I am working on another carved sign, this time in mahogany. I was so pleased with the look of BLO on the last one I did in walnut, I want to use it again. It's a little more complicated this time, because I'm thinking about highlighting some of the letters with paint and some with gold leaf.

The problem is, I'm not sure which order to do things in. I would think that the BLO would go first. After sufficient dry time everything else would stick okay, right? I'm thinking shellac next, because even superblond would alter the color of the paint if the paint were under the shellac and I'm sure that paint would stick to the shellac. But what about the leaf? Will it adhere okay to shellac? Does it have to be overcoated? If it does, could I overcoat with lacquer to get a more "correct" read through on the paint color?

Help!