Custom National Forest Sign

Custom National Forest Sign

Your name on a National Forest sign, with your town and your elevation underneath. Laser cut from Baltic birch and assembled by hand in our shop in California. For anyone whose favorite place has a number attached to it.

What goes on it

Four lines, and all of them are yours.

• Your name across the top. Usually a family surname, sometimes a cabin name or the name of the property itself.
• “National Forest” in script below it, or swapped for National Park, State Forest, Wilderness, Campground, Ranch, or whatever fits.
• Your town and state. Asheville NC. Estes Park CO. Wherever it is.
• The elevation and the year. 2,513 FT, EST 2019.

The elevation is the line people react to. It turns a name on a wall into a specific place, and it is the reason these end up being bought for someone who moved away from somewhere they still talk about.

If you would rather keep it simpler, lines can be left out. Plenty of these ship with just a name and a place.

How it is built

Every element is cut as a separate piece and glued on by hand, so the lettering and the arrowhead stand proud of the background rather than being printed or engraved into it. The two-tone face, dark above and light below, is what gives it the road sign look.

What makes this the Forest sign is the lettering: it is built around a place rather than a greeting. Our National Park sign uses the same arrowhead shape with a welcome line across the top and your family name below, if that suits better.

The raised border is a separate choice and it is available on both. With the border it reads more formal and more official. Without, a little more modern.

Choose your icon

Twenty-four to choose from.

Wildlife: Bear, Bison, Deer, Wolf, Eagle, Lion, Elephant, Giraffe, Flamingo, Dolphin, Turtle, Snake, Snail, Butterfly, Finch

Farm and pets: Dog, Cat, Horse, Chicken, Pig, Rabbit

Camp: Campfire, Tent, Sasquatch

Or send us your own. Simple silhouettes cut cleanly and look best. If your image is too detailed to cut, we can engrave it instead, which handles fine line work that a cut cannot. Send whatever you have and we will tell you which will look better before anything is made.

Stain colors

Aged Walnut, Dark Walnut, Ebony, Western Oak, Weathered Gray and White Wash.

Background and foreground are chosen separately. Ebony behind White Wash is the highest contrast combination and the one that reads best from a distance, which is why it is the example shown.

Sizes

• 18″ x 11″ for a small entry, a hallway, or a gift
• 23″ x 15″ our most popular, and the right size for most entryways and above a door
• 34″ x 22″ for a gate, a barn wall, a garage, or anywhere it needs to be read from across a yard

Hanging it

Every sign ships with a metal sawtooth hanger, a wood screw and a drywall anchor. The hanger comes uninstalled so you can position it exactly where you want on the back, and fitting it takes a Phillips screwdriver and about a minute.

Mounting on a post or a fence? Either “No Hanger” or “Metal Sawtooth Hanger” works, and it can go up with screws, wood glue or construction adhesive. The screw and anchor are included either way.

Something else in mind? Tell us and we will do our best to accommodate it.

Displaying it outdoors

The Exterior Finish option is the one to look at. It is a hand-sprayed spar urethane, one thick coat on both sides, and it is what stands between the wood and the weather. Two coats are available on request. It will slightly darken the stain as it soaks into the grain, though it will not affect painted colors.

We would rather tell you this up front than have you find out later. No wood finish lasts forever. Sun and rain are hard on any wooden sign, and one hanging in full exposure will need re-coating every year or two to keep looking new. That is normal for real wood, and it is a fifteen minute job.

One thing matters more than anything we can do in the shop, and it is free: shade. A sign under a porch roof, an eave, or on a north-facing wall will outlast one in open sun by years rather than months. A sheltered spot would work better than an exposed one in the long run.

When it is time to re-coat, an exterior spar urethane is what we would use.

Hanging it indoors? There is no need for the finish at all.

A gift that lands

The elevation is what does the work here. These go over well for someone who moved away from a place they still talk about, for a cabin or a lake house, for the town where a wedding happened, for a summit somebody actually climbed, or for a retirement to somewhere with mountains in it.

If you are buying for someone else and you know the town, that is genuinely all you need. We are happy to look up the elevation.

How ordering works

1. Choose your size, stains, icon and text.
2. We send you a digital proof showing your exact wording on your chosen stain at your chosen size.
3. You approve it, or ask for changes. Revisions are free and there is no limit on them.
4. Only then does anything go on the laser.

Want to see it before committing? Request a free proof, or try the sign designer in the menu above. Neither costs anything and neither obliges you to order.

A note on the wood

This is natural birch, so expect small variations in grain and tone from piece to piece. Two signs in the same stain will never be quite identical. We consider that the point.

If you are unhappy with your sign when it arrives, contact us and we will make it right.