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

Florida Keys 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Nautical Chart

$ 258.00
Size
Frame
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 Florida Keys in stacked Baltic birch, 13.5 by 31 inches: the whole island chain carved in relief, with the flats, channels, and banks that surround it cut one depth contour per layer.

Before the highway there was the railroad: Henry Flagler drove his Overseas Railway down this chain in 1912, an engineering feat called the eighth wonder until the 1935 hurricane tore it apart, and the highway inherited its right of way and some of its original spans. The water tells the deeper story on this chart: the shallow banks of Florida Bay on the gulf side, the channels braiding between keys, Hawk Channel inside the reef line on the ocean side, the flats that made backcountry fishing a religion. Every shoal that keeps a guide employed is here in the birch.

Each contour is a separate laser-cut sheet, stacked by hand and engraved, behind acrylic glass in a solid Baltic birch frame in Dark, Light, or White.

Bayside or oceanside is the eternal Keys question. The chart refuses to take sides.

The engraving runs from Key Largo through Marathon and the Lower Keys to Key West. Companions: the Upper Keys chart, Key West, and the touchable Florida Keys UV map.

  • 13.5 × 31 in
  • Solid Baltic birch frame in Dark, Light, or White
  • 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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