posted
As I said in my earlier post, I never mastered the mahlstick and few painters today use one, but I know it is not a crutch because I have seen what a skilled practitioner can do with one. I just resent someone saying it is a crutch. It is like their way is the only way and that is just not right.
By the way, I am not related to Ted Nugent, but I do agree with much of his philosophy.
-------------------- Bob Nugent Hotrodsonline.com Gainesville, GA 30506 hotrod@hotrodsonline.com Posts: 46 | From: Gainesville, Georgia | Registered: Mar 2003
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For me, it’s more of a maul stick, considering my hand lettering abilities, or lack thereof.
I have watched Chapman load a brush, chisel the edge, twirl it around corners, etc. a number of times in the 35 years I have been in the sign business. Don’t let him know I used lettering brushes quite a bit this week with some jobs we have in the shop and employed some of the tactics he teaches. If he does find out, he’ll be relieved to know what I was working on couldn’t technically be called lettering.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5084 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Harding...take two asprins and call me in the morning. You're delirious. "Using a brush"...stay away from those mustang grapes...it's causing you to talk out of your head.
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I resisted getting a plotter as long as I could. After I had one for a few years, I found out it just wasn't for me. Oh, I do a few vinyl jobs every now and then when somebody wants to pay what it's worth, but most want it cheap so I pass. I use my brushes every day. These days they are sword stripers. I occasionally get a hand lettering job and really, really enjoy it.
On the subject of maulsticks, I never learned to use one and never ran into a job that I couldn't do and yes I've done glass gold. There were only a few signpainters in Memphis when I was coming up that used maulsticks and I was never fortunate enough to work around any and have them show me how to use it. Anyways, back in the eighties I was traveling around the country looking to relocate. I hit one section in Florida that I almost settled in. I hit a number of shops looking for work. It was the same thing with every shop. I'd do the "audition" For Sale by Owner sign and the shop owner would say something along the lines of, "I'd hire you, you're good, but you don't use a maulstick and all the other painters here do" I kept looking and went into one shop where I told the owner "now, I'm gonna warn you, I don't use a maulstick" They guy laughed and said "I don't care if you shove the brush up your a$$ and back up to the sign to paint it! It's the quality of the work that counts, not the process" He was gonna hire me but for some reason I can't remember, I wanted to check out another location and passed on the job.
-------------------- George Perkins Millington,TN. goatwell@bigriver.net
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
posted
I use brushes and enjoy it, I actually find it very relaxing, I started in the pre-computer age (well I'm shure they were around but few & far between)kinda feel a little bad for the new generation of sign people because (as mentioned earlier in this post)it is very rewarding to step back at the end of a job & see what you have created with raw God given talent & minimal equip. & materials. I'm not trying to degrade anyone, I see amazing design & execution of signage , vehicle graphics & lettering everyday, that I'm certainly not capable of at this point & wouldn't have a clue where to begin. However if you have never brushed, try it if you can find the time , after you get by the shaking & holding your breathe while trying to create the perfect thick & thin "O" It's fun.
-------------------- Doug Rontz Doug Rontz Signs Jim Thorpe, Penna. signguy00@yahoo.com Posts: 9 | From: Jim Thorpe, Penna. | Registered: Jan 2006
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I use my brushes on a regular basis. I get enormous satisfaction by painting letters and artwork. Not every job calls for a lettering brush, so I have a large assortment of brushes, each designed for a different aspect of the trade.
Now as for a mahl stick...i could not live without mine. I have three different sizes, the most used is a stainless steel tube 1/4" in diamater and is 4' long. I learned how to use it when I first started doing signs. Keeps the greasy fingers and hands OFF the surface. Nothing looks worse than a sign that was not cleaned properly before and after. But then again, each person has thier own way of doing things I reckon.
The comment about using a mahl stick has the potential of causing great angst between users and non users...not unlike the debate between users of vinul and paint.
We will see the direction it takes.
-------------------- Jackson Smart Jackson's Signs Port Angeles, WA ...."The Straits of Juan De Fuca in my front yard and Olympic National Park in my backyard...
