A little known fun fact.

Not everybody is familiar with New England and what this section of the country is most known for. Three things come to mind: stone walls, lobsters and carved signs. When settlers first came to this country and began to set-up shop and trade with the natives, businesses were identified by a simple image and few words as many could not read. The dentist would display a tooth, the cobbler a shoe and so on. Most of the signs back then were a slab of wood and with little to no paint available those images were whittled and the words if any were carved into the wood. Not every dentist or cobbler was good at whittling or carving so a sign maker was needed. That was the beginning of the sign business. It started here in New England and continues to grow with you partnering with us to produce the highest quality, reasonable priced, most profitable, carved, sandblasted and dimensional signs available to your customers.

Carved Signs feature letters or images that are engraved into the surface. Usually V grooved. Borders are usually ball grooved or u-shaped and engraved letters and images that have flat bottoms are referred to as pocket routed. Some designs may incorporate a recessed face referred to as a milled face. And cut out raised elements are appliques.

Carved PVC is usually the least expensive material and often delivers the highest profit  margin for resellers. Read about PVC on our what you should know about materials page. Carrot Patch is a great example of a carved 1″ PVC sign that features hand carved HDU raised carrot appliques. It is attached to PT filled PVC post sleeves with caps via color matched aluminum u-channel. There is a 1/4″ color matched piece of aluminum flat stock on the bottom for rigidity.

Sandblasted Signs usually feature a raised border, letters or images. The background is removed approximately 1/4″ by forced high pressure sand. The raised elements are protected from the sand by first applying a rubber mask.

Sandblasted HDU as shown is less expensive than wood because it takes much less time to blast. Read more about HDU on our what you should know about materials page.

Dimensional Signs feature a background known as the first surface and incorporate raised elements such as raised letters and or images. Stacked dimensional signs have two or more levels. Adding dimension to a sign such as carving, sandblasted or adding raised elements give the sign a greater appeal than a flat sign.