I never 'saw' this blog entry coming.!

Following on from my previous blog entries on sign writing, I'm really getting back into sign writing and felt the need to try something different, so recently I have been looking for an old hand saw that I could make into a fun sign. I have been searching the car boot sales for what seems like ages, then last week I hit the jackpot. I saw 4 old rusting hand saw's under a table at the car boot, I picked one to have a look and the seller said I could have all four for the grand total of 50p, (about 80 cents) so how could I refuse. They were just what I was looking for, the two larger ones looked old and were rusting slightly, the two smaller ones I haven't really got a use for as yet, but for the price they cost me if I try something and it doesn't work then all I have lost is 50p. The idea I had in my mind I got from VW shows I have attended in the past, there is a guy there who sells hand saw's, gasoline cans, push bikes etc and they are all sign written and pinstriped and they look fantastic. I'm not going to be anywhere near as good as him, but we all have to start somewhere, right? and as this will be my first time sign writing on rusty metal, we'll have to see how it comes out.

Bargain find, not sure what I will do with the
two smaller saws, but I'm sure I'll find a use
for them somewhere. For this project I have
in mind I will use one of the larger saws.

This saw has a lovely shaped handle made
by a craftsman, however...

Upon closer inspection the handle is riddled
with wood worm, not sure how long it would
be before they ruined the whole handle so I
opted to use the other large saw.

Although not quite as pretty, it looks like a
good base to start my project.

A good solid handle in a traditional shape. The
blade is blunt and rusting and for this project
I will leave it just like it is.

The first job to do was to sketch out what I
was going to put onto the blade. I thought of
some wording and maybe a pin stripe or two
around the edges. I decided to use an old
looking font just for a change. Here I have
sketched out the wording but it looks bland
at this stage.

To give the wording a bit more body, I decided
to add a 3D look to it. I had decided on a two
tone colour scheme for the lettering.

When writing on an old rusty steel saw, if I had
used a normal pencil to sketch out the design
I would never have seen it, so I used this
Stabilo type pencil. They are brilliant and come
in black and white and will write on almost
surface, metal / glass / wood and rusty old saws.

Brilliant invention that is cheap to buy, lasts a
long time and something I cannot do without.

As this was my first attempt at painting onto a
rusty saw blade I thought I'd better have a little
practise. I got the other large saw, got out the
permanent marker and quickly sketched out
the VW letters. I then painted it in the colour
I had chosen.

OK, so the turquoise went on OK, now to high-
light the letters in antique white. Once I had
completed the white, I got the fine line marker
out and jut tidied up the edges. Not a bad first
effort, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be
painting on a rusty blade.
 

Feeling confident I started to paint the saw in
the turquoise. That small blob of paint in the
plastic tub was more than enough to give all
the wording 2 coats to ensure it covered the
rust evenly.

The turquoise blue finished, the wording looks
OK at this stage but it does need the 3D look.

I used the same antique white for the 3D
highlights, which I think suits the font nicely.
So that is the wording finished, so time to think
about the pinstripe around the outer edge, just
to finish it off.

I had decided on a brilliant white and yellow
for the 2 pinstripe colours. Yellow is a very
opaque colour so I decided to give the saw
a base coat of white to ensure the yellow
covered. As I mentioned this is my first attempt
at painting on a saw, and already there are
things I should have done differently...

For example, although the wording does get
smaller it still wasn't small enough to add the
pinstripes! Maybe I should have put more
thought into the design before I started to
paint, never mind, live and learn.

The finished piece. OK it's not bad, but it's not
brilliant either. There are so many things I will
do differently next time. I had intended to give
this piece to a mate to hang up in his workshop,
but to be honest I don't think it's good enough.
Like I said, this was my first time for saw
painting, and I'm a quick learner so we'll see
how much I really learnt on the next saw.!