When it comes to 3d printing there are lots of filaments to choose from that can give your project a unique finish. One of my favorite filaments to print with is Hatchbox Wood Filament. While this is generally more expensive than other PLA filaments it has the advantage of giving you parts that look and “feel” like wood.
Below you can see my baby Groot I printed using the wood filament. On the left you can see how it comes out using the wood filament with almost a clay color. On the right is an update with my first coat of acrylic paint on the model. I used a mix of brown and tried to weather the creases using black acrylic paint. As you can see this filament takes paint well.
Another advantage is that you can stain your parts and sand them very easily. I was commissioned to make some custom trophies and since I didn’t have access to woodworking tools or time to go out and buy wood, I printed the trophy bases using the wood filament. After sanding and applying some wood stain you can’t event tell that it was 3d printed. Below you'll see how I go about staining these bases. On the right is how the base looks recently printed, on the left is base with wood stain. I first sand the pieces, and then apply a light coat of wood stain, using a rag and paint brush and let the piece dry. I'll then wait to add more wood stain until I'm happy with the color. You'll notice that the stain is taken up best where you have layer lines. So in this case "imperfect" parts make post processing much easier.
And here is a finished trophy!
I print on a Tronxy X1 3d printer with a few minor modifications. The hardest part about working with this filament is finding the right settings for your printer. I found that I generally had to print a lower temperature and needed to increase my retraction settings.
I have included the link below to the filament I use and hopefully you’ll be inspired to explore some wood filaments yourself! I have also linked the baby Groot model if you feel like printing your own using this filament. Overall I think this is a really fun filament to print with. Consider trying it out if you are working on a project that requires a "wood" component. It might save you time in post-processing later on if you print using a wood PLA filament.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2014307