poly or no

[breadstick]

I made the wedding guestbook tree from Steve Good's site (can't link to it from work).  The point of it is it has a tree in the middle and a lot of leaves glued to it.  Guests sign the leaves and after the wedding, you have something to hang on the wall.  I bought UV-resistant glass (pretty expensive, if you're looking) to protect the signatures, but I'm wondering if there is a need to poly over it.  Anything I frame with glass I don't spray poly on because the gloss is on the glass, but I don't know if it's something I should do to protect this.  Steve Good, in the pattern, to spray poly over the leaves before signing, but he didn't have glass on the frame.

[dgman]

I think he applied a finish before was to keep the pen ink from running into the Baltic birch plywood.

[breadstick]

I thought about that, too.  I used a fine tipped sharpie pen to scribble on the back of one of the leaves after the stain dried and it wrote perfectly fine. I wouldn't use a marker, but I think a fine tipped pen would be just fine.

[Scrappile]

I don't know if it is necessary, but if you decide to do it, test it first on something with whatever they use to write with, make sure the poly doesn't make the ink run or anything to ruin it.

[redwine]

The surest way to be sure the ink doesn't bleed on the wood is to spray one very light coat on the wood than a very fine pen is used for the signatures. I do this with every thing I sign and haven't had one bleed yet. The 2nd coat also needs to be a very light coat to be sure that there is no bleeding than spray the additional coats as needed.

Erv

[banderson]

Whatever you do, test it on scrap first.  I was doing a teacher gift where all the students signed a puzzle piece.  I tested a couple of pens and finishes before so the signatures did not bleed/run when I put a coat of poly over it.  Even then I only did a light coat.

[kywoodmaster]

My vote is no poly. If you have gone to the expense and effort for the uv glass I wouldn't take a chance on the poly. Just my 2 cents.

[Lucky2]

Nathan, this is something that's going to be on display for years, therefore, you want it to be as good as can be. Personally, I think this is one that deserves some time to get it right. And to do that, you need to go through the old trial and error process. There are a lot of things to consider here, like do you really need to use glass to cover the project. Or, would a couple of coats of poly be all that you need, what is the cutting going to look like under glass with poly and without? Will the glass be touching the face of the finished project, if so, how will it react to the poly if used. Will it stick to it causing the two to be stuck together for good, or will it just sit on it with no ill effects? Lots to think about.

Len

[amazingkevin]

I made the wedding guestbook tree from Steve Good's site (can't link to it from work).  The point of it is it has a tree in the middle and a lot of leaves glued to it.  Guests sign the leaves and after the wedding, you have something to hang on the wall.  I bought UV-resistant glass (pretty expensive, if you're looking) to protect the signatures, but I'm wondering if there is a need to poly over it.  Anything I frame with glass I don't spray poly on because the gloss is on the glass, but I don't know if it's something I should do to protect this.  Steve Good, in the pattern, to spray poly over the leaves before signing, but he didn't have glass on the frame.

I had this problem once but forgot how in fixed it