Signatures on dark wood - what do you use?

[John Keeton]

Several of my turnings have dark wood pedestals/bottoms/etc. On lighter woods, I use a Micron 005 black archival pen as suggested by Steve Schlumpf and others. I have taken my burner and burned a signature and filled it, but that is not the look I am after.

Without much success, I have searched for an archival pen in a lighter color. They are available in blue, green, red, etc., but no white or tan that might be appropriate on blackwood or walnut.

I have also tried various fine point gold pens, but they react with almost all finishes and smear or lift from the wood.

Thoughts????

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I use a gold or silver paint pen. There is a white one too, but I'm not fond of white. It's too striking, really stands out, if you can gather what I mean.

[Keith Palmer]

I use a dremel engraver that I ground to a finer point to give a crisper signature. I do so before finishing the piece, the finish makes the signature stand out.

200768

[David E Keller]

I've just used my burner on most things thus far... On some woods, the signature is only visible if you tilt the piece to allow the light to reflect off of the pyro. Blackwood is especially difficult for me to burn.

That's not the answer you were looking for I'm sure, and I'm looking forward to other suggestions.

[Bill Bolen]

+1 on the Dremel. I did the same as keith...Bill...

[Jim Burr]

Fine tip white Sharpie works well. My writing is hard enough to read with a pen let alone a Dremel! Hi Keith!!!

[Dan Hintz]

Combo of engraving and colorfill with a Sharpie silver pen? It's not a paint pen, put the silver is pretty darn permanent.

I use that pen to mark what tool the various wall wart power packs in my shop belong to... don't want to go plugging in the wrong voltage and blow a toy.

[Jeff Nicol]

I do the same thing as Keith and since the grain is kind of torn it will darken a littl bit more when finish is applied. On black walnut or other dark exotic woods I will engrave them and wipe a little gold guilding paint in it and wipe away any excess, which give it a antique sort of look. But the vibrating engraver I use on everything and so far no problems. I changed to it when I had a few customers that thought the writing in black took away from the the embellishmnet of the bottom.

Anything that works.....works!

Jeff

[Gary Max]

I found a Silver Gel Pen at the local office supply----works perfect.

[Gary Conklin]

John, this is the method I use works great!!
http://www.distinctiveturnings.com/tutorials/SigningYourWoodturnings.pdf

[Marty Eargle]

Never had to do this, but my gut says go with a high quality silver or gold Sharpie or detail pen.

The more creative side of me says that you could take some extra time, engrave what you wanted in the wood, fill with an epoxy/stone dust (ex: Turquoise), sand it down and polish. May be a little too much work for a signature...but if its a special piece or a commission and you have the means...I think it would be a neat touch.

[Chris Colman]

On dark woods like ebony or cocobolo I borrowed a technique from Cindy Drozda.

I use a vibrator engraver to etch my markings, then fill with silve Rub-n-Buff. It makes the engraving stand out nicely against the dark wood.

[Steve Schlumpf]

John - I use a Silver paint pen. I have a bunch of different ones - because even though they say permanent - when you apply a finish over them - some brands can smear. Best result is to mark directly on the wood - before any finish is applied. Then - when fully dried - apply a light finish over it.

[John Keeton]

After all the Dremel comments, I thought I might try something. I do not have the engraver, but I do have a flexible shaft for the regular Dremel. I scrounged around and located a very "pointy" bit for the Dremel, and tried it on a piece of Blackwood endgrain. I need practice, but it did work. I print my signature anyway, so that is a little easier than script. I doubt I could do script with this tip - but, I will try it at some point.

I did the base of a Claro piece I have finished, and it did OK - not great, but OK. Then used some Rub and Buff gold - big mistake. It was messy. So, I removed most of it with MS, but left enough in the engraved signature that it shows up.

This may work in absence of anything else. Steve, I have the gold and silver pens, but they just aren't fine enough to suit me. And, they all seem to be effected by various finishes.

[Bill Wyko]

After using a dremel, push gold leaf into the signature, then brush away any excess.:)

[Lupe Duncan]

I have used my "Dremel signature" over a piece of painters/masking tape on dark woods.

I'll just tape the area off that will have the signature and carefully sign my name with the Dremel. After I'm done with the sinature Illl use some gold spray paint and spray the area, using the tape as a stencil/mask. It has worked well, wish I had a pic.

