Back in antiquity when I was doing this work at IRM, I liked frosted drafting Mylar. Easy to trace through, easy to cut, indestructible for long term storage. Never tried to use it as the stencil, though. For that I'd trace the lettering on "frisket paper" purchased from Rayco Sign Supply, apparently still in business in Chicago. The Demp-Knock material described above sounds similar.

I never tried pounce stencils. Not being my profession, I could never tell how far along I'd get in a day, and was afraid that the chalk dots would be lost during the intervening week. Instead I used a technique I learned from Bob Kutella; after the tracing was made I'd make 1/2" long cuts all around the outline, leaving maybe 1/4" between the cuts, then cut little fingernail size half moons out of the interior of the letters. This left the whole interior of the letter to act as a stencil "bridge", which made for a very robust stencil that wouldn't tangle and tear in storage. Taped to the car side it was easy to pencil in the dashed outline, and easy enough to follow with the brush. If I cut a frisket stencil, I'd cut it the same way, apply it, then razor blade through all the bars and remove the interior of the letter.

I first ordered a roll of Demp Knock material sometime in the early 1980s. It lasted about 6 years, I called back to order another, and the lady that answered the phone remembered me, and the address! Obviously, by then, they did not have a huge amount of business. And I could tell, this was not a computerized office! :)

Demp-Nock was great stuff. In 1986 and 87, I was able to order a car set of B&O passenger lettering, and a locomotive set of NYC lightning stripe E-unit lettering and striping. They used "steel rule dies" to cut the lettering. I also purchased a roll of the blank stuff.

A few years later, I wanted to obtain some more pre-cut lettering, and called Demp-Nock. They reported extensive water damage had ruined all the steel dies, so no more pre-cuts.

I wish they were still around....

Demp-Nock was located in Detroit, because it was a major supplier to the automotive industry: wood-grain decals/appliques on "woody" station wagons, 40s era sedan dashboards, etc.

Howard P.

In about 1989, I wanted to letter a Nickel Plate engine. I asked the late George Hockaday (loco consultant), where to get stencils, and he directed me to Demp Nock. They gave me a complete set of NKP blueprints, as long as I purchased a roll of their material. I actually never learned how to use their material, but I made good use of the blueprints. I'm guessing they must have had a significant library of fallen flag lettering blueprints. One wonders what happened to that, when they went out of business.

One other "old school" method for lettering transfer - carbon paper. I've used it on occasion, particularly for transferring smaller drawings to another medium.

JR

Thanks for the great discussion.

I ended up tracing the old lettering and graphics on my cab and hand cut the stencils. From what I could tell when tracing what was on the car before it was also hand cut stencil work. I even replicated the bridges.

For wood cars we computer print the lettering we need in the correct size and font and then tape it to the car and with either white or dark carbon paper trace the letter outlines and then hand paint the lettering. Kind of putzy but works well if you use artist brushes.