Wood Types and Stains

Plain american light oak finished with a satin lacquer. Darker text stands out exceptionally well against this background, whereas the gold colours will blend in depending upon the angle of viewing.

The same can be said for white cream coloured text.

A slightly warmer tone than plain light oak. Again, darker coloured text stands out exceptionally well. White also pops against the background quite nicely. 

However, both golds can disappear when viewed at numerous angles.

This wood stain takes us into the realms of 'Medium Oak' and as you'd expect the gold text is very hard to read upon this colour. White text stands out nicely and so does cream. We would strongly advise against using any gold text on this colour of wood.

A lighter brown colour than Stain 4. Black text is readable, but if used on the whole board may look too dark. We would advise using light gold (bottom line of text in the photo). If you have no preference then white / cream gives an excellent contrast on the board.

Light Oak Stain 4 has a touch of a warmer red tone to it compared to the Light Oak Stain 5. Any of the gold colours stands out, with Light Gold (bottom line of text) giving more legibility to the text.  White and Cream names are excellent and very readable. 

Light Oak Stain 5 has a touch of a warmer red tone to it compared to the Light Oak Stain 3. Any of the gold colours stands out, with Light Gold (bottom line of text) giving more legibility to the text.  White and Cream are excellent and very readable.

The darkest of the light oak stains that we do. It's a dark walnut colour, black with a hint of deep rich brown to it. The text from all bar one colour stand out really well on this board. The black is almost invisible which gives a colour as to the colour of the wood.

Plain sapele with a satin lacquer upon it. Sapele has a reddish colour to it. Sometimes more prominent than others due to it's natural variation. As you'd expect, this renders the gold text hard to read. As you'll see from the photo above, light coloured text is best.

Perhaps harder to see on the above image than with one of our sample packs, but Stain A brings in a slightly brown tint.  Again, both the golds are hard to read and we'd suggest a light coloured font such as white or cream vinyl text.

Stain B retains the reddish tones of the plain sapele and brings in minor tonal shift to yellow / orange within it. Light gold is more easily read than the standard gold.  This stain gives the board an 'aged' or 'traditional' feel to it.

The darkest of the sapele stains we offer as standard. As such both golds stand out well , with the black text disappearing when viewed from certain angles.

This colour background is similar to the plain sapele, just a darker shade without changing it's tone.