A Stainless Steel and Cedar House Number Plaque

Here's something I made recently. For many years my house number was marked by stainless steel numbers from Blomus that have bosses on the back so that they float off of the wall surface somewhat. When we painted the house gray the stainless just didn't have enough contrast against that background, and since I had done a gray-plus-wood sort of theme in the recent bathroom renovations I decided to extend this to the exterior of the house with a sort of wood plaque behind the house numbers.

This is the wood itself, made out of slats of western red cedar dimensioned such that the mounting screws for the letters would all be centered on a slat. The horizontal slats are screwed and epoxied to two vertical slats behind; the whole is finished with Olympic Elite "Woodland Oil" in Kona Brown color, an all in one sealant and stain intended for decks.

As I live somewhat near the ocean the stainless numbers had picked up some corrosion. I cleaned the bosses with a small wire wheel in a Dremel tool and sanded the flat surfaces by hand to 400 grit against a straightedge to get a nice vertical grain pattern. Then I applied two coats of automotive wax. I expect I'll have to do this again before too long however; I may end up clear-coating the letters but for now I like how the graining and waxing left it with a satin look.

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