I recently took up chip carving and was helped a great deal by my online SMC mentor John Jordan & others who helped with good advice.
This led to me making a name plaque for my only grandchild. I carved his first & middle names using one of the knives I made from cutting a scalpel in half to make the two knives shown. Frankly, I was surprised that it carved well for me. This plaque was done on white pine & I wanted to highlight the lettering.
I tried both a dark & a neutral stain, and the lettering stood out better on the neutral stain than on the dark stain, yet the contrast is still not enough as you can see in the picture. So now I'm trying to find a way to highlight the lettering without messing up the surrounding wood. I've thought about using a sealer on the wood before carving, staining everything, or just the lettering area, carving, and then sanding the areas surrounding the lettering. Yet I'm concerned that sanding enough to remove the stain may removing too much of the carving.
Can anyone suggest a better way. If sealing first is a good way, what would you recommend for a sealer?
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