Opinions are like assholes, all you assholes have one. So I need to tap into the vast base of semi useless knowledge that is OR and get your opinions on this little wood project I'm doing for my wife for our anniversary. Backstory: we got married in our backyard under our huge maple tree on Labor Day weekend in 2006. It was quite the little drunken shindig. Everyone had a blast. Except me, I woke up hungover and married. Every year since, we throw a big party on Labor Day weekend and always decorated the tree with Christmas lights. The tree got hit by the ice storm in the winter of 2006 and a nasty windstorm in 2008. By 2013, it was dead. I cut it down the week after Labor Day last year. I saved the chunk in the picture because I wanted to engrave our names and wedding date into it and give it to my wife for our anniversary this year. So two questions, 1) should I stain it or just clearcoat it. 2) it's extremely hard and took 10 belts to Sand down to halfway smooth. I think engraving it with a wood pen is out of the question. Does anyone have any suggestions? If nothing, I'll just have some decals made up put them on and clear over them.