information. Even if you don't upload the photo or write out your vision before checkout, a designer will always reach out to you to discuss your order and what you'd like to do. You can take all the time you need after placing your order to sending your photo to your assigned designer. We're flexible!

What happens when a customer orders a custom engraving?

When a customer orders a custom engraving, a designer is assigned to their order. That designer will then email the customer asking for more relevant information- or make the first initial drafts for review and send that. After some back and forth, and the customer approves the designers draft, we get started engraving as soon as possible and let you know when we're shipping out your product.

If you happen to change your mind before we engrave your product, we will give you a full refund in the event you cancel your order.

I ordered a custom engraved product and I haven't received an email from a designer, what do I do?

Make sure to check your spam and trash. It may take up to 4 business days for a designer to reach out about your custom engraved order- usually it's the same or next day. If it has been more than 4 business days, call or email us and we will figure out what the problem is. Our contact information is available here.

Do you make things that aren't on your website?

Yes. We have done some custom work in the past, like this telephone box cover. Contact us via phone or email and we can discuss something custom you might be interested in. Our contact information is available here. We're all about making custom products.

Reach out to Mike at mike@mike-w-hammer.com to talk about what we might be able to do, estimates are free.