The wood all came from an old pub that was getting pulled down and is good mahoghany about an inch and a quarter thick about 30mm, the whole lot would have got thrown on a big fire if I had not saved it. Its the same wood that the house number sign is carved from.
First the wood is cut to the size that will take the lettering, this top bit has been sanded a bit before the photo so it looked even more rough than it is here, the bottom bit is for John's sign and the top bit for someone else that might be reading this !
The wood is then routered around the edge to give it the classy look lol and sanded nice and smooth for the lettering to be marked out.
I then lay tracing paper with the lettering traced from a book onto the wood, center and square it up. Carbon paper is then slipped under the taped tracing paper and the letters transfered to the wood.
The next step is to make shallow stab cuts roughly along the center of all the letters , this is so when you do angle cuts from each side the wood has a break to run to in the fibres, otherwise it may run to beyond the far edge of the letter in question. You can see the fine cuts in all the letters and some I have started to cut deeper from each side.
The basic idea is to cut at a 60 degree angle just each side of the cut center lines in three passes until you reach the outer drawn in edges of the letters and in therory you should have a constant depth that meets in a crisp vee at the center line of the letter, I normally do all the straight lines first, then go around all similar curves so you do not have to swap tools any more than you have to. You can see the vees forming here.
First the straights, done with straight tools.
Then the curves, done with varied curved cross section gouges, it takes several tools to get around one curve as it tightens around the letters shape.
Once you have all the letters carved as good as you can get , the top surface is sanded again removing all traces of the drawn lines, its amazing how much the lines make the lettering look neater, once removed you can see any small waves etc in the lines of the letters and slowly go around shaving off edges to neaten things up.
Its almost there in this shot, someone with more skill and experience would not have to go back over as much as I have to get things tidy but with care the finished job looks ok. The lettering is not perfect if someone who knows about these things looks at it but overall I am happy with it.
The plaque is then sprayed with sanding sealer and a light sand off.
Then a mix of bees wax and pure turpentine is rubbed in with an old toothbrush into all the vees of the letters as well as the rest of the surface.
This is then buffed off with a shoe polish brush to get into the detail followed by a buffing with a soft cloth and the job is done !
I have done a total of six now and am so sick I dont have the energy to do one for myself lol.
That bit that was resting on the top at the start ......................... jb3cx ............You have a sign for your wall mate.
To think this wood would have been chucked on a big bonfire by builders is a disgrace really.
Cheers Mick
