New road sign for the house

[ShawnE Curry]

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Bought my first house last year - my late grandparent's house, built by my grandfather in 1986. Located on 14.2 acres of beautifully maintained hardwood forest. The house contains a lot of custom woodwork made by my grandfather - built-in furniture and shelving, and custom trim. And this road sign.

I made a new one, based on my grandfather's design. I didn't realize it at the time, but after showing it to my mom, she told me that my grandparents liked this bird design so much it's actually on their gravestone.

I made the blank for the sign from some pine lumber that my grandfather had stored in the garage - 3 pieces glued together. I made a hardboard template of the profile, and made some tracings of the design, so I can make another one for my woodshop, and probably another for when this one gets too weathered. The design and lettering were done with a woodburning pen.

I used painter's tape to mask off the doves, but I had some bleed through along the edge profile. Are there any old woodworker tricks for masking off areas of a piece that you don't want stained?

[Charles Lent]

There is a better tape for this that they use when painting cars. It's available from the auto paint supply stores Another trick for signs with engraved or cut lettering is to paint the letters first and then sand the sign and apply the finish later. Doing it this way will sand off any excess paint around the letters. Of course, this may not work well with wood burned lettering unless you can burn it deep enough not to be sanded off when sanding the rest of the sign.

Charley

[johnny means]

Next time you want a hard stain line use a knife. Lay your tape over the line than use a sharp knife to cut along your line. Make sure to cut deep enough to score the wood. Also, an alcohol based stain sprayed on will bleed less.

[Lee Schierer]

Next time you want a hard stain line use a knife. Lay your tape over the line than use a sharp knife to cut along your line. Make sure to cut deep enough to score the wood. Also, an alcohol based stain sprayed on will bleed less.

I would just add that you should make the cut deeper than just a scratch on the surface and using a wide blade will leave a miniature v-groove that will stop the bleeding.

[Rick Potter]

Nice job, Shawn.

I bet your parents appreciate it too.

Rick Potter

[ShawnE Curry]

Thanks for the suggestions and compliments. Last night I watched a New Yankee Workshop episode - "Nest of Tables" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTKjAwoQ9Ug. In this episode, Norm does an inlay on the table top, and he suggests using 3lb shellac to coat the unstained areas (19:27).

Anyone here every try that technique?