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Carving Brandy

Hand Lettering topics: Sign Making, Design, Fabrication, Letterheads, Sign Books.

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Doug Bernhardt
Posts: 1077
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2004 9:29 am
Location: Ottawa Canada
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Carving Brandy

Post by Doug Bernhardt »

2-tom bovey signature1.jpg
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I always hesitate to post my own work but in the spirit of this site and in memory of the amazing work that once decorated the Black Lion Pub in London I thought I'd share what I tried a few years ago as the work of these craftsmen was no small influence on me.

It was a winter lull at the shop and I had a few planks of basswood lying around and was into trying out an "almost" copy of one of the signs from The Black Lion. After studying these and the ones at the Salisbury (in near perfect condition) by S. Jones and Company in Kings Cross London. I am almost certain that they were using some sort of router on a gantry much like a computer driven machine. I was using hand routers and ran into the problem of not having the nice even background like the examples I'd seen and am going to include a few of the photos I used as reference.

I abbreviated mine to Brandy as I only had 6ft planks and this was intended to be just for the fun of it. On the one from The Salisbury (spirits) you can see what I thought was a punched background and made a couple for this purpose from hardened steel. You can see on the original "B" a crack going through the background and the letter which tells me this was likely a single piece of wood rather than cut letters applied....besides to do otherwise would require an enormous bandsaw! Anywho...there's a little of my investigational ramblings.
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e-salisbury sign1 detail.jpg
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e-Brandy1-14.jpg
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e-brandy4.jpg
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e-Brandy lion1.jpg
e-Brandy lion1.jpg (145.43 KiB) Viewed 6789 times
e-Black Lion Brandies2.jpg
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Lee Littlewood
Posts: 228
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2004 2:36 pm
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Carving Brandy

Post by Lee Littlewood »

Great Stuff, Mr Bernhardt!
Did the punched background work out? With punched wood, how much do you worry about the crushed wood expanding over time?
Ron Berlier
Posts: 245
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2004 3:27 am

Re: Carving Brandy

Post by Ron Berlier »

Hey don't feel bad about posting your work. I certainly can't imagine that I am the only one on the forum who enjoys seeing your stuff. Keep it coming :!: So the overall size of your piece is about 6 foot by 18 inches?
Last edited by Ron Berlier on Wed Oct 15, 2014 11:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ron Berlier
Wherever I go, there I am.
Doug Bernhardt
Posts: 1077
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2004 9:29 am
Location: Ottawa Canada
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Re: Carving Brandy

Post by Doug Bernhardt »

Hi Gents...I've seen some old pieces with punched backgrounds before and they seem to be in good condition. There are quite a few available from woodworking supply places but am pretty sure I made this one. Have a picture from Peter Devine's which I believe is the same punch.
e-pd right2.jpg
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I have another in mind for the next time I'm prepared for a couple of hours of torture (it's noisy) on anything of substantial size. Brandy was only a 2x6' or so but the Devine's was closer to 30'
erik winkler
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Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 5:48 pm
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Re: Carving Brandy

Post by erik winkler »

I am not worthy of this post.
This is high class and what you made Doug is magnificent!
Please show everything you got.
Realizing we are in the 2nd renaissance of the arts.
Learn, copy and trying to improve...
Still in the learning phase ;-)
Amsterdam Netherlands
www.ferrywinkler.nl
www.schitterend.eu
www.facebook.com/Schitterend.eu
Doug Bernhardt
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Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2004 9:29 am
Location: Ottawa Canada
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Re: Carving Brandy

Post by Doug Bernhardt »

I'm going to make a point of trying to be more forth coming...thanx for that Erik. It's easy to just dismiss ones own work when I see the quality of the other posts here and on Facebook. Also a certain "shyness" on my side is at play.
Roderick Treece
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Location: San deigo Calif
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Re: Carving Brandy

Post by Roderick Treece »

Hi Doug,
It's alway a pleasure to see what your up to. It came out great !
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