Lake Ontario 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Lake Ontario 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Lake Ontario 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Lake Ontario 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Lake Ontario 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall

Lake Ontario 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 262.00
13.5 x 31 in
Baltic birch, hand-stained water
Up to nine laser-cut birch layers
Carved bathymetric relief, laser-etched labels
Soundings: NOAA nautical survey data
How the Water Becomes Wood

A chart is a stack of flat sheets until the water's real soundings tell it what shape to take.

  1. SurveyReal bathymetric sounding data sets every contour line before a single cut is made.
  2. CutEach depth band is laser-cut from its own sheet of Baltic birch, up to nine layers deep.
  3. StainWater layers are stained by hand, reading darker the deeper the water runs.
  4. StackThe sheets are registered and stacked in sequence, and the bed's true shape rises out of the wood.
  5. EtchDepths and place names are burned into the grain itself, never printed on it.
  6. FrameA solid Baltic birch frame and acrylic glass finish the piece, ready to hang.

The last lake before the sea. This 13.5 by 31 inch chart carves Lake Ontario in stacked Baltic birch, from the mouth of the Niagara River to the head of the St. Lawrence, every contour its own laser-cut layer.

Ontario has the smallest surface of the five Great Lakes but hides a deep basin, 802 feet at its lowest point, so it actually holds far more water than Erie. Everything the upper lakes send over Niagara Falls passes through here on its way to the Atlantic, and at the lake's eastern outlet the Thousand Islands begin their scatter down the St. Lawrence. On the chart, that deep central trench is a long stack of layers running the length of the lake, with the shoal water of the eastern islands breaking the surface sheet.

Each layer is cut from birch to a true depth line and stacked by hand, place names engraved, the finished relief set behind acrylic glass in a solid Baltic birch frame.

Sailors out of Toronto, Rochester, and Kingston all cross this water; their harbors are engraved where they belong.

The names run from Hamilton and Toronto on the Canadian shore to Rochester and Oswego on the American side, with the Bay of Quinte winding behind Prince Edward County. Erie hands its water down through the Niagara corridor, and all five lakes share the full Great Lakes chart.

  • 13.5 × 31 in
  • Solid Baltic birch frame
  • Acrylic glass front, ready to hang
  • Free next-business-day shipping on orders placed by 2 PM EST
  • 14-day returns
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