I became an old school sign painter in the 1980’s. The sign trade has undergone major changes, and I’ve had to adapt as best I can, while trying to live withing certain parameters. One of those is to try and live without debt. I resisted computer made signs for a long time, but finally waded into those waters. I have preowned vinyl cutting plotters, but even those are outdated, For the most part, the trade has gone to wide format printing.
Think about how much faster it is to print an 18 inch by 24 inch real estate sign. All the lettering, colors, and logos are on one piece of vinyl; or printed directly onto the substrate. Man, that’s fast. So I figured that the printed method would be the last development for quite awhile, in terms of technology. I thought that it might be worthwhile going in debt to buy one, but that would be a $25000 or $50000 ticket. While I was very slowly contemplating it,. and interesting thing happened. People started selling printed signs online at very cheap prices. I’m SO GLAD I didn’t buy a machine.
As it is, I do a few painted signs, but most of my work is painting equipment. Above is a recent painting job on an MG hood. The changes have left me in the position of being older, with no retirement. For years, I’ve had ideas of things I could make and sell, but was never sure how to get them to market. I’m also very interested in historic things. Once I changed my thinking to being a guy who sold things, regardless of who made them, my path became much clearer, and I really enjoy it.
So that’s what I’m doing, starting a new business. It’s called Quill & Blade Country Store and trading post. Much of my time lately has been to work on that project. You can see more at this site: Quill & Blade
I’ve been restoring some neat tools lately, I even fired up my coal fired forge over the weekend. I’ll post pictures as soon as I can. I also want to make videos about current religious and political events. Here’s a wintertime scene from an abrupt change in the weather.