posted
Here's a quiz for those who've been involved in the sign business, and could be considered to be veterans of the trade:
What significance do the following numbers have, and how do they relate to the sign business ?
7 , 11 , 14, 22, 28, 44
If I were a betting man, I suspect that Raymond Chapman, Bruce Bowers, or Rick Sacks will be the guys who might provide the correct answer.
-------------------- Ken Henry Henry & Henry Signs London, Ontario Canada (519) 439-1881 e-mail: kjmlhenry@rogers.com
Why do I get all those on-line offers to sell me Viagara, when the only thing hardening is my arteries ? Posts: 2684 | From: London,Ontario, Canada | Registered: Feb 1999
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Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. Charles Mingus Posts: 6712 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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7...was the age I lettered my first truck with a rock and scratched "Just Married" into the paint. (I didn't get paid for that one)
11... was the first time I got to help the old sign painter in town clean his shop.
14....I was making posters and banners for the school dances, football games and marching band
22...I was writing a sign with my lawnmower in the park that said; "MARRY ME, CINDY"...(and she did)
28...I was in my own sign business "Draper and Daughter Signs
44...I was still in business but now had four sons...Draper and Sons Signs? NO...Draper the Signmaker...which turned into 7D Signs ( My Wife, Me and 5 kids = 7 Drapers or 7D
LOL I like this puzzel Ken, and I'm glad you didn't bet on me!
[ January 30, 2018, 09:06 PM: Message edited by: Dave Draper ]
posted
Hi guys. Thanks for the responses. I'd forgotten that Si, our resident dinosaur had been around long enough to remember what a showcard was. Rick Sacks, knew the answer, as I suspected he would.
Do they even make showcard board anymore ? In Canada, the manufacturer was Peterborough Cardboards, and they no longer make showcard board and have shifted their production to picture framing mat boards. When coroplast & polystyrene plastics entered the market as alternative substrates, the demand for those grew to the point where showcard board wasn't an item in high demand.
There are other long-gone materials that were commonly used to make signs. Anyone remember cotton muslim, canvas banners with the rope sewn in ? How about masonite panels, King Cole Black, or tubes of white lead ?
-------------------- Ken Henry Henry & Henry Signs London, Ontario Canada (519) 439-1881 e-mail: kjmlhenry@rogers.com
Why do I get all those on-line offers to sell me Viagara, when the only thing hardening is my arteries ? Posts: 2684 | From: London,Ontario, Canada | Registered: Feb 1999
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posted
Hi Jean. The 00 numeral is the size designation of the smaller quills or brushes. It was also used to denote the size of some of the Speedball pen nibs.
-------------------- Ken Henry Henry & Henry Signs London, Ontario Canada (519) 439-1881 e-mail: kjmlhenry@rogers.com
Why do I get all those on-line offers to sell me Viagara, when the only thing hardening is my arteries ? Posts: 2684 | From: London,Ontario, Canada | Registered: Feb 1999
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-------------------- Kevin Betz KB Sign Company 21321 Ulrich Clinton Township, MI 48036 kbsigncompany@att.net Posts: 229 | From: Detroit, MI | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Well, I've racked my brain, and that's a chore and a half these days. The only other answer that I could come up with is this: 00 was the size of the clear gelatin capsuls that was used to make a water guild gold size. This was before the gelatin became available in sheets, and the method of measurement changed. If that's the correct answer, that really does go back in time.
-------------------- Ken Henry Henry & Henry Signs London, Ontario Canada (519) 439-1881 e-mail: kjmlhenry@rogers.com
Why do I get all those on-line offers to sell me Viagara, when the only thing hardening is my arteries ? Posts: 2684 | From: London,Ontario, Canada | Registered: Feb 1999
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Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. Charles Mingus Posts: 6712 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Well, the rest of the guys beat me to it...but they are show card sizes. Literally, thousands done over the past 60 years. Rich Art Moist Water Color on Crescent Board. Layout done in white chalk (mostly dark cards) and lines cleaned off with a dry, soft chamois. Spray fixative used on cards that might be touched or had to be up for an extended time. Colors were mixed and put into 35mm camera film canisters. Lettering done with red sable brushes. I still use two sable brushes given to me by my brother on my 12th birthday...62 years ago.
