sapele moulding

[+Rafe+]

Hi,

I have had a few customers recently asking for sapele wood frames. It's a deep brown wood similar to walnut but has a richer red / ginger element to it.

Anyone know who stocks this?

Thanks

[JFeig]

That is an exotic African wood that is not normally available in the international picture framing industry. It is sometimes available in the cabinet industry. It looks similar to Mahogany.

Here is an example https://www.woodworkerssource.com/lumber/sapele.html

If they want only that wood, you can say that "I can have a mill cut some for you; but, the cost will be £xxx plus my framing charges".

[Steve N]

Looks like what is used for office desks,

[fusionframer]

You can get sepele timber from timber yards, but most will be sawn timber, so will require planing and milling.

Sepele is used as a cheaper (still pricey) way of producing a mahogany effect. I think from memory, it does come from the same family. I use obeche which first gets a coat of cadmium red (don't panic!). Next i use a dark stain (walnut ish colour) and paint this on. Finally, a coat of liberon mahogany wax. This frame was done this way.

Nick

[+Rafe+]

Thanks for the input all.

Thats a lovely frame Nick! Nice work, I will give your recipe a go!

Have a good weekend.

[Not your average framer]

Some factory finished moulding are made from moranti, which is not that disimilar to sapele. I' m not sure that sepele is likely to join well on an underpinner, I think it might split to easily.

[fusionframer]

I have made a few lengths of mouldings from leftover sepele. It pins ok, as long as your pinner is gutsy enough to join oak, it will do sepele fine.

Iroku is another lovely timber and would make great frames.

[+Rafe+]

Thanks again for the advice.

I'm not it a made rush to source Sapele as its such a niche / limited material stock. I think the route you mentioned Nick is much more interesting and actually you end up with something much more bespoke.

Out of interest what type of paints do you use. I have been using and blending with F&B and Little Greene test posts but for your method i think i need a bit more 'control;.

Cheers!

[fusionframer]

I use daler system 3 acrylic paints, but also some f & b colours. I apply them with a sponge so you don't get brush marks. I find sponges for washing cars good and one will cut up to make about 20 small sponges.

Van dyke crystals cost a few quid and last ages. For this, you want a darkish stain, but again, you can play around.

I have found some interesting effects including this one by just trying things, even some things that seem odd. A lot of the time, things won't work, but it is worth it for the few that do.

Nick

[+Rafe+]

Thanks Nick, great tip re the car sponges!

[Not your average framer]

I buy decorators sponges from my local hardware shop. There just happen to be what I can get locally and they also sell Vileda cloths, which are thin sponge like cleaning, or dish cloths. I also cut these up also well. Some of these can get very messy and sometimes, they don't always clean up very well afterwards and just get thrown away. I also use Van Dyke crystals quite a bit, it's not that I don't like ready made stains in bottles, but mixing the exact colours that you want, makes so much difference and very often the acrylic based stains have a satin finish and need cutting back to give that older looking matt finish. I'm not nearly so keen on that satin finish, as it sometimes does not look quite as real. I just don't like that all to common slightly plastic look.

It is very common for me to add a pale wash before I stain woods like pine, to soften the appearance of the grain a little, as stained pine all too easily develops an exagerated contrast between the lighter and darker parts of the grain. I also like to add some wax on top, with some watered down acrylic, of watered down chalky ensulsion stipplled into the wax, which is then partly waiped away, with a paper kitchen towel. For me, wiping a lot of this alway, just looks right and is one of those things where less is more. I sometimes add a tiny hint of pink and grey acrylic paint too Van Dyke brown. This needs to be realy subtile, to work just right. It just adds a slightly aged look, that is not overly obvious, but it's there none the less. Just that little bit of subtile visual magic!

I'm a big fan of Polyvine dead flat (matt) varnish, as I like to tone down any uneveness of gloss after the wax and stippled in wash has been partly wiped away. I then add a little bit of lightly buffed wax for a slightly less matt effect. An excessively matt finish does not usually look completely natural to me. Customers don't usually come to me for that factory finished look, to me it just does not look quite right. I also add that subtile hint of brown, or dark blue to the white painted distressed frames that I often produce, these are often little more that ready made frames for the window and need only the minimal amount of hand finishing, because I don't want be spend too much time hand finishing ready made frames.

It's just and single coat of slightly tinted white and quick thinned down once over with polyvine "dead flat" matt varnish and a quick wipe with a bit of paper kitchen towel, with just a hint of wax and that's it done! I like to dry quick, basic finishes with a hot air gun, because speed is all important with my ready made frames. I will often spend about two, or three hours making perhaps 30 to 40 frames, often using bits saved from the scrap bit. I've got a low ceiling, so it quite often that I will cut a short bit of newly delivered bare wood moulding, so that they will stand upright in the racks and the off cuts will go straight in to the scrap bin.

Generally, many of these ready made frames are not particularly large in size, as I am using up various scraps of glass, mount board and backing board. Larger ready made frames generally need larger bit of glass, mount board and backing board and these are made up as required. Stuff like this, sort of ticks over reasonably well and help to boost the bottom line a bit. I usually avoid producing anything, which looks anything remotely like the mass produced type of ready made frames as this sort of stuff is to mach like the "run of the mill" stuff that you see everywhere else and is just much too hard to sell at a worthwhile price.

[+Rafe+]

That's a fantastic overview Mark, thank you. Im a big fan of the Polyvine Dead Flat varnish too, I had a brief go with a rattle can lacquer but it looked terrible. Im sure that there is a health dose of technique to what I produced too

Have a good week all.

[Not your average framer]

A lot of us don't find spraying with rattle cans especially easy. There is a definite nack to getting the best result and it can take a bit of practice to finally get the nack. One of the position difficulties, is being sure that there is no remaining saw dust remaining from any sanding, as this usually affects the look of the sprayed finish.

Mark.