Sign Lettering

[mateo]

I can't offer any help on your stain questions, But i can give some well deserved praise. Good job on that sign! Now make another one.

[Rockhead]

Thanks for the compliment. I'm most proud I spelled my name correctly.

I'm thinking of doing the same on the back but with incised(? is that the correct term?) letters rather than raised. This way I'll know who I am coming or going ;-)


Charlie

[carver33]

Charlie,

If it were my sign, I think I would first sand the top of the letters and border with a sanding block to clean up the surface.

Then I would coat the entire sign liberally with a pre-stain conditioner.

Finally, I'd stain the background very carefully with a small brush, avoiding the tops of the letters.

I'm afraid that if you stain the tops, the stain might penetrate too far to sand back off. However, with the above process, small overlaps should be sandable.

It will be interesting to see if you get other advice. Mine is a guess, as I haven't tried to do what you are doing.

[bigEd_H]

Nice looking sign, Charlie. Bill's advice on staining sounds about right to me, but I've never done a relief like that either.

I tried writing my name on my forehead so I could tell who I was by looking the mirror, but I spelled it wrong and didn't recognize myself in the mirror anyway.

[Howard Lobb]

Originally Posted by Rockhead

Update -

The sign is just about finished, except for a little bit of clean up. Thanks for all the tips, they were very helpful.

I had a thought about fininshing and am hoping someone(s) have tried this before and can tell me if it works well. I wanted to put a kinda dark stain on the background and leave the letters (top) clear. I thought I could stain the background and then lightly shave off the very tip of the letters where they are raised. The idea is to take off just enough of the top to show the lighter wood.

Any thoughts as to this coming out OK? Will I end up with blurry (fuzzy?) edges on the lettering from stain absorbtion?

Thanks for the previous and any new help,
Charlie

p.s. I can post a couple of close up pics if needed.

Charlie, ,,, I would say that if you stain a dark colour this is what you can expect to happen. The stain will penetrate the wood going in the direction of the end grain the deepest. The way that your letters are carved the end grain is elongated tapering to the top surface. Meaning the stain will penetrate, "BLEED", possibly through from side to side of your narrow letter top. Two things I would consider here as options. First if you are set on a dark background then do that and paint the top surface of the letters the lighter tone or colour. The second consideration would be to stain the background a lighter tone using a conditioner first to get a more consistent stain tone. then paint the tops of the letters and border the darker colour. the effect is opposite to what you have in mind but the effect of a dark stain as a background will wash out your lovely tool tracks and diminish the gain it will flatten your sign. the opposite happens when you use dark OVER light. In other words with dark on the top surface the light background will give depth to your sign. Rather then just contrast. I would do this first. If you don't like the effect you can darken the background with a couple more coats of stain and repaint the top with light colour. I hope this helps with your beautiful sign. ...H