Carved 1½-in. high density urethane panel primed with Jay Cooke’s Sign Primer, finished with Rustoleum enamel, then clear-coated with PPG clear and gilded; by Braun Bleamer, Jet Signs, Palmerton, Pennsylvania. “When you clear coat the sign then gild,” says Braun, “it makes a great gold job. The clear finish is so smooth and makes a perfect base for the gold size. Another plus is that if you get any stray bits of leaf that stick to the background, you can wipe them off with lacquer thinner or other solvent without harming anything as long as the clear has dried for two or three days. We mask before gilding, but we still sometimes get a little stray gold out there. With the clear coat, clean up is easy.”