[Tim Thiebaut]

Up to this point I have only signed a few of my pieces, the best ones I have done, I just think it makes it look cheesey with my already sloppy signiture scrawled onto it. If I had access to a laser engraver I would engrave some small brass disks of different sizes and inset them in each piece, but I dont have access to one. Now that I am going to be buying a burner I may practise with that and see if I can get good enough with it to satisfiy myself that its good enough to go on the piece. I do need to get over to my local office max and see if I can get a pen like John uses and try that to though, so far I have been unable to find one at any of the regular stores I go to.

[David E Keller]

I have used my "Dremel signature" over a piece of painters/masking tape on dark woods.

I'll just tape the area off that will have the signature and carefully sign my name with the Dremel. After I'm done with the sinature Illl use some gold spray paint and spray the area, using the tape as a stencil/mask. It has worked well, wish I had a pic.

Come on, buddy... Surely you can dig up a photo somewhere! Sounds like a neat trick.

[John Beaver]

I don't like my signature to stand out from the piece, so I just engrave my initials and year with a dremel engraving tool. It's permanent but very subtle.

[Richard Jones]

Dremel on everything, light or dark: Name, Location, Date, Species

Rich

[charlie knighton]

i use a Zig pen, i have them in black and red
use the red for dark woods

manufactured by Kuretake Co., Ltd.

pigment ink;acid-free;archival quality;lightfast;waterproof;fade proof;non-bleeding

sometimes i sign directly on wood and put finish over it, sometimes i put finish on, let dry, sign over finish

more colors are avaliable

[Curt Fuller]

John, I use a Dremel engraver, but it's different than the rotary tool. It just vibrates instead of turning. I sharpened the standard bit that came with it to get a finer engraving. On dark woods you could fill it with some gold or silver.

[Bernie Weishapl]

I do like Cindy Drozda and Curt do. I use a engraver and then fill with a waxy gold or waxy silver pencil that I get from Brownell. Stands out great especially on walnut or claro.

[Robert Culver]

John for your work and the caliber of it dont waste your time trying to reck it go to lee valley and get a signature branding iron tons more profesional looking in my oppion some will say nay nay but for the price of a couple blocks off Claro you can get one http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?cat=1,41115&p=44057 this will get you close but I am pretty sure you can get it with your custom signature

[Dan Hintz]

I just use my laser ;)

Engraver: $30
Laser: $30k

Seems reasonable to me :p

[John Keeton]

Sounds like I need to get a Dremel engraving tool! I will check that out. The rotary tool and bit does OK, but a little difficult to control. I like the idea of rubbing in some gold leaf, as well. One could "fix" that with some WOP.

...go to lee valley and get a signature branding iron tons more professional looking in my opinion...Rob, I have a branding iron, but most of my work has a small, finished and detailed bottom that is not flat. That doesn't permit a good application for a branding iron.


I just use my laser ;)

Engraver: $30
Laser: $30k

Seems reasonable to me :pNow, there is a thought!!!!:eek: Not a good one, but a thought!! Thanks, Dan!;):rolleyes::D


i use a Zig pen, i have them in black and red
use the red for dark woods

manufactured by Kuretake Co., Ltd.Thanks, Charlie. I checked out the Zig pens. Seems the smallest size in a lighter color is around .7mm. I really need something closer to .20mm. I know that doesn't sound like much of a difference, but when I am trying to sign in a small portion of a 1.25" base, I need an ultra fine application.

[Dan Hintz]

Another thought... if you don't need to dig into the material, maybe you could have a laser engraver or vinyl guy cut you a stack of masks. Apply a mask, spray with your favorite color, remove mask, coat with whatever protection you want.

I scan my signature in, so even though it's printed, it still looks natural, not computer generated,

[Alan Trout]

I use gold or silver paint pens on most of my pieces. It however is typically under a heavy finish but it looks good and works.

Alan

[John Keeton]

Dan, the mask idea is a neat idea! However, most of my pieces vary greatly in style, and the amount of space I have available. The one I am working on now has a Blackwood base that is about an inch, but it is detailed on the bottom. I have very little room for a signature - just a narrow band around the base.

Thanks, Alan. I do have gold pens, but they are thicker than I like. Maybe I just need to practice my signature some!!!!!

[Bob Bergstrom]

I burn my signature and then mix any "Pearl Ex" color with paste wax and rub it in. The Pearl Ex comes in thirty some colors and reflective responses. Cindy Drozda uses gold wax, but Pearl Ex just give a wide variety of choices.

[Cathy Schaewe]

I use the engraver, then some gold wax. Wipes right off from around the engraving.