Handcarved Big Darn Ranch Sign

Handcarved Big Darn Ranch Sign I just recently finished after about two weeks of laying out, figuring and carving, 2-3 letters at a time :). The sign was a birthday present for a rancher in west Texas and I did not have anything to go on, just word of mouth from his sweet wife. Anyway she wanted it carved on old barnwood, and it just so happened that I was in the process of carefully dismantling an old late 1880’s barn that was destined for the dozers perty soon. Well she wanted it carved on the grey outside barn wood until I convinced her that it was perty but not too sturdy, cupped, dry rotted… so I pulled a few 20 foot planks of the old heart pine out of the hayloft and the stall walls of the good solid inside brown wood and carved the sign. The second pic is of some initials I found carved in another board from 1914, perhaps ranchhands or hayloft lovers :)... I set my straight bit to around 5/16’s cause I wanted to leave at least a half inch of good solid wood behind the carving. That wood was really perty underneath, I dabbed a little mineral spirits in the first pic to show the color. I want to make a nice farm table and benches out of this ole barn.

Anyway, not shown in the pics, she requested I paint the letters flat black…which I did with a grain of salt :)
Anyway I delivered them all the way to Comanche County yesterday and man they sure have a beautiful ranch over there….and they were pleased with what I did…done and done…phew…

-- Frank, Little River/Academy, Texas , http://www.allthingsrustix.com