Family sign restoration

[tfischer]

Not really a true woodworking project, but it's better than nothing lol.

This "Fischer's" sign hung outside my parents home for decades With that house leaving the family this summer due to my mom's death and selling off the estate, I took the sign down and brought it home. It was pretty worn. I didn't take a true "before" shot as I had already sanded down a lot of the rough wood before the first photo here.


The bigger issue was what to do with the "811" on the sign, which was the house number. Our house number is "16700" and there is no way that would fit. Plus it was carved into the wood, not easily changed... what to do?


Ultimately I decided to route out the entire '811' area, and place some sort of "shape" there that was meaningful to the family. But what shape? After toying with musical things, and camping things, and monograms... we ultimately decided on a Golden Retriever.

So, I used my Shaper Origin to cut out a Golden Retriever shape that I found online. Then I used it to route out the old 811 area. Then the whole thing was sprayed black. Once that dried, I sanded off the high surfaces returning them back to a "wood colored" appearance. Finally, the dog shape was glued into the new recess.

I routed a new profile around the edge, since the old one was in sketchy shape. Then I applied 3 coats of floor-grade poly (left over from our stair project earlier this year) for weather protection and gloss.

It now hangs on our house, in a similar way that it did for most of its life in my childhood hometown..


-Tim

P.S. Looks like the photo order got all scrambled - sorry, about that. I don't see a good way to sort them.

[tfischer]

Working on a 'real' woodworking project now too... although it's a gift, so I might not be able to post it for awhile... even though there's probably a 99.9% chance the recipient would ever find it here lol.

[leehljp]

That takes some skill that I most certainly do not have. Looks Great!

[LCHIEN]

Great restoration project. Something that has meaning beyond the physical value of the object.

[cwsmith]

Great project Mr. Fisher!

It was an interesting story too, and I certainly appreciate your work and the thoughts and skill that went into it.

Thanks very much for your post,

CWS

[LCHIEN]

Do you recall who did the original sign? Was it hand carved?

[capncarl]

When my mother and father passed away I salvaged their old white picket fence that my father installed when I was probably 5 years old. I want to install the fence somewhere around my new house. It has multiple layers of peeling paint, split boards and the bottoms of some of the boards are rotten. At first I wanted to sand all of the old paint off and put the fence in like new condition. After much thought about the fence I have decided that I will re-use about half of the fencing around my air conditioner and power meter at the entrance to my house garage, I will scrape the worse flaking paint off and repaint the whole fence once it is erected. As for the rotted off ends, I will just saw off all the bottoms and lower the whole fence. I’m not going to try to make it look any different that it was when it was at my parents house, just try to stabilize it just like it was when they were alive, just the way we remembered it.

[tfischer]

Do you recall who did the original sign? Was it hand carved?

It was done in the early 80s by a guy who freehand-carved these with a router. That's all I know about it.

[tfischer]

When my mother and father passed away I salvaged their old white picket fence that my father installed when I was probably 5 years old. I want to install the fence somewhere around my new house. It has multiple layers of peeling paint, split boards and the bottoms of some of the boards are rotten. At first I wanted to sand all of the old paint off and put the fence in like new condition. After much thought about the fence I have decided that I will re-use about half of the fencing around my air conditioner and power meter at the entrance to my house garage, I will scrape the worse flaking paint off and repaint the whole fence once it is erected. As for the rotted off ends, I will just saw off all the bottoms and lower the whole fence. I’m not going to try to make it look any different that it was when it was at my parents house, just try to stabilize it just like it was when they were alive, just the way we remembered it.

That's awesome. I know what you mean about the balance of "restore" vs "stabilize and preserve". Always have to find the right place on the spectrum for each piece you do.

[billwmeyer]

Wow! Looks good and a smart solution to the address problem.