Router lettering

Hi, I agree you can do it freehand. We used to have a member here who had a small sign business who did hers freehand. Practice and a small, manageable router is what's required. She used some sort of oil to transfer a reversed printout of the lettering, then used a compact plunge router to limit the depth of cut. You want a double handled plunge base that will limit your depth to just a few mm. You must move it steadily, and you need to practice, practice, practice.

An alternative would be to carve it using a scoop shaped carving tool. It's a one off item, so again, practice using the same material.

I happen to have a Veritas router plane that has an inlay kit. You would scribe the letter shape you transferred to the wood. It has a double blade scribe tool. Then you could use a narrow plane blade to hollow out the lettering. It would give you a flat bottom letter. If you masked the wood, then scribed it, you could paint the letter in, or lay in gold or silver leaf using a smooth stick to rub it into place. Here's a picture of the plane and inlay kit. You could do something similar using an exacto knife to scribe the lettering.

Third picture is of the Veritas miniature router plane, cheaper, but equally precise. The key is that your scribe cuts must be as close as you can to the depth of the plane's cutter, otherwise you'll get tearout. The Veritas mini comes with a 1/8th inch cutter, the knockoff I found was half the price, but only had 1/4 inch wide cutter. Too wide for lettering.

Lots of ways to skin this cat, Welcome to the world of "Honey, I need another tool to do this."

I just checked the Veritas miniature router plane, which is made for inlay. Inlay requires cutting a flat bottomed groove precisely the depth of the thickness of the letter. The mini plane has a 1/8th wide cutter and will do exactly what you want to do. You just need to use an exacto knife to cut the outside edges of the font, then use the plane to delicately clear out the the letter. I think the idea of using a full size router for this one off project is not going to work out well without lots of practice runs. I think hand cutting is by far your best bet, and the mini plane is just $43 here:https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/sho...4-veritas-miniature-router-plane?item=05P8201.

Lie-Nielsen also
makes a simpler and really easy to use mini router plane, which is about $95. The plane is more rigid than the Veritas. Small Router Plane - Open Throat

Here's a video that may be helpful.