Gold Leaf: To Clear or Not To Clear

Most gilders agree that for most sign applications, you should not clear coat 23-karat gold leaf.  What differentiates gold from other metals is its brilliance. Clear coating diminishes its shiny surface. But as with all rules, there are exceptions. If it is likely that the general public will put their grubby mitts on the gilded surface,...
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Time Management Tips

Getting Control of Your Day Time can easily slip away. When this happens, promises to customers are broken, return phone calls aren’t made, appointments and deadlines  are missed and new sales opportunities are lost. We all would like a few extra hours each day. But until the rotation of the earth slows down,  24 hours...
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Adhesion to Powder Coated Paints

Why Pressure Sensitive Materials Fail to Adhere to Powder Coated Surfaces?
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Traditional Water Gilding

While you might have experience in oil gilding exterior signage or water gilding on glass, you may never have attempted traditional water gilding, or what is also called bole gilding. This technique is used for interior applications, primarily gilding wood picture frames. The process involves coating the wood with several layers of gesso and clay...
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New Clariguard™ Laser Engravable Polycarbonate

CET Films, a division of Nekoosa Coated Products, has introduced Clariguard™, a laser engravable polycarbonatefilm.  The new CET film provides a cost effective solution for producing tamper-proof security-sensitive documents. Here’s how Clariguard™ works. To create a tamper-proof docu­ment, you only need a single sheet of CET’s new laser engravable polycarbonate. Clariguard™ incorporates a new non-carbon...
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Boosting Adhesion in Dry Applications

Dry applications can be more challenging for beginners. Learn how to get the best adhesion with this installation method. There’s a great debate in the sign industry over vinyl installation: Is it better to apply wet or dry? The wet application method applies a vinyl graphic to a substrate by using a fluid to assist...
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Seaming Vinyl Banners: Calling on the Chemical Weld, RF & Heat Methods

Chemical welding is an inexpensive way to seam banners ­ and it’s longer lasting than banner tape. But there’s also something to be said for RF and heat welding processes that last much longer than brush-on solutions. Using banner tape as a seaming mechanism is great for a short-term solution. But let’s face it. Banner...
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