Lettering

So I am an old guy who is not a sign maker, but love working with wood. I carve some nice things but the carving is only part of a beautiful or not so beautiful project. The finish is the difference in ho hum and wow.
So my question is on painting in lettering. I have some lettering about 1/4 in high and very shallow with the 90 v carve bit. I would like the letters gold, but I'm not sure how to mass fill them in. I have seen someone use Marsh ink sprayed on then sand off the excess. Nice for a sign, but I am producing a very nice plaque for my old Plt. Sgt I served with in Vietnam and want it to be really nice. I thought of a fine tip paint marking pen but I can't find one five enough. Paint brush is out, I'm to shaky for that. I have already stained the project with min wax, gunstock stain. I have not yet applied any gloss finish as yet in hopes I will find someone who can offer a suggestion or technique I am not aware of. :)

Should read ," fine enough," not five enough.

Have you looked in Walmart?

http://www.walmart.com/search/?query=paint%20pen

Here is one from Hobby Lobby and guessing if you have a Marshall's they would have them also.

http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/...marker-949537/

To help in cleaning up any oops I would put your clear coat on first. Since this acrylic it should clean up with water.

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Originally Posted by edsingletary

So I am an old guy who is not a sign maker, but love working with wood. I carve some nice things but the carving is only part of a beautiful or not so beautiful project. The finish is the difference in ho hum and wow.
So my question is on painting in lettering. I have some lettering about 1/4 in high and very shallow with the 90 v carve bit. I would like the letters gold, but I'm not sure how to mass fill them in. I have seen someone use Marsh ink sprayed on then sand off the excess. Nice for a sign, but I am producing a very nice plaque for my old Plt. Sgt I served with in Vietnam and want it to be really nice. I thought of a fine tip paint marking pen but I can't find one five enough. Paint brush is out, I'm to shaky for that. I have already stained the project with min wax, gunstock stain. I have not yet applied any gloss finish as yet in hopes I will find someone who can offer a suggestion or technique I am not aware of. :)

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First, I would clear coat the entire sign with the finish you intend to use to minimize any "bleeding" into the surrounding grain . Then I would use a gold leafing pen (http://www.michaels.com/search?q=Gold%20Leafing%20Pen) on the lettering. After that's dry, sand off any excess gold paint on the surface. Then apply a couple of additional coats of the clear finish using 0000 steel wool between each coat. I use this technique all the time and it works great.

EDIT: You can also use colored "Magic Markers" but, the leafing pen works better for gold.

Thank you so much, we do have a Michaels store here. I tried hobby lobby and they are closing out the paint pens here. I will try Steves technique. Thanks to all for your help. This is a great forum with some great people.

Steve, just got back from Michaels, they had gold and silver leafing pens, thanks for the tip. Now to see how I can do with it.

The gold and silver works great. They also had some very fine tip paint pens. Excellent

I always use shellac to coat the surface prior to painting. It provides a smooth surface for the paint to adhere to without soaking into the grain and spreading. It also is compatible with other final finishes, even if you don't want shellac as the top coat.

I haven't used shellac since woodshop in school. I will try that. Thanks.