When I letter truck doors with gold, I remove small bits of errant gold with a soft pink pencil eraser. Never harms the surface.

While striping a restored old car, the owner, an older fellow, gave me a tube of what he said was laquer striping paint. The lead tube has a small metal cap. The front label reads: Acme White Lead and Color Works, Detroit, Michigan The label on the back of the tube reads: Ground to the finest degree...

I have found that as time goes by, I am required to educate clients more and more. Years ago you were just required to ply your trade, based on your abilities to execute the finished product weather it was a showcard, lettering on some truck doors or whatever. The digital world has changed all this....

I need to produce some sintra panels. I want to coat the background with 1-soht enamel. If I was hand lettering them I wouldn't feel so uncomfortable, but I need to use vinyl. I am afraid that the application tape will pull up the background. How about Ronan aqua paint? I have never tried it. Any su...

What a thread! Living in Wisconsin, I remember a fellow named Cecil Sanders. He was from Indiana and traveled the mid-west in a van. He used to sell me blue handled Luco French quills. Don't know if they are still available, last ordered some from Q H & F, Ken Millar. I still have a beautiful 2&...

Years ago I labeled many patterns with pencil. Now some are so faded that I cannot read them anymore. True, I very seldom use them, but should I toss them? Can't save everything forever.

I have been purchasing 1/2" Simpson® brand MDO, factory primed on one side. The un-primed side is factory stamped as 'Simpson Backer'. Now I have a customer that needs a two sided 1/2" MDO sign and the local supplier no longer stocks two sided material. I have several sheets of the primed...

As for Jimmy's reply above: of the reason for a lack of lettering quills around 1985: I believe that the late sign supply distributor, Cecil Sanders informed me that the Russian nuclear disaster at Chernobyl killed several generations of wild squirrls raised for their hair. This was in April of 1986.

I love truck lettering. It is pure profit. An ounce or two of 1-shot and thinner, surface prep fluid, some rags and several yards of tape.

This is exactly what I dislike about the "technology revolution" we find ourselves in. The soft market requires us to bid accordingly, thus many timesit is faster to just scan and cut. Now, if you make a fuss and try to charge for clean-up, you risk loosing the account because someone is a...

One time I was lettering a tractor miles away from the shop and I forgot to take the charcoal. I found some cigarette butts and some ashes in an ashtray, gathered some up and had enough to transfer the pattern.