This one made the rounds on Instagram — watch the full process below.
The Project
The goal was simple: engrave 1810 into a big landscaping rock so it reads as a permanent, built-to-last address marker — not a sticker, a plaque, or a painted-on number. Kade laid out the numerals on the face of the boulder, masked everything around them, and then used abrasive blasting to carve the digits directly into the stone.
Why Sandblasting Works So Well on Rock
Sandblasting removes stone gradually and predictably, which means we can control the depth of the cut. Working the numbers in multiple passes builds real depth and a rugged texture inside each digit, with crisp edges where the rubber masking protects the surrounding rock (no, painter’s paper wouldn’t work here!). That depth is what separates a professionally engraved boulder from surface-level etching — it catches shadow, it reads from the street, and it will not weather away.
The Black Finish
Once the engraving was cut, the recessed numbers were painted in black. The dark paint sits down inside the blasted texture, so the contrast between the raw stone face and the deep black numerals gives the rock a clean, high-quality, rugged look — and because the paint lives below the surface of the stone, it is protected from wear.
All of this was done right here in Northern Utah, where engraved landscaping rocks and address boulders hold up beautifully through every season.