Prince Edward Island Map

We are going to be cutting it close on this map, no pun intended, it may be a late Christmas present for someone. You just can’t rush the perfection that is a wooden map. Ha.

When a customer contacts us the first thing we do is look through our inventory on hand to see if anything fits the bill. We have two PEI maps available for sale so we made the suggestion for them to take a look.

One of our favourite color combinations. The customer requested no frame on the map and a different size so we would need to make a new one. They asked for an all black PEI map, with the word ‘home’ placed on it. We bought a quart of black stain and did some test pieces to narrow down just the look they wanted for this map.

It was obvious that wiping stain on with a cloth was a no go…too splotchy. I personally thought the one on the right with the edges black and the weathered boards on the top was sharp. Drumroll for the customers pick…..

They chose A. Black on the edges and the top. Nice. Thing is… this sample piece doesn’t represent the impossibility of using a brush to stain the edges black. So for that we are going to try something new, but first the map had to be cut out.

So with a copy of the map scaled to size (36 inches long), Jim prepared the weathered boards…

and glued them to a backer board for added support since this map is being shipped. We used concrete blocks to make sure all boards were solidly glued to the 1/4 inch plywood.

The next day we brought it into the house, minus the concrete blocks obviously, to let the glue fully dry.

After a couple of days we headed back to the workshop and Jim set up the scroll saw and started cutting.

It is soooo cold in the workshop this time of year even with a fire going in the woodstove, unless we start the fire early in the morning and go out mid afternoon to work. With fingers and toes froze I came in to look up the length of coastline on PEI compared to NS, and I was right. (Love when that happens). PEI has twice the amount of coastline compared to NS, even though it is smaller. Fun fact: NS has 580 kms (360 mi) and PEI has 1,100 kms (683 mi). Its has a ton of inlets, coves, bays and more words I can’t think of right now. Thats twice as much cutting.

Here is that one section cut out…

The amount of cutting on this map leaves its edges more fragile and a couple of places where there is only a small amount of wood holding it all together. Hence the plywood back board. Here’s a few examples of the delicate nature of this map, the left and right side are held together by this tiny strip of wood…

and…

Jim used the air compressor to remove any dust from the small cuts.

With the map cut out it was time to turn our attention to the word ‘home’. Jim traced the word onto 1/8 inch thick plywood and carefully cut around it.

Here are the two pieces before the finish was applied.

Remember when I said we were trying something new? This map would be stained black not painted. Now that wouldn’t be a problem except the edges are to be black as well. We had planned to dip it into a stain bath and finish any touchups with a small brush if necessary. But after kicking around ideas we decided to try and spray on the stain first using the air compressor starting with the edges,

and continuing onto the front.

The ‘home’ got a coat of white paint.

Then it was in to the house again to let the stain dry. The next day the black was still transferring onto our hands when handled. So we wait… … … … . Finally dry enough to be handled it was time to attach the letters.

We wanted it to be completely dry before packaging so we waited some more… … … .

Here is the finished map of PEI.

Time to wrap this project up literally.

Thanks for following along with this map project. If you have a request even if it is something you don’t see on our ‘For Sale’ page or our ‘Previous Work’ page, contact us. Always up for a challenge.

Later