Hand Carved & Gold Leafed

[neato]

Here's one I finished up a couple months ago. I had some paint issues with this one and was glad to see it get out the door! But overall, I'm happy with the final product.

 

[Gino]

Very nice. Simple and plain. Great job.

I take it that it was hand carved and not on a machine.​

 

[neato]

Thanks Gino. It's hand carved, but I cheat and use a vinyl mask

 

[billsines]

Very nice. Any prospects for adding a CNC in the future?

 

[Joe House]

Nice job. I like it. Very clean looking.

 

[Gino]

Using a mask is not cheating. I'm not any good at hand carving, but any tool needed to reach the end result in anything is not cheating. Actually, it that were the case, then every cnc machine, printer, vinyl cutter, air brush and computer would all be cheating devices. Therefore, if you turned off the electricity like back in 2000K, you could still perform, while 99.9% of all the other shops would be sitting on their thumbs, wishing they could do what you do.

​

 

[neato]

Very nice. Any prospects for adding a CNC in the future?

Thanks

Probably not, I really enjoy making these by hand. I don't have the workload to support a CNC either.

 

[Billct2]

Really classy job. I haven't done one by hand in years.

 

[JR's]

Hi neato,
nice looking sign. It came out really nice.

How did you end up connecting the hardware to the sign?

I was going to post to use a barrel nut or a round base weld nut/T head barrel nut. But I did not want to get in the mix of that thread. LOL

It would be cool to see how you did it.

 

[ddarlak]

That is crisp!

 

[Marlene]

Love the gray with the black and gold, very nice!

 

[neato]

Hey JRs. I was hoping no one would ask that

Here's how I did it based on suggestions from another experienced sign maker. I'm sure there are better ways, but I think this should be sturdy enough for the application. The photos should be in order.

 

[neato]

the rest...

 

[JR's]

Sweeeeeet! thank you for sharing.

 

[TimToad]

Really nice. Great job on all of your convex planes. Good letter spacing and restraint on your margins and excellent font choice.

 

[mjkjr]

Here's one I finished up a couple months ago. I had some paint issues with this one and was glad to see it get out the door! But overall, I'm happy with the final product.

I like this one a lot neato, especially the top crown moulding (is that the right term?) detail. I'm assuming the material your using here is signfoam? Can you describe a little bit about your paint issues and how you solved them?

I'm just getting into carved signs in-house at my shop and I bought a small DIY CNC that some dude on craigslist was selling. For my first project on it I ended up with a second copy of the blank that has been masked and painted, but not carved. I want to try carving the letters out by hand, but have been a little gun-shy because I wasn't too sure I could get a decent result. But, after seeing yours I'm looking forward to giving it a whack next week!

 

[neato]

Go for it! It does take a bit of practice, but isn't too bad.

I'm still unsure what happened with the paint, I think it was just a matter of not cleaning the HDU properly before priming. I ended up changing the paint and primer and cleaning the bare HDU VERY well and that solved it.

 

[Gene@mpls]

Nice job Neato- we have an old phart [he is actually younger than I am] that carves wood signs with a hand held router. He saw someone doing it at our State fair doing in a booth and has wanted to do it for decades, started practicing and he is pretty good at it for casual signage. He draws out the sign and then just does it. We went to a one day class with Dan Sawatsky a few years ago... and he is an actual artist.

 

[signbrad]

Using a mask is not cheating. I'm not any good at hand carving...any tool needed to reach the end result in anything is not cheating. Actually, it that were the case, then every cnc machine, printer, vinyl cutter, air brush and computer would all be cheating devices.

This principle is no doubt true in the history of every manufacturing process known. Technology replaces hand skills in almost every occupation. What farmer does not use a seed drill? Only gardeners plant corn by hand. At one time, blacksmiths were as common as dirt. Every town had one. No longer. In cabinet making, a tight dovetail joint was the epitome of the woodworker's art at one time. These joints are still used since few joints are stronger. But they are made with templates and power tools, or automated machinery.

The printing industry at one time had many hand skills, from punchcutting to type composing. When the first successful automatic type composing machines (Monotype,1887 and Linotype,1884) became popular, many thousands of skilled trade persons were put out of work. Were Linotype operators cheating? If so, the last of them probably felt cheated, too, when hot metal type became all but obsolete as phototypesetting enjoyed its brief window of history just before computers and digital fonts came along. I knew a lady in the late1970s who lamented that she ever spent the time learning photo type composition. She had barely learned her skill when the need for it disappeared. She felt cheated. Her occupation was short-lived and is now all but forgotten. And who even knows now what punchcutting was? Punchcutters had the skill set of a goldsmith and were in demand.
https://signbrad.com/2015/09/22/punch-cutting-these-videos-show-how-it-was-done/

Where did sign shops get their lettering colors before One Shot paints were produced? They made their own! They bought lead in kegs, along with linseed oil, pigments, etc., and made paint by hand. Breaking up lead with oil was laborious, time-consuming work, often assigned to young apprentices as part of their daily routine along with sweeping the floor. Premixed paint in a can was an innovation that was probably labeled as cheating when it first appeared.
I have, at various times, been facetiously accused by a client of cheating for using pounce patterns, a mahlstick, and an overhead projector.

And as Gino pointed out, when the power fails all the power tools are useless. But the hand carver keeps working! NOW who's the cheater?

 

[WildWestDesigns]

...Technology replaces hand skills in almost every occupation....

Not too sold on that. In terms of efficiency from start to finish, tech may trump hand skill, depends on the market you are placating to.

One thing that technology doesn't replace is the knowledge that one has due to doing it the more laborious way. Tech/software vendors try to by adding more automation, but they really haven't yet got there. Sadly a lot of people buy into that however.

Investors are reminded that in the early days of [computer] animation, the studios that went for short-term benefits were the ones that lost out in the long term

I think of that quote every time someone tries to rely on tech (in this case software tech) for embroidery digitizing and the use of auto conversion. It helps with time (what Tony was talking about with regard to "short term benefits"), but still have a crap output more often then not.

Doesn't matter if it's low tech (pencil, brush, chisel) or high tech (computer software, machines), they are tools. It's what the operator knows that makes all the difference. Not really cheating at all.

And as Gino pointed out, when the power fails all the power tools are useless. But the hand carver keeps working!

If the power goes out, I'm calling it a day. While I can do embroidery by hand, it's what I learned to do when I was 8, I don't have Hand & Lock's clientele to make it worth doing.

I might actually switch to animation full time at that point. But I digress.