"Living on Earth is expensive...but it does include a free trip around the Sun" Posts: 1000 | From: Port Angeles, Washington | Registered: Jan 1999
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If I were still painting signs with brush and paint, then I would still be using my high tech custom made maul stick. I only know of one other awesome painter who has the exact same stick that I have and this guy is the real shizzit!
-------------------- Bob Stephens Skywatch Signs Zephyrhills, FL
posted
I use Don King's "Royal Shaft", one of the best mahl sticks I've ever encountered...had about a dozen varities, since thrown them out, RS does it all in one stick...lite weight, good balance, all around good tool...
-------------------- Frank Magoo, Magoo's-Las Vegas; fmagoo@netzero.com "the only easy day was yesterday" Posts: 2365 | From: Las Vegas, Nv. | Registered: Jun 2003
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still use the first stick i got, '63, 3 pc. alum. been lost, run over, have to "tune it up" every time i use it, got another one from a passed on letterer... got two from england, 2 pc wood/w brsss connecter, even got an "extra one", just in case...
but, learned Hand Down, and do lots of smaller stuff that way... and Big Stuff, just the hand and the Brush, ... so many ways to push the Pigment...
Now, lately, i've kind of fallen for a 2-3" angled sash brush, "it's all paint ..
John.
-------------------- John Lennig / Big Top Sign Arts 5668 Ewart Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada bigtopya@hotmail.com 604.451.0006 Posts: 2184 | From: Burnaby, British Columbia,Canada | Registered: Nov 2001
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John, Watching you paint last summer @ Mazeppa was an inspiration. I love your enthusiasm. (no comments about your dancing) love.....Jill
Posts: 8834 | From: Butler, PA, USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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Never tried a hi tech mahlstick, is that the Mac of the analoque lettering world? Mine has a greeheart shaft cut from an old fishing rod of my Grandfather's. It gets a regular polish with linseed oil, I love that smell. I've had other writer's ask how I can pin a vertical with a tapered stick – you really do have to wonder how some people survive in this challenging world!
-------------------- Arthur Vanson Bucks Signs Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England arthur@buckssigns.co.uk -------------------- Posts: 805 | From: Chesham, Bucks, England | Registered: Mar 2002
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Arthur, my mahl stick is one of those newer cordless ones- I think in its former life it may have been an arrow, but its life was spent (so it's actually a Spentium- not a bad model, if you get hit by it, it mega-hurtz, but it only processes one line at a time).
I also have a newer wireless one, which began its life as a golf club handle from memory, but I don't have the hand of the newer operating system it requires, so I haven't upgraded.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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Ian, the Spentium sounds great. But, before you try upgrading the other one's OS you should try restoring it to an earlier lead-based date, it works sometimes. If you did get it going again, do you have a dongle for each or are you hoping the Spentium's would work in both?
-------------------- Arthur Vanson Bucks Signs Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England arthur@buckssigns.co.uk -------------------- Posts: 805 | From: Chesham, Bucks, England | Registered: Mar 2002
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aah, Arthur, I forgot, linseed oil is a great restorer- thanks a million for the hint! (there are still sufficient traces of lead based red, orange-chrome and yellow on it to keep it radioactive, and after I accidentally cracked it one day, I had no need for the dongle. A bit of masking tape and epoxy resin fixed the crack, so it's easy to do gentle banana curves now.
The golf club one was a cheapy ripoff from China, so I don't expect it to be too reliable, but it's just there for emergencies, like if the EPA bloke walks in- it looks clean and defragged, (unlike myself!)
I'll have to get a photo for you of it on Monday.
(p.s. when someone asks how you do a line with a tapered stick, I simply explain that I have to turn it upside down to manage the second half of the line, providing you curl your tongue the right way at the junction)
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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-------------------- Jackson Smart Jackson's Signs Port Angeles, WA ...."The Straits of Juan De Fuca in my front yard and Olympic National Park in my backyard...
"Living on Earth is expensive...but it does include a free trip around the Sun" Posts: 1000 | From: Port Angeles, Washington | Registered: Jan 1999
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quote: I still get a woodie by walking into a grungy, disorganized sign shop and smelling lettering enamel - especially if it's been thinned with Edge.
