Youthful Sign-Maker with the World by the Tail

Creating a Sand-blasted Redwood Sign: A Step by Step

I was thrilled to come across some old photos of one of my very first "blasted" signs. The photos were of poor quality, for this I ask for your forbearance. I am sure that these images are in fact my very first step by step. I suspect them to be from the spring of 1985 or '86.  My clue is that we both are wearing wedding bands in them. As for the layout, I'll just say we have come a long way towards a higher ideal. When we start out we simply do not know the things that we do not know. If we did....we may have never began.

 These were taken before computer aided design was available to the common sign-maker. Computers in sign shops? Such notions were still considered science fiction.

Designs were drawn by hand for client approval.

This was before the internet was common to businesses. These sketches were delivered back to the client for approval or not. Then the process might start all over again with a newly revised hand drawn sketch with a second trip across town, no such thing as e-mail. It was the "Dark Ages" only we didn't know it.

Clear-heart redwood planks were run through a jointer to true up edges before using the drill press. A two part resinol glue was mixed and spread on the edges,

in holes and on wooden dowels.

Here my youthful bride is setting bar clamps across the planks insuring

there would be no gaps between them. Do I have it made or what?

Excess glue is removed from panel with a coarse belt sander.

A rubbery stencil is affixed to the panel and the design is hand-cut

and removed in preparation for the blast.

The exposed wood is blasted away while the areas protected from the blast remain intact.