Church Notice Board

I am aware I haven't posted anything recently despite enjoying reading others WIP threads, so here goes. Our church has a notice board that is past its prime:

So I have offered to make a new one. The metal supports seem reasonably solid so it seems sensible to reuse it. My first step was to knock up a CAD model to check the design was alright before ordering materials. This is what I have come up with:

Nothing particularly out of the ordinary. I had thought to make it out of Iroko as that should last reasonably. A quote from Oscar Windebank suggests they can do the wood for about £200 which didn't seem too bad.

I thought the sign would look better with the church name and a cross carved above it. I have not hand carved lettering before, so now seemed like a good time to start. I had a practice with a couple of letters which came out not too badly. I am hoping with a bit of practice I should be able to do something half decent.


Anyway before I get going I would welcome any thoughts or advice as I try something new.

Thanks,

Mark

If you are going with Iroko get some good breathing protection it’s dust can be highly toxic

I don't have any relevant experience, but I just wanted to make sure you're following this thread from NickM:

I would seriously question your choice of timber. As a former yacht Joiner I've used a lot of iroko (and still do occasionally). As you may know its unpleasant to work with and that sounds a bit pricey although I've never had to actually pay for it IYKWIM?
Would oak not be a more appropriate choice? being a church in this country and all that? Looks better and would match the surroundings a lot better.

I've a couple of comments. Firstly, unless someone tells you otherwise, don't follow the design of the existing doors. They're actually quite ugly, being nearly square, and it's hard to tell from your 3D model whether you've copied them. If you can make them taller and narrower it would really help the look. Get somewhere near 1.5/ 1.6 to 1 (height to width) and they'll look much better.

Secondly, detail is everything with exposed outdoor woodwork. Where will water sit? How will water penetrate? How is the inside ventilated? (If it's not, you'll get condensation, and, yes, mould and even moss growing). What happens when the full summer sun through the glazing shrinks everything? What finish are you going to use, if any, and what happens when your client doesn't follow any sort of maintenance regime?

Frankly, this isn't a job I would touch. There is so much that can go wrong with fragile wooden structures exposed to the weather like this. I wouldn't want to put you off, but I reckon that this will be a job-for-life for you......."please could you just come and fix..........."

Best of luck with it.

How I wish I had taken my Mothers advice which was.... "Never learn to do anything" (she was a skilled dressmaker so clearly also ignored this).

I've done quite a bit of letter carving now after Mike G kind of made me. I found Chris Pye's books helpful. Proportion and spacing is everything and in quite a lot of letter carving it looks best to have a steep side and a shallow side rather than symmetry. Don't buy many tools - you will end up using only a few.