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sion Board, until he reached the texture he wanted. He used wire and abrasive brush wheels, along with chisels, to achieve this effect. In addition to hand chisels, Stade actually worked with an electric chainsaw to rough out the details of the sign, such as the watery wake trailing the loon. The use of special grinding wheels also proved invaluable. Stade also employed a 1-1/2-inch-wide plastic scrape with a bit of a curve to it (similar to a hunter’s bow) that one would find in an auto body shop. “It’s a very handy tool,” he explains, “especially when I had to scribe the contour of the canoe onto the back of the birch letters in order for it to fit nice and snug.” Stade’s brother, Spike, artfully carved the chickadee bird out of Precision Board. “I drilled holes into the canoe and epoxied the birds’ legs (aluminum) right into the canoe,” explains Tom. With the exception of lettering enamel brush-painted for the decorative scroll work around the top of the canoe, Stade used Behr latex paint and his four-stage HVLP Sherwin-Williams® spray unit to paint a lot of the sign. (Note: The birch letters, bird, and smaller elements were also hand-painted.)
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Sign Builder Illustrated // July 2013
after The logs were (L-R): 1. Carving the pounce pattern. 2. painted with flat Carved pieces. 3. The two sections of the latex and the rest sign. 4. Transitional carving. 5. Inserting with gloss. Stade “Indian Hills” letters into relief. 6. Attachfinds that latex paint is cost-ef- ing “Trading Post” letters to the canoe. fective and holds up better than traditional oil-based enamel paints, which start to get chalky over the years. “It also dries quickly, enabling you to keep on painting. With certain enamels, you have to wait awhile before being able to apply a second coat or additional colors, especially if you’re taping and covering,” he says. Stade would leave little Popsicle sticks underneath the painted carved pieces on the table, so they wouldn’t dry onto the paper underneath them. For the canoe section, Stade covered the parts not being painted with protective wrapping and moved from the top downward with his painting. Once finished, Stade attached all the letters to the canoe using silicone adhesive and epoxy. On the day of the install, Stade rolled the two sign pieces out
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