# GSP Signs



## goldsilverpro (Apr 16, 2010)

I've been making hand carved (chisel and mallet), gold leafed signs as a paying hobby for about 45 years and have made many 100s of them. Most are made from Honduras mahogany or clear redwood (not too environmentally green, I know). Most use real 23K gold leaf. 

The pics aren't of very good quality as they are just scans of photos. The photos were pretty lousy to start with. I didn't spend any time fixing them.

Here are a few of them:


----------



## Rhodium (Apr 16, 2010)

Don't panic, It's organic !!! 
Man just look at the detail of those leafs. How long did that take Chris ?


----------



## Noxx (Apr 16, 2010)

Wow that looks really nice!

I might need one this summer, when I move to Sherbrooke. You taking commissions ?


----------



## goldsilverpro (Apr 16, 2010)

> Man just look at the detail of those leafs. How long did that take Chris ?


Maybe just 3 or 4 hours for the small leaves. Although they were all hand-carved, you can usually set up a jig for those kind of things. The pot sign was made for a Medical Marijuana club in Northern CA in 2005. I got a pretty good fee for that sign plus a good bonus.

The Swisher Law sign definitely took the longest. The letters were about an inch thick and 12" tall. They were all hand carved and I had to make special knives to carve them. The background is made from smalts - broken colored Italian glass. The combination of gold leaf and smalts is an ancient process that totally protects the wood and makes the sign last forever. The old Woolworth dime store signs were made this same way. Some are still around.

The Reynolds sign took a long time. It is 2 sided and the scales were made from many hand carved fully 3D parts.

The slowest thing for me is painting or sizing the letters that are carved down into the wood. It has to be done slowly and very precisely. On the days I painted letters, I didn't drink any coffee. To gold leaf, you first paint the letters (or, whatever) with gold size. After sitting overnight, the size becomes slightly tacky and the gold leaf will stick to it. The gold leafing goes slow. You can't touch it with your fingers or it will crumble since it is only 3.5 millionths of an inch thick. I cut the gold leaves with a semi-sharp pallet knife into the sizes I needed. The pieces are picked up with a special $50, 4" wide brush made of squirrel hair (called a gilding tip) and applied to the size. You have to either charge the brush electrostatically or use a tiny bit of oil to pick up the gold. Many people rub it through their hair to charge it (and pick up a little oil). I always put one drop of light oil on my forehead, spread it real thin, and brushed my forehead before picking up the gold. One drop would last for several hours of gilding.

There are faster ways of making these signs, but I never liked the results. You can, of course, spent 50 grand, or more, on a computerized router table to carve the letters. You end up with perfect letters with perfectly crisp edges and you can tell they are made with a machine. I've always felt that a little imperfection adds character and warmth. Some people with router tables add chisel marks after cutting with the router to achieve this, but they don't fool me. They always look phony. To speed up the painting, sizing, and gold leafing of the letters, you can first paint the background and then cover the whole sign with sticky thin vinyl or paper masking tape that comes in very wide rolls. The letters are drawn on the vinyl and the letters are carved through the vinyl into the wood. At this point, the letters are masked and you can just slop on the paint, size, and gold leaf. You peel off the mask and have perfectly painted or gold leafed letters. Here again, the effect is colder than if everything was hand done.

I apologize for getting into signmaking 101, but it's something I'm passionate about and, after all, it does involve gold.

Here again, the photos are terrible and don't nearly do the signs justice. As many of you know, gold is a bear to photograph.


----------



## jimdoc (Apr 16, 2010)

GSP,
Those signs are truly artwork. Great job. Those companies
look more professional because of your craftsmanship.
Everybody needs a hobby they love that can make them
money also. You have mastered the metals and wood.
Whats next?
Jim


----------



## goldsilverpro (Apr 16, 2010)

Noxx said:


> I might need one this summer, when I move to Sherbrooke. You taking commissions?


I doubt if you would want to pay the price. They cost at least 10 times (think $200 - $500 per square foot) more than a standard sign would cost. A couple of times, I started a sign business. Everybody liked them but neither business did too well because of the pricing, the fact that I'm the world's worst salesman, and that I was in a bad location. High quality signs are popular in Europe. In the U.S., my type signs are common in small rich resort and tourist areas, like Vail, CO and Carmel, CA. In many New England tourist towns, about 50% of the signs are hand-carved and gold-leafed. In your neck of the woods, I imagine there are a lot of them in Quebec City.


