Hand Routed Wood Signs
by Peter Joyes
Using a high speed, heavy, and noisy router to make signs is often hard work.
It is easy to make a mistake. It is not like using paper - each piece of wood
has its'
own characteristics, Most wood has layers of both hard and soft between the
grain, often
making the router wiggle. Some is like soft cheese, others like rock.

I recently bought a plotter/cutter to cut out letter shapes from adhesive
colored vinyl. I like the speed and accuracy of this process, but it produces
very
exact and commercially acceptable work. There's not much room for personal
expression in a vinyl sign. To see some examples click here
link to new vinyl signs page
Click here to
link to pages about sign ideas for
The Haven property on Gabriola Island

This "Fellowship Hall" sign is made from a piece of an old pew seat
from the
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Portland, Oregon.
. On the
right is what it looked like before being stained and varnished.
I like the way the letters stand out using the natural lighter interior color on
this rare piece of old growth wood.
Close up, you can still see the old square iron nail
holes in the letter a.
This page features some of my favorite wooden routed signs..



The signs are made with a hand held high speed router. Several signs
I have made for the buildings at The Seabeck Conference Center in Seabeck, WA


For many years, traveling all over the West Coast I lived in a converted LA
Transit bus painted blue.
I called it "E Bluebus Unum." Custom cabinets were made to fit the rounded
ceiling
and to hold my large inventory of pictures, bags, and supplies for the shows..
Arriving a couple days early for a Christmas show in San Francisco,
I used the time to carve these words into some oak drawer fronts


Here is one pleased customer!
Link to new Vinyl Signs
index