Your problem sounds like one I had years ago in that the paint is tracking
along the grain of the wood. If this is the case no amount of masking will
work.

We solved the problem by cutting the across the grain, firstly with a craft
knife or scalpel and then with a pyrography kit. We were using ink to colour
our timbers, mainly white birch, and being thin it leached away from the
areas we needed to colour into the surrounding timber. Even very heavy
sanding failed to remove all the affected areas.

Hope this works for you.

Alan
"Milt" wrote in message
om...
I am interested in makeing some outdoor signs using my router. I
have cut out the letters and words on some finished redwood - but my
question is how do I color - or paint the routed out area like in black,
then have an unfinished surface so the writing stands out?

i have tried spraying it then sanding the surface, but the paint soks in
so much and the redwood is soft enough so that sandng the surface al but
takes out the routed letters.

I use redwood because it is good for outdoors, and is soft enough as to
easily route freehand - which is what I did.

Does anyone know the best method for this?

Someone suggested covering the face of the board with "blue tape" like for
painting - then routhing thru the tape,. spraying after the routing, then
removing the tape. I have not tried this yet.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

THANKS!
Milt