Help needed with colouring

[Barrie Restall]

I have a little problem with colouring some letters I have carved in a slab of blue fig (picture below). The letters have to be black and I would be appreciative if an expert can give me some tips. Should I use stain or paint and what sort, breed etc. I dont want the stain or paint to creep outside the letters.

My thoughts are to seal the letters, stain them before removing the template, then seal the rest and finish with tung oil and wax over. Any tips on the order to do things? Or are there other ways or better methods?

I am new at this sort of thing so any help will be much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Barrie Restall

[RufflyRustic]

Hi Barrie

I have a timber sign for my shed with routed letters. My exact notes are in the shed so I won't have them until tomorrow, but, from memory, spray varnish across the face of the piece - yes, all of it. Spray black paint, memory blank on this next step, then finish with another coat of varnish or lacquer....

anyway, that may be enough to get you thinking, other than that, I'll get my notes out tomorrow for you.

cheers
Wendy

[martrix]

Hi Barrie, what are you going to use for a finish?

I would put a sealing coat on first and then paint the lettering. Once dry, continue as normal with the finishing. What paint you use depends on what you are using as the finish.

Here is an example of one I have done. It wasn't carved into the wood, but was a stencil on a sealed surface which was then coated over.

Attachment 49594

[Barrie Restall]

Thanks for the replies Wendy and Matrix. For health reasons I cant use lacquers and generally avoid them or get my wife to use them. I like oil finishes as I mostly make furniture and bandsaw boxes. The blue fig is a nice piece of wood with some nice grain patterns so I dont want to mask it. My first thoughts were to finish the whole thing with my usual oil/wax finish. I suppose that means an enamel paint for the lettering.

I was wondering if a black stain might be more permanent, but I wouldnt want it to creep outside the lettering. I havent used stains to any great extent, and then only to do whole pieces. Have you any experience with them?

Thanks again,

Regards,

Barrie

[martrix]

I'm not familiar with the grain of blue fig (Quandong?), but if it has nice close grain with small pores you can probably stain first as carefully as you can, and then re-sand the area around the edges of the lettering. I have done this successfully before on redgum. If you're careful enough, the stain around the edges wont penetrate very deep and should easily sand off the surface leaving a nice crisp edge. Do a test on an off-cut.

[Barrie Restall]

HI Matrix,

Yes it is quandong, and it has a nice close grain. I'll do what you suggest and carve an offcut and try a stain. I'll check out Bunnings range of stains next week and try a couple. I still have a bit of work cleaning up the lettering, but I'll let you know how it goes soon as I try it.

Thanks again,

kind regards,

Barrie

[RufflyRustic]

Hi Barrie,

Does this mean that you are unable to use sanding sealer as well?

My missing step was to sand back the first lacquer coat, then spray the black, sand back again and then spray a finish lacquer coat.

However, not being able to use lacquer makes that moot.

I'm interested in hearing how your test turns out.

cheers
Wendy

[echnidna]

I tend to think oil stains might have a bleeding problem.

Back in the olden daysI used to make a lot of cedar signs

Paint the letters with a spray can.
When properly dry run the belt sander over the face to remove the overspray then a clear coat to finish off.

I experimented with pine which was quite successful.
Sand & stain the pine first
When dry carefully stick a sheet of clear contact over the whole face
Rout your lettering and paint with spray can.
When dry remove the contact.

Using either of these methods you should even be able to use normal acrylic paint with a brush for the lettering.

[Barrie Restall]

Thanks for all the comments, folks, I'll be doing the test with stain later this week and will let you know how it goes.

Wendy, I avoid solvents if at all possible or wear a positive airflow mask if I cant avoid it. Mostly I find I can avoid using them. For a sanding sealer I use very dilute Bondcrete (water soluble), and it seems to work well on most jobs. Sometimes I might use dilute shellac (in metho) but not that often. I suppose that as I dont use polyurethranes I would be considered a "darkside" finisher?

Kind regards,

Barrie

[Barrie Restall]

Just to round things out, ended up sealing the whole thing with bondcrete, sanding up to 1200 grit, painting the letters with black enamel, finishing the board with organoil (wet sanding from 400 grit up) and traditional wax. Came up like glass. Photo attached of the finished thing.

Many thanks to all of you who took time to offer advice, much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Barrie