painting a carved sign

[Jesse Tutterrow]

A friend has a sign over his work shop. It has weathered. The wood is cedar with carved letters and a hammer. I would like to restore the finish on it for him. The hammer has a head with silver paint and a handle painted brown. The lettering is black.

I plan to paint each of the carved items the correct color. Then run the sign through the finish sander to remove any paint that got onto the top of the sign.

But then I would want to coat the entire sign with Thompson’s water seal. Will this cause problems with the Acrylic paint?

Any suggestions?
--Jesse

[Scott Holmes]

Thompson's WaterSeal will not harnm the paint. Nor will it protect the sign from anything.

TWS is mostly mineral spirits, which evaporates; it does nothing to the wood or the painted surface. The other 15-20% of the contents of the can is mostly wax and linseed oil. Again of little no value when it comes to protecting the wood or paint. A quality EXTERIOR oil-based paint will do wonders to protect the sign Use the right colors and you have no need to top coat.