Newbee to CW - Finishing techniques and supplies

[BSarte]

OK, I am a newbee to CW, have done some small projects so far but starting to try my hand at finishing (stain & paint).

For finishing the carvings, I have a couple of signs that I made, sanding them pretty good so far with a couple of sanding mops. Next step is to paint or stain them. Staining seems pretty straight forward, but painting them is a more tedious, so I am looking for how you do this. The first sign (see attached) for my Father-In-Law that I am doing has grooves and letters which I would like to do in different colors (red/white/blue).

• Do you tape these areas off?
• Do you use painters tape?
• What type of paint do you use?
• Brushes? Foam or bristle?

Supplies? Where do you get them? A place like Hobby Lobby?

I am going to go out and get supplies, so would appreciate input.

[Dale]

For recessed areas like your sign I use this technique: apply 2 coats of of sanding sealer to prevent paint from bleeding into the edges, paint the letters and the groove you do not have to be careful about staying within the edges. After the paint is dry I use a small hand held detail sander to remove the over flow paint. You can get very crisp edges. I use cheap acrylic paint from Hobby Lobby or Walmart.

[want2b]

I do the same as Dale for recessed items. Raised ones are just what you said, tedious. I find taping almost impossible so I use various artist brushes. Usually a small fine tip to do edges and larger to fill in. Found the brushes with the acrylic paint in Walmart.. The acrylic is water soluble so with the board sealed well you can usually carefully remove oops's if you catch them before drying with a blade & dampened paper towel. After all is dried I usually give everything a spray coat of lacquer to protect.
Rick H

[BSarte]

Thanks for the info, appreciate it.

I just stopped at local place that does some woodworking and guy showed me a sign he made. It was basically an engraved words with the engraved part filled in with resin, the resin was different colors and on the simpler engravings like this using colored resin seems to be a much more straight forward way to get colored lettering without as much work.

Opinions? Comments please.

[fwharris]

Thanks for the info, appreciate it.

I just stopped at local place that does some woodworking and guy showed me a sign he made. It was basically an engraved words with the engraved part filled in with resin, the resin was different colors and on the simpler engravings like this using colored resin seems to be a much more straight forward way to get colored lettering without as much work.

Opinions? Comments please.

Well maybe not as much work, but different work. You will still need to sand down the resin after it sets up. That is unless he shared a secret way of doing it.

there are 3 tips and tricks newsletters on finishing techniques that might give you some ideas...

http://support.carvewright.com/tips-tricks-archive/