Timber for Tray Frames

[PeterOR]

Hi
I need to make a number of tray style float frames for some canvas prints which I am exhibiting. Can anyone recommend a supplier of plain pine stripwood, who will deliver to north east Scotland? I just need plain strips of pine, I will assemble and finish the frames myself.
Thanks

[prospero]

You can get nice pine stripwood from the usual DIY sheds (Wickes/B&Q) but it's hideously expensive. If you need a quantity then
your best course of action is to find a local timberyard and see if they will mill you up the size you need from stock with minimal
knots and defects. It probably won't be cheap. Alternatively, go for the 'rustic' look and use some rough-sawn treated timber of the
appropriate size. It actually looks quite good after a quick de-whiskering with sandpaper and a coat of wax. Slapping on a coat of any
old paint and rubbing back looks good on the right style of painting.

Artists used to use roofing battens nailed around canvases just to cover the canvas edges, which is where the 'float' frame fashion came from.

[Not your average framer]

I use bare wood flat normal framing mouldings and just drop the rear moulding into the rebate on the side mouldings. It very quick and easy, I handfinish them afterwards. I glue and fix the mouldings together with a pneumatic narrow crown stapler. There are several almost totally knot free pine mouldings, which I get from Simons, which are also quite good value for money. If necessary, I can adjust the depth in the tray frame with strips of backing board behind the canvases, but usually I don't need to do this. Some customers like to buy sets of deep canvases from places like the Range, or Argos and I am able to produce much deeper canvas trays than normal, by using this method.

Producing canvas trays by this method is a quite a good value for money method, which gives you good potential for extra profit. I always have a good range of these mouldings in stock and I use them for a wide variety of uses, including stacked moulding frames as well. I even produce some smaller frames from the off-cuts and left over bits. I try not to waste off-cuts and left overs, if I am able to turn them into something which is saleable. Even the bits, which have the occasional knot, get used to produce small "rustic" frames. Many "off the shelf" tray frames mouldings are quite expensive and if you hit a bad patch of wood in a length of moulding, sometimes that can be an expensive bit of waste, doing hings this way largely avoids this!

[GeoSpectrum]

These may be of interest.

https://www.ashcraftframing.co.uk/inlay ... y-16-c.asp

[fusionframer]

Rose and hollis do strips of obeche which will give a nice finish. From memory they are f9 and f10, but may be wrong.

Nick