Lacquer method of sign painting

[David Slade]

I found this patent which seems to be the same system described by E. C. Matthews. In an article on The Sign Painting Museum site Matthews mentions visiting Vaughn's shop so there IS some connection.

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/1646565.pdf
TITLED: METHOD OF MAKING SIGNS, Filed June 21, 1926

I found and ordered a copy of the book but it has not come yet. Can't wait so been experimenting with the method but...

The masking paste described on the patent would not work for me. Maybe there is a secret ingredient...
I started trying other liquids with better results but the edge quality is not as good as I would like. I also had a problem where the lacquer got through in the center of a line an a piece not shown here.

Three plates picture: GUY is the exact formula as the patent and the other barely visible tests are variations of it. They all beaded away from the edges as you can see. The ones that are better are based on PVA with glycerine and lithopone. The edges are nothin to holler about.

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Chalk picture: I tried a chalk marker. No go...

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Close up picture: straight line is white glue, glycerine and lithopone -- not bad. "D" is the same with water added -- worse. "S" is the same with PVA added -- best so far.

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Consistency is hard to letter with tho and still room for better edge quality. Maybe this cannot be helped?

Anybody using this method?

[Robare M. Novou]

Not sure why you would want to use this method.

Would not a vinyl mask do the same?

RMN

[David Slade]

curiosity, fun, knowledge expansion...

I don't have a vinyl cutter machiney thing. Did you mean a liquid vinyl mask?

[erik winkler]

I like experiments.
Go David go!
With experiments of old recipies, we could get new insights and better solutions for what we are doing now.
When I finish my two glass pieces one of these weeks, I will start testing and experiment on an easier alternative of the asphaltum glue chipping method.

Erik

[Kent Smith]

This was an exercise in a basically failed attempt to have a very fast drying painted sign. While some, including Matthews had some success, the quality could not have been good, given the examples I have seen over the years. During the time period, lacquer had the highest gloss as well as fast dry, but dry time itself was too fast for conventional lettering with a brush. With all of the other options available to us now, it seems like a poor substitute. It is interesting to delve into some of the historic practices though and see what the inventors were doing to improve production.

[Mike Jackson]

David,
Check out this old post:
https://handletteringforum.com/forum ... &hilit=mud

At some point in the thread, we were talking about Mud and some of the issues related to it.
The reason it went away is it was a lousy process/product and was replaced with various materials that were much better.

I'd suggest you find SprayLat or GripFlex (sometimes calls SignMask). It is water based and can be brushed, sprayed, or rolled. When dry, you can draw on it with a magic marker and cut it easily with a X-Acto knife.

Good luck,
Mike Jackson

[Robare M. Novou]

Maybe you should try this.
http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/div/div3020.htm

RMN

[David Slade]

Thank you for the information! I searched several times but that thread did not come up.

I have an academic interest in this method mostly, but...
To tell the truth I do have a piece with aluminum bronze lettering I need to put a ground on... Very similar to Joe Ceislowski's situation... the bass acwards way of gilding...

The last test I did I was able to spray the lacquer and mask off another aluminum letter with little damage. I am optimistic.

This is really fun aside from anything else! The letters magically appear when you spray them with a garden hose! I love it!

Eric, thanks for the cheer! I'll post more tests soon. Malted milk powder, hmmm....

[David Slade]

I tried the lacquer method masking on the aluminum sign I mentioned.


The sign is plastic primed with spray can plastic primer.
The lettering is Vilpond size with blue aluminum powder.

sign before ground

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Mask ingredients: lithopone, white glue, PVA glue and glycerine.

ingredients

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I applied the mask mud with a watercolor brush. I cleaned off mess ups and bad lines with water and Q-tips.

mudded sign

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I sprayed one fog coat and three cover coats of yellow lacquer. Yellow never covers...

ground sprayed

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I sprayed the mask off with the garden hose with nozzle set to stream. Three coats is hard to remove so I got the nozzle up close. I tried a hog bristle brush at first but found it damaged the aluminum... A pressure washer would work best but the hose ended up doing okay.

mask removed

mud9.JPG (97.68 KiB) Viewed 10800 times

Success! Or close nuf.
Next I will do the same to the other side and then outline the letters and ground. Dark blue or black I am thinking.

Hope this was useful to someone