The Framers Forum

'Nothing wrong with Chestnut stains. If that's the colour you want, then that's the colour you get. And as Steve N says, you can mix them. But, ( there always is one ...) You have no control over the colour and strength once it's on the wood. Mind you you could always slosh around with loads of meth...

As JFeig correctly said, painting on a laquer will stop the silver tarnishing. To avoid the "plastic" look, you could go on GoldleafSupplies and under shellac varnishes, they have a Crystal Clear Shellac Varnish which would be perfect for the job. Dilute it 50/50 with meths, use a good qua...

I don't suppose you will be gilding the frame yourself and so the frame will be some sort of ready finished moulding. If that's the case, then what you could do is get a length of some very wide flat plain gilt slip moulding. Cut out the shape of a plaque from it. Get some Letraset (on-line, e-bay e...

The only thing I can think of is to substitute the chalk in compo with sawdust. The resultant mix will be a lot coarser and perhaps a bit stickier to use, but the effect should be the same. There is a compo recipe somewhere on the forum, type compo into the search box and search back a bit. The synt...

Heavens knows if there is spare room in the market for these sorts of frames. I suppose you would be in competition with some big players there. From my own point of view, the finishes on these frames are awful. Where you could find a market is to supply the same frames unfinished, ie in their gesso...

I'm not sure that using perspex in bespoke hand finished frames is such a good look. You might find some purchase resistance there. Perhaps much easier is to protect the glass with this stuff - [url]https://www.toolstation.com/blue-window-protection/p20527[/url I've used it when sending out all my g...

I'm with the black slip on this one. The whole frame has a beautiful balance and all the sight lines are provided by the frame contours. So the subtlety of the black slip works best so as not to distract from the artwork. A little note here about oil gilding. If you're going to use it on an inner sl...

Whatever about the grief you had making and joining that frame, you have designed a frame with a good visual balance and unless you get that right, all else is rubbish. Timh noticed that as well. So well done!

From looking at your photographs, I'm guessing that the frame is an oak section, as you can get from R&H, and it's been stained with Walnut coloured stain, and maybe a little Oak added. You would be best try mixing both to get a match.

The other way to do this is to just buy the lengths of PAR to the required width needed. This isn't as economical as slicing into wider widths, but you save on having to finish up sawn edges, as Prospero pointed out. And you save on the cost of a planer/thicknesser.

From what I'm hearing Mark, the law doesn't require anything specific, save to use our common sense and to make our premises ( Covid ) user-friendly. On a practical level, I don't think anyone is going to be out shopping for a long time yet, for you to even consider going to the trouble of erecting ...

Just make sure you buy a TCT blade ( carbon tipped ) and as Fusionframer suggests, Freud is a good make. I'm presuming you're going to use a table to rip-saw into bought in planks or boards. Again make sure you buy PAR timber ( planed all round ). This is because you will need the accuracy of the pl...

I was just thinking that this thread is getting a bit silly now but cleaver has pulled it back with a flourish!

Two routers now over 20 years old - that's hardly out of the box! So what's wrong with using an MDF board? If you did want to use plywood or other thin board for a full-thickness bevel, couldn't you just rout out the shape in thick MDF first and then clamp it under the board and use it as a template...

Hi Matt You're getting good at this. I especially like the effect and finish you've got on the black. Nothing to criticize there. But we do have to have a look at your gilding line. It's very scruffy looking and detracts from the subtle distressing you've already achieved on the black finish. Assumi...

Fusionframer, thanks for your support. I only suggested the underpinner because most framers seem ideologically attached to the machines. I used to be too, but for this job I wouldn't be bothered with any underpinner. Just use two band clamps as NYAF suggested, a good pair of reading glasses and fin...

I've never done this, he chirps - but .. Cut the top one first to size. Cut the bottom one oversize by about 10mm each end. Clamp and glue the two together with the top one set mid way. Next day, sand the outer surfaces smooth to match. Now pop the assembly into the morso and cut the bottoms using t...

Maybe not a bad idea. I'd be more inclined to suggest a window display of several framed examples to show potential customers how they could all look. There is however a small hazard for an interior design offence. These efforts are always treasured as ephemeral objects, stood loose leafed on a shel...

Ah! you do things old school. Full respect for using a rubber. The last time I did an ebonised finish, if I remember right, I used the full concentrate polish for coverage and build, and then finished with a coat of the fully transparent polish. All this with a brush of course. I've also found that ...

I totally get what you're trying to achieve. Building up layers of polish will certainly give you a glass like finish on the wood. I asked what you were using because my own experience now is make up my own black polish and this gives a much better result. The commercial black polishes I've used don...