If you ever make it up here to TN and swing by the shop, you best be wearing a pair of blue jeans! No sweatpance allowed!
-------------------- Snow's Sign Works 865-908-0076 snowman@planetc.com www.snowsigns.com
I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message... Posts: 1640 | From: Sevierville, TN | Registered: Jul 2005
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Ian, you are just being silly now! On a more serious note, and for the benefit of others, here's a before and after to show the value of defragging after a system crash. You will note the complete elimination of masking tape and the considerable lengthening of the shaft after defragmentation.
-------------------- Arthur Vanson Bucks Signs Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England arthur@buckssigns.co.uk -------------------- Posts: 805 | From: Chesham, Bucks, England | Registered: Mar 2002
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I had the luxury of painting down an easel frum a fella from one o' them thar Carolinas and I'm tellin you what, youdda thunk it was a bionic implant the way he used that thang.
I asked him to teach me what he knew and get this, he wanted to know how I painted with one hand in my butt pocket. LOL.
I couldn't convert him none but I learned well what he had to teach me. Given initeal instruction, I mostly just leaned my mahl stick in the corner by the door and presented it as a place for tirekickers to sit and wait till I cared to leave paying work for them.
I still use it when I've got a wet on wet tah-dah in front of me though.
...and now we return you to the educational stylings of Arthur Vanson...ahem (sorry dude, you beat me back to the post LOL.)
posted
Si, I just love what you have been saying!!! Yea, hand painted work is becoming harder to find, & the value of it should be increasing!
I am still learning to paint better, & love it. Any body can cut vinyl, but to lay out the sign well AND to be able to paint it, now that is really something!
-------------------- The Word in Signs Bobbie Rochow Jamestown, PA 16134
724-927-6471
thewordinsigns@alltel.net Posts: 3485 | From: Jamestown, PA 16134 | Registered: Oct 2002
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Ian /Arthur, As the inventor of the mahl stick (as well as heterosexual sex - that's another patent dispute pending I can't speak about) I can officially say that after Mahlstick V1.2, defragging was not a system requirement as it was in previous versions, although defragging may have removed unneccessary cotton threads from UnderpantsBallend v1.1 We also dispensed with the masking tape retaining system with the more streamlined elastic band/rag end knob allowing for use by such handy objects as Mickey Mouse pool cues, broom handles, handy pieces of bamboo and any other garden implement. We realise of course that there are always many ways to achieve the same result, and that anyone not using a mahlstick is of course handicapped and should possibly be treated as menatally retarded. This information should be treated as confidential and not be used in general forums etc.
-------------------- David Fisher D.A. & P.M. Fisher Services Brisbane Australia da_pmf@yahoo.com Trying out a new tag: "Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth Peter Ustinov Posts: 1450 | From: Brisbane Queensland Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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iam left handed....anda maul stick was never something i could get used to. i do like si usin my right hand as a bridge. this keeps me outa the paint. also iam a potter(make thing outa clay on a wheel)and you also bridge one hand with the other while pulling the clay. so doin this with a brush feels natural to me. i went to the purcells web page last nite....they got LANGNICKEL BRUSHES... while doin the truck bed the other day i discovered i hada 1/8" GREY FLASH and iwant a couple more of these....also my #8 langnickel is loosin hair is now a #6....hehehehehehehe
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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george go look at jills post "tips on painting with mask"...i got pics there....yes i had to ouline the yellow letters, and had no #4 quills worth a schit ......on the THIN side....hehehehehhehe
[ January 29, 2006, 01:36 PM: Message edited by: old paint ]
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
I'm not one for using a maulstick and it still surprises me how easily Gump picked it up. He'll usually use one of my nylon drumsticks and flip it around with an ease and comfort I can't.
Course, I play drums better'n he does...so far. Rapid
-------------------- Ray Rheaume Rapidfire Design 543 Brushwood Road North Haverhill, NH 03774 rapidfiredesign@hotmail.com 603-787-6803
I like my paint shaken, not stirred. Posts: 5648 | From: North Haverhill, New Hampshire | Registered: Apr 2003
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