top sheet/graphics question:

[jacobsen1]

I'm looking to make my skis with a black top sheet with some white lettering on them. Pretty basic, but I'm looking for a clean look since I'm horrible with drawing/art or anything of that nature...

What's the easiest way to get a black looking topsheet with some white lettering under it?

1) Black cloth with white letters (slik screened or cardstock cut outs) under a clear topsheet?

2)Clear topsheet painted black on the "inside" with white stenciled on letters?

Looking through all the pages on this, and all the skis the boys have actually made it seems like the cloth route is used quite a bit, and looks good, but it also seems to delam sometimes? Is there a specific type of cloth that bonds very well? Also if I were to paint the underside of the clear bases black, with a certain portion masked off for the lettering, what sort of paint should I use to make sure there is a good bond between the topsheet and the glass/epoxy below it? Is there any special prep to do to make sure this bond holds up?

I'm basically looking to do graphics similar to the ahmas. I'd love to know what the best meathod is to get clean cut out lettering like that and keep the skis together, so weather it's painting the inside of the topsheet or using the cloth, I'm game.

Thanks,
Ben

[kelvin]

Black cloth with white cutout letter would be the easiest. Any black fabric should work. Cotton seems to work well. We used to use flannel, but it soaks up a lot of epoxy and makes the ski heavy. Recently we've been using much thinner fabric, and it works much better and doesn't soak up so much epoxy.

I think the delam issues are independent of the fabric. It is usually the topsheet that delams.

I believe there are special epoxy paints that you can use, but I've never used them.

-Kelvin