finishing a carving

[garylyb]

I haven't done any 3d stuff, so I've been learning how to do it in artcam. I got as far as the pic, now I'm wondering how to finish it. This will be a sign, the text will simply be v carved.

It will be red oak, will staining it after carving bring out the carved details, what stain would be appropriate, I don't like minwax stains at all, I've been using varathane premium fast dry. It doesn't leave as much contrast on oak as minwax does.

Just wondering how others do this part.

Thanks,

Gary

[garylyb]

So, here it is carved in some ash that I had. I sanded it a bit with nyalox brushes in a drill.




The circle is about 7 inches diameter, it took 1 hour, 40 minutes, 1/4 endmill rough, 1/16 ball nose bit finish, all at 200 ipm.

Still has a few fuzzies that I'll sand out before staining. I just want to see how this is going to look, as I've never done it before.

It took me about 10 hours of screwing around with artcam, watching videos etc to get that far. Now, I can create that in a few minutes.

[Deleted]

For removing fussies on 3D carvings and especially in V-carved areas, I put a coat of a clear sealer/shellac/poly to get them nice and stiff, then I use an oscillating electric toothbrush with the massage head on it:

smile.amazon.com/Oral-B-1000-Rechargeable-Toothbrush-Powered/dp/B003UKM9CO/ref=sr_1_3_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1497355890&sr=8-3&keywords=braun+toothbrush

smile.amazon.com/dp/B01IMZP3JW?th=1

It can really dig into the V's and isn't harsh enough to hurt anything.