Great memories of late nights and being lost in the feel of the brush on the card. The brush became an extension of your hand and took on a life of its own. Loose layouts and quick letter styles (now called fonts).
My favorite type of work in all the various things that made up a "sign painter".
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
The older the capsules, the longer they take to disolve. For whatever reason, the old ones get hard & brittle, so that 1/2 box you have Si will probably dissolve by next summer, if you get a batch of size started now.
Last time I bought a box of those from a local pharmacy, I also got a glass syringe so that I could use it for cementing acrylic letters onto a bronze plexi background. The pharmacist must have suspected that I was somehow involved with illicit drugs, because I got a visit from the RCMP shortly thereafter, wanting to know the purpose of my purchases.
-------------------- Ken Henry Henry & Henry Signs London, Ontario Canada (519) 439-1881 e-mail: kjmlhenry@rogers.com
Why do I get all those on-line offers to sell me Viagara, when the only thing hardening is my arteries ? Posts: 2684 | From: London,Ontario, Canada | Registered: Feb 1999
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Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. Charles Mingus Posts: 6712 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
| IP: Logged |
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. Charles Mingus Posts: 6712 | From: Mendocino, CA. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Like Si, I still have a box of those capsules. For the past years I have been using Rick Glawson's diamond shaped sheets. Still have some King Cole Coal Black back up, too. Old Timers never throw anything away.
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
I too remember having to explain to the pharmacy that I was making gold leaf size - not dealing in illicit drugs. By the time I finished explaining the gold leafing process they were so confused, they were glad to see me go.
-------------------- Jean Shimp Shimp Sign & Design Co. Jacksonville Beach, Fl Posts: 1265 | From: Jacksonville Beach, Fl. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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-------------------- Kevin Betz KB Sign Company 21321 Ulrich Clinton Township, MI 48036 kbsigncompany@att.net Posts: 229 | From: Detroit, MI | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
chicken scratching in my area was a loose layout with a stabilo, charcoal vine, chalk or china marker. Drag your horizontal lines with a yard stick (drag a line) and loosely write in your verbage. This reminds me of a want ad I read in the paper many years ago when I was just deciding that I wanted to be a sign painter by a sign company that said in it somewhere "if you don't know what the term 'drag a line is, then don't bother showing up!'" and I remember thinking that I have to find out what this means!
[ February 03, 2018, 10:05 AM: Message edited by: John Byrd ]
-------------------- John Byrd Ball Ground, Georgia 770-735-6874 http://johnbyrddesign.com so happy I gotta sit on both my hands to keep from wavin' at everybody! Posts: 741 | From: Ball Ground, Georgia, USA | Registered: May 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Dave Draper: Well, hmmmm, I got that wrong!
7...was the age I lettered my first truck with a rock and scratched "Just Married" into the paint. (I didn't get paid for that one)
11... was the first time I got to help the old sign painter in town clean his shop.
14....I was making posters and banners for the school dances, football games and marching band
22...I was writing a sign with my lawnmower in the park that said; "MARRY ME, CINDY"...(and she did)
28...I was in my own sign business "Draper and Daughter Signs
44...I was still in business but now had four sons...Draper and Sons Signs? NO...Draper the Signmaker...which turned into 7D Signs ( My Wife, Me and 5 kids = 7 Drapers or 7D
LOL I like this puzzel Ken, and I'm glad you didn't bet on me!
""Good judgment comes from experience; and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" - Will Rogers Posts: 3484 | From: Beautiful Newaygo, Michigan | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I knew the answer straight away... Crescent Board was the best.
-------------------- Bruce Bowers
DrCAS Custom Lettering and Design Saint Cloud, Minnesota
"Things work out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out." - Art Linkletter Posts: 6451 | From: Saint Cloud, Minnesota | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
Well, since I'm an oil painter, I still use masonite panels and tubes of white lead all the time.
-------------------- dennis kiernan independent artist san francisco, calif, usa Posts: 907 | From: san francisco, ca usa | Registered: Feb 2010
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