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Here is a shot of a home address sign I carved. I carved it as a gift for some good friends. The sign is made of 8/4 Honduras mahogany and was carved using a router to hog out the waste around the letters, then a selection of full size and palm gouges to do the relief work on the shell and carve the background.
I love carving these signs. Talk about a project you can really see take shape! Most people are afraid to carve because they either use the wrong tools or don't sharpen them properly. A properly sharpened carving gouge is a true delight to use and is more satisfying to use than most any other hand tool. If I remember to take enough pictures, one of these days I will add a page to this web site on how to carve signs.
When I come up with a sign, the first thing I do is go to the computer. I don't have fancy software like Adobe Illustrator (although I will in the future... some day). I generally use Microsoft Publisher, which comes free with Microsoft Office I think. I knew what I wanted the sign to say so I selected a font I liked, in this case I think it is called "Elephant", and typed it in. Oh, I start with a banner sized to the dimensions I want. My friends live near the ocean so I decided on a sea theme. I took a sheet of copier paper and drew a shell. Then I scanned it into the computer and imported it into the design. A bit of tweaking and touching up here and there, and I had my design. Then I printed it up.
Next comes a slab of mahogany. In this case it is about 10 inches wide and 2 inches thick. For this particular project, the slab is not wide enough. You can see from the picture that the area with the shell is glued on to the rest of the sign. I cut enough off of the slab for the lower portion and some to add for the shell area. Using a #5 jack plane I flattened one side of the slab, then I flipped it over and, continuing with the #5, I surfaced the second side parallel to the first. Then I turned it on edge and jointed both edges - with hand planes of course. This is a hand tool project after all (except for the router... oh, maybe I should shut up now before I get myself into more trouble). I cut the shell section off of the length of mahogany and used exterior grade glue to glue it up to the rest of the slab. Once the glue was dry a couple passes with a hand plane and the working surface was flat and beautiful. At this point I cleaned up all of the edges before carving.
I layed the paper copy on the mahogany and taped in place where it fit best. Then I placed carbon paper under it and traced out the pattern onto the wood. Using a 1/4 inch solid carbide spiral upcut router bit in my small router, I routed around the outside edges of the letters, numbers and the shell. I did this in three passes taking a quarter inch at a time to a finished depth of 3/4 of an inch. This is what it looks like when I am finished routing.
Now for the carving. I use whatever gouge works to fit the edge of the letter and I clean up the edges of the routed parts to remove any inaccuracies. Sorry, I forgot to take any more pictures so the rest is just talk. Then using my carving gouges I cleared away the background. I clear out the space about 1 and 1/2 inches away from the characters on an angle down to where the base of the letter and the bottom of the routed portion intersect. Once that is complete, I did the relief work on the shell.
Once carved, I use flat black spray paint and I spray a fine mist, not a coat but just enough to color the wood, at a 25 to 30 degree angle from the bench surface. I do this all the way around and the idea is to darken the sides of the letters and the hand carved background. Some will get on the face but that is fine. Then I use my palm sander to sand the faces of the letters and the rest of the sign surface to remove any pencil marks, carbon tracings, or black spray paint. A little 180 grit paper to break the corners of the letters and such and the paint will flow more easily. Now for the fun part. I know you have been wondering about the black spray paint! Darkening the deepest parts of the carving adds to the depth. While you have the 180 grit paper in your hands you very gently sand the hand carved sections and that removes the paint from the ridges that the gouges left. This will make them stand out from the rest of the background and creates a real "hand carved" effect by highlighting the scoop marks. This IS fun!
To finish the sign I use Cuprinol from Sherwin-Williams. Ask at the store. You want transparent, oil-based deck stain. Not all stains are recommended for use on mahogany so be careful. Slop it on really well then wipe of the excess - and be sure to do all the sides and faces. After 48 hours of drying time, I use Sherwin-Williams Alkyd exterior house paint for the highlights. The shell is a cream color and the letters a pale blue. Pastels work great. I buy one quart then tint a bit in a paper cup with artist oil paints. You need only a little tiny amount per sign. Three coats of highlights and you are done!
For those of you patient enough to reach the end of this diatribe, here is another picture. It is not that great but was really rainy and dark the week I took it so the light is awful everywhere. Try carving. It is one of the best types of therapy I can recommend!
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