----------



## jimdoc (Apr 16, 2010)

goldsilverpro said:


> Noxx said:
> 
> 
> > I might need one this summer, when I move to Sherbrooke. You taking commissions?
> ...




A good website could be your salesman in these times. It can showcase your signs and get the word out. 
Jim


----------



## goldsilverpro (Apr 16, 2010)

> A good website could be your salesman in these times. It can showcase your signs and get the word out.


Thank you, Jim,

I'll never get back into that business. Too many 60-80 hour weeks. When it went from a hobby to a business, it became a drudgery and I got burnt out. I haven't picked up a chisel in 5 years.


----------



## goldsilverpro (Apr 16, 2010)

> You have mastered the metals and wood.
> Whats next?



I've just been lucky to be at the right place at the right time.

My father and grandfather had a big cabinet shop and were fairly legendary cabinetmakers around this area. I spent a lot of time in there as a kid. I grew up around wood.

I did have a very misspent youth and I used to be a helluva a pool player. If they had had, back then, all the paying tournaments they have today, I would probably have done that as my life's work (work?). Back then, about the only way you could make a living doing it was to hustle. I still shoot a pretty mean stick.

And then there's backgammon.

I've always wanted to do some blacksmithing. I've done a little knifemaking and would like to do more. I once designed and made a few knives for letter carving, which are better than any others I've tried. I've thought about making them and selling them along with a book. I've got that great assay furnace, with very tight temperature control, in storage that I think would be excellent for heat treating the knife blades.


----------



## lazersteve (Apr 16, 2010)

Awesome signs Chris!

You are quite a craftsman.

Thanks for the post!

Steve


----------



## Anonymous (Apr 16, 2010)

Nice work GSP, the wife recently mentioned trying her hand at wood carving, on my last load of copper paid Lee Valley a visit. Between the books and chisels and gouges came out $500.00 lighter on my feet.

After watching the DVD that came with one of the books found out most of the carving tools I purchased are for chip carving, she's happy and willing to give it a go. Over the week end I'll gout out in the woods and cut some green popular and some birch for her to waste.

regards
G


----------



## goldsilverpro (Apr 17, 2010)

Steve,

Thanks a lot!

Gill,

Get her some good easy carving wood to start with or she might get frustrated. Although very plain, basswood is the standard all-around carving wood, especially for beginners. It is fairly inexpensive and carves like a dream. Chip carving is easy to do but it's very difficult to do right. I always got a little frustrated with it because my stuff never looked as good what's in the books. Most other types of carving are more forgiving and imperfection adds character. Not chip carving - it almost has to be perfect to look good and perfect takes years of practice. Most chip carvers carve letters also. Wayne Barton is THE master chip carver and he has a lot of good instructive books out.

The chip carving knives must be super sharp to do well - we're talking beyond dry shaving. The new paper wheel sharpening systems are excellent and are very fast and easy to use. I highly recommend them. They work with almost any type of knife, chisel, or gouge. Dull knives are frustrating and this will solve that problem. Other types of sharpening are more difficult to master.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/8-Razor-Sharp-Edgemaking-System/G5937

Have her join the National Wood Carvers Assoc. It's only $16/year and the big mag you get (6 issues of Chip Chats) with membership is excellent and is very instructive. Can't beat the price. I think Wayne Barton still has a column in the mag. Every type of carving is represented. I had a couple of my signs in the mag a long time ago.
http://www.chipchats.org/


----------



## Juan Manuel Arcos Frank (Apr 19, 2010)

GSP,My Dear Friend:

What a beautiful signs!!!!!...You are a modern kind of Midas King,all what you touch it is converted in gold.

Is it true that when you are handling those thin gold leaves you can not breath?.

Congratulations!!!!!

Manuel


----------



## goldsilverpro (Apr 19, 2010)

Thank you, Manuel, my friend.



> Is it true that when you are handling those thin gold leaves you can not breath?.


I don't think it's that bad, but you certainly can't have any drafts. It's so thin that you can take a 3-3/8" x 3-3/8" standard size sheet of it, wad it up, and roll it between your thumb and index finger. When you open your fingers, you'll have to look very hard to find the tiny spec of gold that results. If my math is right, I figure that the sphere of gold produced would have a diameter of .021", assuming a gold leaf thickness of .0000035".


----------

