What is the best procedure for finishing a relief carving (with a stain for example)? Do you do the back of the carving first and then the front or vice versa? How about the sides - are they done with the back or front? No matter how careful I try to be, I always end up with finish on the sides that shouldn't be there. Just what is the best way to get a uniform finish on all parts of a relief carving?

I too was hoping for some input please on finishing. Wondering what would be the best finish to put on a walking stick that had been painted with acrylics. Especially with durability in mind. Â*I have only painted one carving and just starting out on walking sticks. Would the water base Varathane cause the color to shift? Should I use oil base? Â*Any advice would be very much appreciated! Â* thanks Dave ???

you'll get better at it every time once you devellop a consistent system that suits you're carvings. For relief carvings I stain the top, sides, front, and back first. I leave the bottom for last. My carvings are thick enough to balance free standing even though they are relief. This makes it easy. If your work requires contact on the top half to balance try to minimalize the size of the contact area. Also, stain soakes in pretty quik so hit any possible contact areas first.
The bottom edge getts stained last so as to hide any imperfections (double coating of areas).

A little trick - get a piece of plywood and drive several nails completely trhough it (small ones) stain the back of your carving, set it on the nails and stain the rest of it. The back of the carving will sit on the nail points and the stain won't be distrubed in the least. You'll never be able to tell where they were.

[lorax]

dang FatEddy you mean I didnt invent that trick!

Don't know who invented it, but I learned it in wood shop along about 1960 or so. Funny how neat tricks like that seem to have been around forever. Kinda like good puns - can't never come up with an origianal or who the first author was.