I'm making a gift for my father-in-law. It is a copy of a decorative paddle/oar used in his favorite movie "The Edge". He has talked for years how he admired this paddle. I thought it would look good in his cabin in Wisconsin.

I know ideally I should have found better quality and thickness of wood, but finding this in an oar is tough. I took an old oar (not sure of the wood type but it is fairly porous and thin) and sanded the paint off and am ready to carve and then paint the two hardest parts for a complete amateur.

I plan on doing more Dremel work, along with some minor carving (not too much because the paddle is not thick enough to go too deep on both sides.

1) What kind of paint (brand? Type? Where to buy?) should I look to best match the one in the movie? I believe I need a hint of yellow pine to paint the base coat so that it won't bleed? Maybe some lacquer to finish? Should I dilute the paint and rub it in?
2) Any other tips in both carving and painting?

I know I'm in over my head, but would sure appreciate some guidance. I also bought a wood burning kit and have watched a few YouTube videos, but have begun to think only minor carving and painting is the direction to go.

Thank you!

Sounds like you got it taken care of with the art studio. If that does not come to fruition, you can go as simple as regular paint samples (from SW, Ben Moore, Lowes, HD) or something along the lines of a sign paint like OneShot. The latter will be more workable and offer more vibrant colors, but will be more pricey and a little harder to find locally depending on where you live.

Side note: it would not hurt to use a dewaxed shellac first to ensure the wood tannins do not bleed as you mention (especially i fyou go waterbased). Look for Zinsser's SealCoat vs one of the synthetic offshoots.

You can then clear coat it (waterbased or oilbased depending on what paint you go with). At that point you could then apply a thin coat of glaze to "age" it, then put a final coat of clear to protect the glaze and give you your final sheen.

For the glaze, go with the "blacker" version of van dyke brown vs. the redder version. If you can only get your hands on the redder version, get a black glaze as well and mix them to color. You can also use a gel stain - something like a dark walnut should do the trick.

I have never seen the movie, but in the pics the sheen looks quite low (typical for movie set sheens to ensure light does not reflect off the surface). This can get a bit challenging to find unless you can get your hands on a professional lacquer in a flat (or even dead flat). If necessary you can knock the sheen back with steel wool or a gray (or maybe white) Scotchbright pad.

Again, depending on where you live you could look at something like a Michaels (sign paint), WoodCrafters (glaze or gel stain and MAYBE low sheen clear), your local paint store (paint samples and gel stain) and/or distributor who sells lacquer finishes (ML Campbell, ChemCraft, Axalta, Gemini, Lenmar, etc.).

Again - once you decide on oil-based, water-based (or even solvent-based) - stick with it throughout the whole system to be safe. Looks like you will be putting in a lot of work, so no need to take unnecessary risks.

Hopefully you can ignore this entire post and let the art teacher take care of it ;-).

I finally wrapped up the project. Many thanks from AGS94 and Le Hale from The Purple Turtle (in Bryan) as well as Uncle Bug!

My goal was to get as close to the movie as I could. Looking back, I wish I had screen captured high-res images of the movie instead of using YouTube, as I latter found flaws and scuffs that I wish I had reproduced.

As the other's suggested, after shaping, sanding and carving the paddle, I did the following:

1) Applied 3 coats of SealCoat
2) Painted the art with Acrylic paints
3) Scuffed a little with 320 and 400 grit
4) Brushed on Shellac (amber) < the only oil based usage
5) Scuffed final with 0000 steel wool to tone down the gloss.

I did have to do some touching after final using a oil based paint pen. After I did this, I sprayed clear shellac using the same brand of that the amber brushed on was. So the only change from water to oil was the oil base finish.

It was fun for my first time doing something like this. I can't wait to give it to my father-in-law. In case anyone is interested, here is a clip with the scene from the movie "The Edge":



Thanks again TexAgs for the help and encouragement!




The colors wasn't showing right in the above where I took the photo inside (warmer/yellow) so here they are outside.