Making a 100K thank you sign out of spruce

Recently I reached 100.000 subscribers in my youtube channel. So I made this spruce sign to thank them all for your support!

First of all I cut a spruce board to size using a hand saw.

I then hammered two nails in the sides of the board. I then connected the two nails with a rubber band. This mechanism helped me establish my vanishing points and guides. That’s because the main element of my design would be typography with extreme perspective. 

I then drew my design by hand. I used several visuals referring to projects I’ve done over the years.

I then nailed the sign on my bench top to prevent it from moving, while routing. I added a V bit on my router and carved on the lines I drew earlier, digging about 1,5mm.

I then sprayed the sign with black paint. After the paint dried out I sanded the excess paint with my random orbit sander. I begun at 50grit, moved to 80 and then 120. Now the paint stayed only inside the carved area!

I used my bandsaw to create a “broken wood” effect by removing material from the sides of the sign.

I then rounded over the edges with a block plane and the spokeshave. I also used a carving gouge to round over a few really difficult to reach spots.

I masked the front of the sign with blue tape. I painted the back and the sides black. This raised the grain of the wood. So I light sanded with 220grit and then applied another coat of paint. I also used my heat gun to speed the drying process up.

I painted a few elements of my design with water based wood stains. These come in powder form. You just mix them with water.

I finished the piece with a few coats of clear varnish while lightly sanding between coats.

I added a hanging wire in the back and my sign was ready.

I hope you like it. I really want to thank all my subscribers for the support!

THANK YOU!