Painting outdoor signs - Slightly OT

[Bob K]

I'm carving address signs that will be bolted flush on brick walls in Minnesota. I have alder, walnut and ash on hand and can use any of it. Any suggestions for how best to paint the recessed black (1/4 inch rastered) numbers against the white background and protect it from the weather will be appreciated.
Thanks

[shaddy]

I'm not sure about your original Q (but am interested on others responses), but I have a couple more suggestions on the topic of house numbers.

Depending on pattern used, you can sprapaint entire board, then sand. The recessed areas will keep the paint, the rest will be bare wood again. Then clear coat. (if you can sand all the paint out of the grain, you might have to put a clear base coat in as a filler first)

Leave the wood blank, or with just a clear coat, so the owner can use their house colors. Maybe chare a couple bucks less.

What are you charging? I'd like to see a finished pic also

Shaddy

[Bob K]

Shaddy,
Thanks for your reply. Actually I'm doing this free for members of our town house homeowners' association and the Architectural Committee has approved only black numbers against a white background. I'll post a pic when it's finished.

[Greybeard]

Would it be possible to use a roller for the white coat, after you had painted the numbers black/sanded off excess etc. ?
Then a weatherproofing coat overall if necessary.
John

[pkunk]

I prefer to use 'centerline' for these projects as it's faster all around. I spray the entire project with a coat of sanding sealer to seal the end grain of the carving mostly. Then I spray the letters and when that is dry sand off the overspray and recoat with a good exterior waterbased clear from Sherwin Williams.

[Gman_Ind]

I have not done a 2 color wood outdoor sign like your project.
I worked for Keeler Brass for a few years. Old timer's to furniture building I gaurentee you put some of our hardware on at some point.
We had several tecniques for contrasting a paint scheme. most involve painting the recess first, then buffing the color off the high parts or rolling the color onto a rubber mat then press the work onto the coated mat. Wood has grains so seal completely so streaking and running with the grain can be avoided. I prefer a wood or gilded letter so I sand the letters to sharpen the edges.
We made tons of tool box pulls with the black in the recess, buffed back to the chrome on the raised portion.
Maybe if you know someone into stamping you could get a stamp pad to test.
And I think thinned paint would go on the smoothest.
My wife is a stamping fiend and they have some interesting ways of transferring color to their projects.
Post pictures on your experiments please.