The Framers Forum

I always quote a price for the job, and believe that my quote should be adhered to. Customers need to know what they will have to pay before committing themselves. It's a simple matter of professionalism and fair play. It also gets you repeat business too!

Hi John,

I think it might be by Chris Woods, who I think lives or lived somewhere near Southampton, he did a lot of railway paintings around that area. Some of his work was published by Newcomers Gallery, but he may have been published elsewhere too.
I hope this helps,
Mark

The bench has been flattened and I appear to not have any problems now. Also I have just received some single sided blade samples from Keencut which I think are an improvement too. I was suprised to find that I needed to re-calibrate the cutter to suit the new blades, (Not something that I would hav...

Has anyone any experience of the reverse bevel stop attachment for the keencut ultimat. I've often wondered if it would be useful to get one.

I think I'm getting this figured out. The bench top is made of 3/4" flooring grade Chipboard which as it happens is not as flat as one might expect. It has many high points and low points which are not obvious at all by eye, but a straight edge shows them up. I placed some mount blades under ea...

Yes John,

I can dream. Maybe one day, who knows.

Today my artharitis was worse and I cut quite a few mounts using various different boards, I avoided changing the blade and ever one was perfect. I therefore conclude, it's not the Keencut, it's not the make of board and not the artharitis. I'm not sure where this gets me, but one of my part time st...

John, I'll can tell you another thing that looks the business for wrapping mounts. Have you ever tried crepe paper? If you do it in a heated press and use the fall out to shape the paper onto the bevel edges, it looks great. The crepe paper has loads of give and follows the bevel perfectly. Mind you...

Hi John, It's quite quick and easy with a plain wood moulding, I just tape it, cut it on the morso and join it on the underpinner. Unfortunately, it costs more for the moulding, but requires no practice at all to get a perfect result. In veiw of all the hype about foam core bevel edged strips, I fig...

To date I've mostly avoided using foam core for deep bevel mounts and used suitable wrapped plain wood mouldings with an additional mount between this and the item being framed. The reason for this has been the fact I can burnish the tape down on to the bevel and know that it will stay stuck and not...

I've encountered the odd case where a hard black bit of grit turns up on the bevelled cut, probably not more than three times in the last couple of years, but so far only with the standard white core board. I am still switching my stock over to the Artcare and have never encountered anything similar...

Today I was using up some of my remaining Tru-Vue mountboard to sell in ready made frames. I cut loads of mounts all with one blade and no hooks. I find it hard to believe that Bainbridge is any different to Tru-Vue. I also checked my blade depth and which cuts about a quarter of the way into the sc...

Recently, I seriously considered moving to Artcare, but having heard about how fussy it is about blade sharpness, I have had second thoughts. Come to think about it, I don't have much trouble at all with the others, except Arqadia, but regular blade changes solves that one too!. However, the Artcar...

I think I should clarify that I don't automatically get a slightly hooked corner just because I've used a blade more than once, but if it happens, then I wish I'd changed the blade earlier.

On balance, I usually use a new blade per customer and think it saves both time and money in the long run.

That's incredible, Not your average framer! What mountboard are you using? John, Mainly Bainbridge (mixture of white core & artcare), but also a lot of older stock which includes Tru-Vue, Arqadia, Daler and Colourmount. Arqadia being the most dense and therefore the quickest for blunting blades...

Hi Kev, Thanks for the offer, but I've got three different makes of blade in two different thicknesses and I also stand and the end of the mountcutter and pull the cutting head towards me with my wrist locked. However, I do sometimes get the odd slight hook on a corner when the blade starts to lose ...

I often wonder if mountcutting blades are not as good as they used to be, because they never seem to last as long as I think they should. I have a very accurately adjusted Keencut Ultimat with new nylon bearings fitted about three years ago. It is adjusted to have no cutter head play whatsoever, the...

Hi John, Don't rule out buying a secondhand mountcutter. During my framing career all my mount cutters have been secondhand and they've all been good too! I started out with a C & H Bainbridge 4060A which only cost me £75, but since it had no start or end of cut stops, I then got a Keencut Dart ...

As usual, this Christmas I was worked off my feet, but when I checked the months takings they were almost 30% down compared to last year. Customers have not been pushing the boat out this year, but looking for ways of saving money.

Happy new year everybody, My new years resolution is to work towards a really neat and tidy shop and workshop. This is easier said that done, because of the massive volume of materials and equipment, which just does not fit into such small premises. So in the coming days, I'm constructing a new shop...