I was just asked to make one of these signs with a light grey finish and epoxy fill the carving in blue. What would be a good wood choice for a nice light grey finish? Like a weathered grey? I don’t really want to use pine for it and I’m not really sure what would be a good choice for this. Looking for opinions from all of y’all much more experienced than I am lol.
Also while I’m at it. If I do the carve and fill with epoxy then sand it, can I stain it after the epoxy and it not mess with the epoxy color?? Afraid if I stain it first I will sand all the stain off trying to flatten the epoxy lol
I assumed I would be staining to get the grey color after sanding and all. Just wasn’t sure which wood type would be best to get the true grey color. Not sure I want to go though trying to smoke the wood. At least not for this project lol
Many years ago I was cutting a piece of damp oak with a rusty saw and the cuts and adjacent areas turned black, I even left a few black finger prints where I had been holding the wood. I was both annoyed and intrigued, I didn’t know what happened so I did a little research and it turns out that the tannins in oak will react with iron oxide and turn the wood a dark grey almost black. So dampen some some clean, fine steel wool let it rust, add the rusty steel wool to a small jar of water give it a shake and use that water as a stain.
If you don’t want to use pine you could use hard maple then apply a coat of sanding sealer (I use a 2:1 denatured alcohol to shellack mix) and a black glaze like this. Apply the glaze and immediately wipe off. Let dry, lightly sand, apply sanding sealer then top coat. The glaze sits on the top of the sealer so you’ll get a nice color that won’t penetrate into the wood or get blotchy.
You can keep the glaze/sealer combo going before top coat if you want to get darker. Also you can manipulate the glaze by adding or wiping off artistically to get an antique/weathered result. I recently did one of those oven board things for a friend and used pitch black and burnt umber glaze on pine to get this antique effect. There’s a lot of layers of glaze on it and one or two layers is like the gray you have in the example.
Wouldn’t filling a shallow carving like this with epoxy just kind of fall to pieces after a while? Wood expansion and contraction and all? Never used the stuff but is there a special epoxy that flexes?
I used to make everything gray. This is poplar with gray General Finishes gel stain. I think your picture is more black, but this might get you close.
The gel stains might have a color closer to what you are looking for and are hard to mess up. I haven’t tried to mill poplar yet, but its a soft hardwood. Might be nice.
I think there has been a misunderstanding. The link posted is to a previous version of this sign that is in fact stained ebony. The sign I need to make now is of the same design but a real light grey stain. Same carving. And they want the carving to be epoxy filled
I’m not sure how the wood will do with the epoxy and the small lines. I’m going to attempt to make them deeper so the epoxy will have more to hold on to. This will be placed inside in a controlled environment so hopefully that will help the wood not expand and contract as much. We will see. This is for a friend so if it ends up a disaster in a year or so I will just remake it and use it as a learning experience.
I do think the maple will be a good choice of wood. Real light color and with some weathered grey stain it should come out how they are wanting it.
I’m still not sure about how the stain will do with the epoxy. Need to do some more Google research lol
Edit. After a quick search I got several results that say epoxy won’t take stain so I should be good to go in that regard
I think I have made a sign in the “weathered gray” you are asking about. I used a water-based semi-transparent stain like this to get the color right. Maple or poplar would be good as they are lighter in color and should help in getting the grey the right shade. White oak may be good as well. To apply, brush it on, and wipe away after a few seconds. The transparent allows the grain to really show through. You may need to repeat the application until you get the shade of grey you are looking for. Keeping it on for a few seconds allows the wood to start accepting the stain, but not get so dark right away. You can get it to “weather” by applying it a little more in a few areas to get darker and keeping other areas lighter.
As for the epoxy, it’ll hold regardless. I have done many epoxy inlays and have not had any fail yet. My first one was done almost 5 years ago into pine plywood that has been living in my garage in humid NC and it is still going strong (was about 1/8" deep). Looking at your design, it shouldn’t be an issue with an epoxy pour. The biggest thing to to allow it to fully cure, especially before sanding. I would recommend dealing the wood before you carve it (shellac, sanding sealer, or just a clear coat) this will just help with making sure your epoxy doesn’t bleed into the grain in your over pour. Just a light coat as you will sand it off.
On that note, you could also stain it first, then apply the clear, so when you sand back the epoxy, you’ll sand off the clear coat before you sand out any of the stain. Can reapply the stain if it gets too light for you.
Oh another though if you are going for the weathered look, you can do a good dark solid stain first, and then carve and pour your epoxy. When you sand the epoxy back, you’ll also sand out some of that solid stain, giving you the weathered look as well. Again, reapply the stain if it gets too light.
Get some scraps and play around first to get the look you want, to include doing a small epoxy pour to know what it takes.
Any wood can work, use an aging stain they sell, or weathering they call it. But, like any stain, if your using a softwood you want to use a pre-stain which helps even out the color on softwood by slightly hardening the softer areas to match the heartwood - ALWAYS prestain softwoods if you want a professional finish.
Minwax sells one we use at work frequently. It’s not super important but it definitely gives a more professional finish.
Little painters note (ignore at your own will)
As @GrumpySarge stated it has a “hardener” in it that will penetrate the pores of the wood and “harden” it doesn’t increase the actual strength (or at least not substantially) but it will fill the pores with a substance that absorbs and blocks (weird right?) the stain better, resulting in a more even and often darker coat when staining. As stated it’s best used on softwoods but also any porous wood as well like oak. However do take note that sometimes you may want the uneven coat to give it a more rustic look.
